Unenforceable Legislation Fails to Curb Illegal Mining or Protect Indigenous Rights in Peru

The gold rush becomes a curse when illegal mining kills the Awajún people´s future, a community long forgotten by the Peruvian state since a change in the law ended all protection for them.

Can illegal mining be confronted with unenforceable legislation?

According to some experts, the current wording of illegal mining as a crime in the Penal Code generates impunity. In Peru, for someone to be convicted of illegal mining, the law requires that the miner have extracted “metallic AND non-metallic minerals.”  

The Penal Code was previously more realistic. The wording related to this crime considered the extraction of “metallic OR non-metallic minerals” sufficient to constitute illegal mining. Replacing the and for or is not a minor issue; it represents an unjustified and arbitrary tightening of the criteria for conviction.

Illegal mining keeps spreading along the rivers / Credit: LP Pasión por el Derecho. 

To date, whoever extracts gold (metallic mineral) must also extract marble (non-metallic mineral) to be convicted. If a prosecutor charges someone with illegal mining having extracted gold but not a non-metallic mineral (sulfur, etc.), then the judge would not be able to convict the person.

Nowadays, the legal system fails to protect not only the environment from illegal mining but also the rights of the Awajún children, the most (non-metallic) precious resource of the Amazon.

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This story was produced with support from Internews' Earth Journalism Network. It was first published in LP Pasión por el Derecho on June 28, 2024. It has been translated to English and lightly edited for length and clarity.

Banner image: Mining in the river / Credit: LP Pasión por el Derecho.