Mapuche People and Criminal Law

Abstract

This article proposes to analyze the relative deficit in Chilean criminal legal doctrine and practice to justly address determined manifestations of conflict and/or violence perpetrated by individuals and groups belonging to the Mapuche indigenous people. That deficit is especially apparent in the framework of the progressive development of principles and norms of international human rights law applicable to indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. Those principles and norms have special binding force since Chile ratified Convention 169 of the ILO, which impelled a revision of the various branches of our judicial system, as well as criminal law, to examine their consistency with the standards. The deficit of our criminal norms and practices became apparent when compared with these principles and norms, along with significant perspectives for overcoming this situation.