Peru faces a regional human rights court over allegations it failed to protect isolated Indigenous peoples in the Amazon from logging and other activities PARAMARIBO, Suriname -- PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) — Peru faced the final day of a landmark hearing before a regional human rights court Friday over allegations that it failed to protect Indigenous peoples living in isolation in the Amazon from logging and other activities encroaching on their territory. The two-day hearing before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Montevideo, Uruguay, marks the first time the tribunal has considered a case involving Indigenous peoples living in isolation in Peru. The case centers on the Mashco Piro, Yora and Amahuaca peoples, who live in remote areas of the Peruvian Amazon.
Indigenous organizations say logging concessions and other incursions have pushed outsiders deeper into forests used by the groups, increasing the risk of violent encounters and exposure to diseases to which isolated peoples may have little immunity. The Peruvian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Julio Cusurichi, part of the Native Federation of the Madre de Dios River and Tributaries, known by its Spanish acronym FENAMAD, said those protections were not being implemented in practice.
He warned that continued incursions into their territory could threaten their survival. The case dates back decades. FENAMAD has raised concerns about logging in Mashco Piro territory since the 1990s and sought emergency protection from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2005.
The commission, a separate body from the court, granted protective measures in 2007. FENAMAD brought a formal petition to the commission in 2011. In 2022, the commission found Peru responsible for violating the rights of the Mashco Piro, Yora and Amahuaca.
The case was sent to the court in 2024 after the commission concluded Peru had not complied with its recommendations. Teresa Mayo of Survival International, an Indigenous rights organization supporting the case, said Indigenous communities and their allies want the court to hold Peru responsible and require stronger protection of the Mashco Piro’s territory and their right to remain isolated. Maritza Quispe, a lawyer with Peru’s Legal Defense Institute representing the Indigenous side, said the case could establish an important precedent over the ancestral land rights of peoples living in isolation and whether governments can authorize extraction in their territories.
Peruvian law generally bars outside activity in reserves established for isolated Indigenous peoples, but contains an exception allowing natural resources to be exploited when authorities determine there is a public necessity, Quispe said. One of the lawyers representing the Indigenous groups told the court that Peru had “flagrantly violated” principles intended to protect isolated peoples, including avoiding contact with them and keeping their territories free from outside activity. The Mashco Piro number more than 750 people and live in southeastern Peru and across the border in Brazil, according to Indigenous organizations.
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