Lieselotte Viaene- PhD
- Professor at University Carlos III de Madrid
Lieselotte Viaene
- PhD
- Professor at University Carlos III de Madrid
PI of ERC project RIVERS - Water/human rights beyond the human?
Department Social Sciences-UC3M
About
51
Publications
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Introduction
I am a Belgian-Flemish First Generation anthropologist with a PhD in Law,with a professional path marked by a combination of conducting innovative academic and applied research and working as a human rights practitioner in the fields of Indigenous Peoples' Rights, transitional justice, legal pluralism, natural resources and territory. Over the past 20 years I have been collaborating with Indigenous peoples in Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia and Nepal in academic, policy and activist spaces.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
November 2010 - June 2013
Office of the United Nations High Cpmmissioner for Human Rights
Position
- Human Rights Support Officer
September 2016 - August 2018
January 2011 - present
Education
September 2006 - November 2010
September 2001 - June 2003
September 1999 - June 2001
Publications
Publications (51)
Water conflicts across the world are bringing to the fore fundamental challenges to the anthropocentric boundaries of the human rights paradigm. Engaging with the multi-layered legal ethnographic setting of the Xalalá dam project in Maya Q’eqchi’ territory in Guatemala, I will critically and empirically unpack not only the anthropocentric boundarie...
This Special Section of International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ), ‘Transitional Justice and Nature: A Curious Silence,’ has its origins in extended discussions between the three thematic editors, with initial conversations occurring separately over several professional conferences evolving into collective discussions over shared concern...
Indigenous communities around the globe increasingly resort to courts to seek protection for their individual and collective rights. Not only has the use of strategic litigation by Indigenous peoples to defend their human rights been underexplored but the role of Indigenous lawyers and experts is also a blind spot. Drawing on interdisciplinary, qua...
El mundo ya no puede negar que el planeta está al borde de una catástrofe.
Mientras científicos de distintos campos y de todo el mundo debaten las causas, los impactos, los retos y las soluciones de la llegada del Antropoceno, un nuevo tiempo
geológico inducido por el ser humano, el campo del derecho no puede quedarse atrás.
En este contexto, los d...
El presente artículo estudia el reconocimiento del Territorio como víctima del conflicto armado por la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) de Colombia. Este reconocimiento otorga a los territorios indígenas los mismos derechos –incluyendo verdad, justicia, reparación y garantía de no repetición– que a humanos –individuos y grupos afectados por...
Indigenous peoples have been struggling worldwide to have their rights recognized. Despite relevant legal advances, such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), the implementation gap between the adoption of international standards by States and their compliance still remains. This article relies on empirical examples from In...
While Indigenous expertise, values and knowledge systems have become a buzzword in academic and policy debates about climate change, sustainable development, and the protection of ecosystems, this research note turns the lens to Indigenous legal expertise used by Indigenous lawyers in Nepal in the defence of Indigenous peoples’ rights regarding the...
After decades of Indigenous diplomacy efforts at the UN concerning the concept of “Mother Earth-Nature”, there has been a growing recognition of the Rights of Nature (RoN). In an article drawing upon findings from interviews with Indigenous delegates, UN officers and NGO representatives, the RIVERS project examines the contradictions that RoN activ...
To our readers: thanks for considering to support this Open Letter to Routledge - Taylor & Francis Group: Academic censorship on sexual misconduct and power abuse: Not in our academia!
https://www.buala.org/en/mukanda/open-letter-to-routledge-taylor-francis-group
The authors came to know each other through an emergent “whisper network” at their...
The world can no longer deny that the planet is on the verge of an Anthropocene catastrophe. As scientists from different fields and from around the globe are discussing the causes, impacts, challenges , and solutions to the arrival of this human-induced new geological time, the field of law cannot remain behind. Rights of Nature (RoN), granting le...
En el presente artículo nos ha motivado la necesidad de abordar un punto poco estudiado sobre el extractivismo en América Latina: los fundamentos coloniales del marco regulatorio de la minería corporativa y los límites de la judicialización de los derechos humanos para lograr su transformación. Nuestro análisis se sustenta en referentes teóricos de...
El tercer capítulo, ofrece un análisis interdisciplinario de la acción colectiva de los abogados y abogadas indígenas en Guatemala, que actúan dentro del sistema y que aspiran a su transformación. La acción legal indígena es entendida como una expresión de la resistencia política de los pueblos indígenas, en una sociedad y un Estado marcados por el...
