“MR. SMITH AND MS. QUILCUÉ ET AL.: A SOCIO-LEGAL ANALYSIS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ STRUGGLES IN CAUCA, COLOMBIA”

The indigenous, the internally displaced, the widow, and the citizen of the South are all categories of identity that converge at the same time and in the same geographical space in Colombia. This paper investigates the relationship between human rights theory and practice through a “socio-legal” analysis of the interaction between international law from above (law in the books) and international law from below (the living law). A case study concerning the internal displacement of the indigenous peoples of the Cauca region in Colombia was selected as a scenario where the global/local, legal/illegal, and individual/collective overlap with each other. This research paper seeks to determine how and in what ways international law from above and international law from below interact in order to solve or perpetuate the problem of internal displacement of indigenous peoples in Colombia. Any attempt to analyze the root causes of this internal displacement requires an investigation of the meaning of land for different actors and of the ways through which these actors understand, frame and claim the law. The relationship between the indigenous peoples and the Colombian state, and the repertoires delivered by them through certain norms, practices, and institutions, is analyzed in this paper.