Lima, April 24, 2009 (Servindi) – The President of the Peruvian Congress, Javier Velásquez Quesquén, has announced that a congressional session will be held on April 30 to discuss legislative decrees that “impinge upon the rights of indigenous peoples”.
In a letter addressed to the Interethnic Association for Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), Velásquez Quesquén said the Agrarian Commission and the Congressional Commission on the Constitution would draw up a prior technical report.
On April 27 a meeting will be held with AIDESEP representatives to evaluate the technical report in a work session in Congress.
The planned meeting and session came about as a result of another meeting with leading AISESEP council members in protest against legislative decrees that the government had agreed to review months ago.
AIDESEP president, Alberto Pizango Chota, is demanding the repeal of legislative decrees 1020, 1064, 1080, 1081, 1089 and 1090 for “impinging upon the Rights of indigenous peoples, and violating the Constitution as well as Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization”.