‘Rivers to RIVERS,’ which took place from 3 to 5 March 2021 in the form of a hybrid meeting. All members of the RIVERS project participated in the seminar: Marina Albuquerque Vieira, Carolina Angel Botero, María Ximena González Serrano, Elisa Mandiola López, Austin Lord, Digno Montalván Zambrano, Camille Parguel, Lieselotte Viaene and María Jacinta...
In the Colombia Peace Accords, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has recognized indigenous territories as victims of armed conflict in several of its legal decisions. These groundbreaking decisions invite the human rights and transitional justice communities to deeply rethink their conceptualization of human life, since they recognize that h...
Interview about the RIVERS project by EU Research: "A new viewpoint on human rights: the-more-than-human"
Como cierre de la semana de conmemoración del Día Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas, el Sistema Integral de Verdad, Justicia, Reparación y No Repetición, la Comisión Étnico-Racial de la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) y el Proyecto ERC RIVERS (UC3M) organizaron el día 14 de agosto de 2020 un debate titulado: Armonía de la Madre Tierra:...
“The Tzuultaq’a is God because yoyo, it lives,” an old Q’eqchi’ woman in Guatemala told me. It was 2002 and I was a Belgian student of anthropology who thought she was being told about a belief, one more myth among the many held by Mesoamerican indigenous peoples. The Tzuultaq’a, however, is more than that. It’s a concept that literally means Mount...
“El Tzuultaq’a es Dios porque yoyo, vive”, me dijo una anciana q’eqchi’ en Guatemala. Corría el año 2002 y yo era una estudiante belga de antropología que pensó que le hablaban sobre una creencia, un mito más de los tantos que tienen los pueblos indígenas mesoamericanos. El Tzuultaq’a, sin embargo, es más que eso. Es un concepto que significa liter...
"En el mes de junio, un video circulando por facebook mostrando la desaparición del Río San Simón en Chisec, Guatemala, conocido por sus atractivos turísticos, provocó una avalancha de reacciones de consternación de esta aparente muerte natural del agua. Según la opinión pública, el río murió al ser desviado por uno de los tantos proyectos extracti...
Este libro se dedica a uno de los debates internacionales en curso sobre los desafíos conceptuales y prácticas que la diversidad cultural de sociedades pluriculturales ha generado en el ámbito de la justicia transicional. El presente trabajo sobre pueblos indígenas y justicia transicional, fundamentado en una investigación antropológica jurídica en...
In Chapter 10, Viaene and Fernández-Maldonado analyse the dynamics at play in Ecuador during the drafting processes of secondary legislation to regulate legal pluralism; that is, the articulation between indigenous and ordinary jurisdictions. The adoption of such a law is envisaged in the 2008 Constitution, which is among the most progressive in th...
Starting Grant European Research Council RIVERS: State-of-the-art, research design: context and key questions, research streams, work packages, methodology, ethical issues, high risk/high gain and feasibility, timescale and milestones, impact and expected outcomes
Submission: 17 October 2017,
Approval: 17 July 2018,
Starting date: 1 May 2019,
End d...
Este texto, resultado de un diálogo intercultural e interdisciplinario entre una abogada arhuaca colombiana, Belkis Izquierdo, y una antropóloga europea, Lieselotte Viaene, plantea que las normas y prácticas indígenas de justicia, reparación y reconciliación cuestionan profundamente el paradigma dominante de justicia transicional y de de-rechos hum...
This text, the result of an intercultural and interdisciplinary dialogue between a Colombian Arhuaco lawyer, Belkis Izquierdo, and a European anthropologist, Lieselotte Viaene, states that indigenous norms and practices concerning justice, reparation and reconciliation deeply question the dominant paradigm of transitional justice and human rights t...
The Challenge of Legal Pluralism. Local dispute settlement and the Indian-state relationship in Ecuador, by Marc Simon Thomas. Routledge, 2016
Column published by Plaza Publica Guatemala: https://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/rios-seres-vivientes-y-personalidad-juridica-nuevos-argumentos-legales-en-la-defensa-de-los
Mientras las décadas anteriores estuvieron marcadas por la creación de nuevas normas internacionales en torno a los derechos humanos de los pueblos indígenas, los debates actuales se centran en la cuestión fundamental de cómo se puede cerrar la brecha de su implementación. Este artículo analiza los procesos socio-políticos en Ecuador en torno a la...
