Lima, May 7, 2002. The Working Group on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Andean Community (CAN) will be installed in Cusco on May 8 in order to guarantee the active participation of indigenous peoples in the subregional integration process.

The CAN Presidents, meeting in Machu Picchu in July 2001, ordered the establishment of this Working Group, which will be a permanent body of the Andean Integration System (AIS). It will be made up of leaders of indigenous organizations and of human rights organizations and specialists.

The objectives of the first meeting of the Working Group, to be held in Cusco on May 8 to 10, are to define and propose measures for its effective creation as part of the AIS, agree upon a working program, put forward ways and means for organizing the Group and its work and recommend alternatives to ensure its continued existence, among other things.

As representative of the CAN’s Presidency, Tomasa Yarhuí, Bolivian Minister of Rural and Indigenous Matters, will be responsible for opening the meeting, scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on May 8. Other participants in the ceremony include José Antonio García Belaúnde, Coordinator of the CAN’s Andean Social Agenda and César Alvarez, Technical Secretary of the National Commission of Andean and Amazon Peoples.

The presentations and discussions during the meeting will emphasize the participation of indigenous peoples in the integration process and specifically in programs like the Andean Comprehensive Social Development Plan, the Border Integration and Development Projects and the Regional Biodiversity Strategy.

Other issues that will be referred to include community lands and indigenous peoples, production and farming communities; economic development, social equity and political participation; cultural identity and the Working Group’s institutionalization and sustainability.

The analysis of each topic will be preceded by presentations by the participants, who will include well-known specialists on the subject like Martín Von Hildebrand from Colombia, Diego Iturralde from Ecuador, Javier Albó from Bolivia, Luis Lumbreras from Peru and Esteban Emilio Mosonyi from Venezuela.

The installation meeting is being organized by the CAN General Secretariat with the co-sponsorship of the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF).

The participants will include, in addition to the representatives of indigenous groups and of government institutions from the Andean countries, the Coordinating Group of Amazon Basin Native Organizations (COICA) and the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean as guests.

The conclusions and recommendations of this meeting will be placed before the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers so that it can formalize the establishment of the Working Group as a member body of the Andean Integration System, as ordered by the Presidents in the Machu Picchu Declaration on Democracy, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the War against Poverty.