Decision 674
Consultative Council of the Andean Community Indigenous Peoples

       THE ANDEAN COUNCIL OF FOREIGN MINISTERS, 

       HAVING SEEN: Articles 1, 6, 16 and 129 of the Cartagena Agreement and Decision 524; 

       WHEREAS: The Andean Council of Presidents, in its Declaration of Machu Picchu on “Democracy, the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples and the Fight against Poverty” of July 2001, ordered the establishment within the Andean Community institutional framework of a Working Committee on the rights of the indigenous peoples; 

       The Working Committee on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples was established through Decision 524 of July 2002 as a consultative body within the framework of the Andean Integration System; 

       The Seventeenth Council of Andean Presidents ratified, in the Declaration of Tarija, its conviction that the participation and contribution of the indigenous peoples within the Andean Community permits the consolidation of democracy and the creation of appropriate conditions for the sustainability of development processes and, consequently, of regional integration projects.  In this connection, it recommended the earliest possible implementation of the Working Committee on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples envisaged in Decision 524; 

      The United Nations General Assembly, during its Sixty-first session, on September 13, 2007, adopted the Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples;  

DECIDES: 

       Article 1.- To establish the Consultative Council of the Andean Community Indigenous Peoples as a consultative body within the framework of the Andean Integration System, in order to promote the active participation of the indigenous peoples in economic, social, cultural and political matters concerning subregional integration.   

       Article 2.- The Consultative Council of the Andean Community Indigenous Peoples shall be made up of one (1) indigenous delegate from each Member Country.  That delegate and his or her alternate shall be elected from among the highest-level executives of national indigenous organizations, according to procedures and methods to be defined by each Member Country.  

       The following regional organizations shall also sit on the Consultative Council in the capacity of observers:  

• A representative of the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean; 
• A representative of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations in the Amazon Basin (COICA); 
• A representative of the Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations (CAOI); 
• A representative of the Continental Liaison Office for Indigenous Women in South America. 

       Article 3.- The functions of the Consultative Council of Indigenous Peoples shall be to:  

a)    Express its opinion to the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, the Commission, or the Andean Community General Secretariat, where appropriate, on its own initiative or at their request, with regard to matters concerning the participation of the indigenous peoples in the subregional integration process;   

b)    When summoned by decision of the Member Countries, attend meetings of government experts or of working groups addressing matters concerning its activities;  

c)        Participate, with the right to vote, in meetings of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the Andean Community Commission; 

d)       Promote the exchange, evaluation and dissemination of successful experiences and practices, organizational strengthening and, in general, cooperation between indigenous peoples or organizations, State institutions, human rights organizations and civil society organizations of the Member Countries; and   

e)       Prepare and approve its regulations within the framework of the stipulations of this Decision.   

       Article 4.- Opinions and agreements of the Consultative Council of the Indigenous Peoples shall be recorded in the minutes and shall be adopted by consensus.   

       The General Secretariat should state any initiatives of the Consultative Council of the Indigenous Peoples in the whereas clauses of Proposals it submits to the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers or the Commission. 

       Article 5.- For purposes of the provisions of Article 2 of this Decision, each Member Country’s competent government agencies shall summon the national indigenous organizations so that they can agree upon the mechanism to be used to designate their representatives to the Council and so that, in the implementation of that Article, they may proceed to elect that representative.   

       Representatives shall be designated by the indigenous organizations for a period of one year and shall be officially accredited to the Andean Community General Secretariat by each Member Country’s Foreign Ministry.   

       Article 6.- The Consultative Council of the Andean Community Indigenous Peoples shall be represented, on the occasions when its participation is foreseen, by its Chairman, and in the event of his or her absence or impediment, by the Vice-Chairman or the indigenous representative of the Member Country appointed in keeping with the internal bylaws.  The position of Chairman shall be held for a period of one year and rotated in the alphabetical order established by the Cartagena Agreement for Andean Integration System bodies.   

       Article 7.- The Andean Community General Secretariat shall exercise the functions of Technical Secretariat of the Consultative Council of the Andean Community Indigenous Peoples.    

       Article 8.- Let Decision 524 be repealed. 

       Article 9.- This Decision shall enter into effect as of its publication in the Cartagena Agreement’s Official Gazette.   

       Signed in the City of New York, United States of America, on the twenty-sixth of September of two thousand seven.