El presente trabajo, sobre justicia transicional y pueblos indígenas en Guatemala, pretende contribuir a reducir la brecha de conocimiento sobre las epistemologías indígenas sobre justicia, reparación, búsqueda de verdad y reconciliación y, asimismo, intenta fomentar un proceso de reflexión crítica para desafiar tanto el paradigma dominante de la j...
Este segundo número de la Revista tiene como objetivo poner de manifiesto la importancia de insertar al binomio agua – energía bajo otras racionalidades culturales, y formas alternativas de gestión social y política, diferentes a las actualmente dominantes. Y ello conlleva transformar nuestra relación con la naturaleza, y permitirnos implementar es...
See: http://www.consultaprevia.org/#!/columna/20
A well- established assumption among human rights defenders is that all victims of massive human rights violations want to see the perpetrators brought to court. This article, based upon multi-sited ethnographic field research among Maya Q’eqchi’ victims and perpetrators in postconflict
Guatemala, analyzes the local and cultural understanding that...
A well- established assumption among human rights defenders is that all victims of massive human rights violations want to see the perpetrators brought to court. This article, based upon multi-sited ethnographic field research among Maya Q'eqchi' victims and perpetrators in post-conflict Guatemala, analyzes the local and cultural understanding that...
Los Módulos de Formación sobre los Derechos Colectivos de los Pueblos y Nacionalidades del Ecuador. Defensoría del Pueblo, Fuerzas Armadas y Policía Nacional busca proveer de una herramienta técnica adecuada de formación para entidades estatales claves que tienen como una de sus funciones y facultades primordiales, la garantía de la vigencia de los...
Los Módulos de Formación sobre los Derechos Colectivos de los Pueblos y Nacionalidades del Ecuador. Defensoría del Pueblo, Fuerzas Armadas y Policía Nacional busca proveer de una herramienta técnica adecuada de formación para entidades estatales claves que tienen como una de sus funciones y facultades primordiales, la garantía de la vigencia de los...
Los Módulos de Formación sobre los Derechos Colectivos de los Pueblos y Nacionalidades del Ecuador. Defensoría del Pueblo, Fuerzas Armadas y Policía Nacional busca proveer de una herramienta técnica adecuada de formación para entidades estatales claves que tienen como una de sus funciones y facultades primordiales, la garantía de la vigencia de los...
La publicación Viviendo la Justicia. Pluralismo Jurídico y Justicia Indígena en Ecuador
y el DVD Viviendo la Justicia buscan contribuir a una mejor comprensión de las realidades locales y culturales de la administración de justicia indígena en el Ecuador.
Esta publicación está dirigida especialmente a los diferentes actores/as de la sociedad
ecuato...
This article addresses the important nexus between macro level responses and micro level processes when dealing with the aftermath of gross human rights violations. It focuses on the case of Guatemala and the issue of financial compensation for people affected by the internal armed conflict. One of the key mechanisms of the horror of the counter-in...
Recently there has been greater interest from academics and practitioners in the role of ‘traditional’ justice mechanisms in politics of peace, reconciliation and transitional justice efforts after a period of large-scale human rights violations. However, this call for ‘culturally sensitive’ approaches remains at a rhetorical level. This article at...
Whenever a society faces the difficult process of substantial political transition after a period of gross human rights violations, the issues of justice, reconciliation, truth and reparation appear on the agenda. They form the key concepts of the emerging global paradigm of transitional justice. This booming field is faced with several unresolved...
Little in-depth research has been conducted on or attention paid to the experience and opinions of survivors regarding issues such as reparation, justice, reconciliation and truth in dealing with the aftermath of atrocities. Less still has been said of the way in which victims’ identities impact on these views or are considered in the design of pro...
Este capítulo analiza a partir de testimonios de víctimas, sobrevivientes y desplazados internos indígenas q'eqchi' sus percepciones y sus expectativas sobre el Programa Nacional de Reparación (PNR). Asimismo, realiza una evaluación de este programa administrativa de reparación desde una perspectiva "desde abajo" (bottom-up) y plantea los retos y d...
