On the level of administrative procedures and bureaucratic organization, the Colombian
Congress adopted Law 99 of December 1993, creating the Ministry of the Environment, which
absorbed many duties previously carried out by the National Institute of Natural Resources
(INDERENA). Law 99 also strengthened licensing procedures for mining endeavors, requiring a
ministry-approved environmental impact assessment and full consultation with indigenous and
Afro-Colombian communities potentially affected by the projects.
Essential, too, for indigenous rights -- and human rights and participation in general --
was the creation of new legal and oversight institutions, the Office of the People’s Defender and
the Constitutional Court – as well as the establishment of a mechanism of legal recourse for the
protection of fundamental constitutional rights called the acción de tutela — or a writ of
protection which could lead to injunctive legal interventions. The Office of the People’s
Defender has both a Delegate for Ethnic Minorities and a Delegate for the Environment. These
divisions would play a crucial role in the defense of indigenous rights, both critiquing the actions
of other state institutions, filing writs of protection, and linking indigenous peoples with
international institutional networks.
As aforementioned, the other new institution created through the 1991 constitutional
reform process, which proved essential for the general and specific frameworks of human rights
and participation, was the Constitutional Court. As Van Cott observes: “The Court has stepped
in where the constitution is ambiguous or vague, usually interpreting the text in a spirit favorable
to the protection of diversity and the opening of spheres for participation” (Van Cott, 2000, p.
It “established a practice of accepting cases only when a power inequality exists that
places the fundamental rights of the weak in immediate peril, earning it a reputation as a
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The Colombian legal system is complex. Two venues exist – one for constitutional matters, whereby the
Constitutional Court acquired status as the court of last instance, removing this from the Supreme Court, and the
administrative channel, whereby the Council of State is the court of last instance.
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Convention