Launched this Tuesday, April 11, the document Guidelines for verifying the Right to Consultation and Free, Prior and Informed Consent in the infrastructure investment cycle presents guidelines for observing the right to Consultation and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (DCCLPI) in the decision-making cycle on infrastructure investments.
Produced by the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), the document addresses good governance practices for infrastructure investments by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as well as other international and national recommendations on compliance with the DCCLPI.
The guidelines are aimed at public managers and control auditors and aim to contribute to the discussion of criteria for verifying the right to CCLPI, as well as to strengthen social control over decisions present in the infrastructure investment cycle that involve risks and impacts to territories, ways of life and rights of indigenous peoples, quilombolas and traditional communities.
It also aims to disseminate the mandatory verification of compliance with the DCCLPI by control bodies: “The initiatives on the part of the Executive Powers to carry out Prior Consultations on public decisions that involve the cycle of investment in infrastructure are still incipient. Furthermore, control bodies, both internal and external, have not yet incorporated verification of compliance with the DCCLPI in their audits of public policies, sectoral plans and individual infrastructure projects”.
In the midst of the announcement of the resumption of strategic investments in infrastructure by the federal government, the authors warn of the urgency of the immediate application of the right to Prior Consultation on projects selected to compose the “new PAC”, and draw attention to the need for action coordination of the Federal Government to agree on Consultation Plans with potentially impacted communities that respect the determinations present in their Autonomous Consultation Protocols.
“The Lula 3 government has the chance to implement the right of Consultation and Prior Consent in the country, for that it is essential to respect the instrument created by indigenous peoples and traditional communities themselves: the Autonomous Protocols of Consultation and Consent” says Biviany Rojas, coordinator of the ISA’s Xingu Program.
The document states that “It is up to the Public Power to fulfill and enforce its duty to consult indigenous peoples, quilombolas and traditional communities potentially impacted by investments in infrastructure from their planning and at all stages where their participation is relevant”.
Recently released, the document was sent as a technical subsidy to the work carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Public Works (IBRAOP) to prepare audit procedures on socio-environmental risks and impacts of plans, projects and execution of investment in infrastructure, which started in 2022.