Peru: Indigenous organizations demand the government to reject the “Gag Law” (APCI) for violating Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

We, the national Indigenous organizations of Peru signing this statement—the National Organization of Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Women of Peru (ONAMIAP), the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), the National Agrarian Confederation (CNA), the National Federation of Peasant, Artisan, Indigenous, Native, and Wage-Earning Women of Peru (FENMUCARINAP), the Peasant Confederation of Peru (CCP), the Confederation of Amazonian Nationalities of Peru (CONAP), and the National Union of Aymara Communities (UNCA)—strongly condemn the approval of the amendment to Law 27692, the Law on the Creation of the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI), passed by Congress on March 12. We categorically reject this so-called “Gag Law,” a sinister maneuver aimed at stripping us of our rights and subjecting Indigenous peoples to even greater oppressive control.

This is not an isolated event. It is yet another piece in the machinery of systemic violence, criminalization, and repression that the Peruvian State continues to sharpen against our peoples. While large extractive companies plunder our territories with impunity, the legislature and government deepen their strategy of silencing and repressing those of us who fight for life, for water, for forests, and for our very existence.

The “Gag Law” not only violates our fundamental rights but also breaches International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and multiple rulings by the Constitutional Court and the Judiciary. The State is obligated to consult us whenever measures that directly affect us are considered, yet in its colonial and racist logic, it continues to treat us as if our voices and rights do not matter. This makes the law unconstitutional.

Moreover, this amendment directly threatens our access to justice. For years, Indigenous and native peoples have faced violence, dispossession, and criminalization without the State providing real mechanisms for protection, reparation, and justice. In this context, international cooperation funding has been crucial in allowing our organizations to litigate in defense of our territories and rights, challenging the impunity of corporations and governments that violate us. With this law, the State seeks to block the resources that enable us to denounce abuses, take our cases to national and international courts, and protect our persecuted defenders. It also aims to restrict our legitimate right to protest and mobilize against government abuses—going as far as preventing us from even filing an administrative appeal.

This measure is a direct attack on our organizations. It imposes arbitrary restrictions on entities managing international cooperation funds, cutting off the resources essential for defending our rights and protecting our territories. But their goal is not just financial suffocation. The “Gag Law” also imposes disproportionate sanctions on our organizations, targeting our autonomy and attacking our right to self-determination.

But we will not allow it. We demand that the Executive Branch reject the ratification of Bill 6162 on the grounds of its unconstitutionality and put an end to this brutal attack on our collective and individual rights as Indigenous and native peoples. We will not allow them to silence us or strip us of what is ours. We are not subjects of their colonial and racist policies. Our territories, our lives, and our resistance are neither for sale nor under their control.

We urgently call on civil society, the international community, and all those who truly defend human rights not to remain silent in the face of this new state attack. This law endangers all social organizations, the defense of human rights, and any form of dissent against a State that is increasingly sliding into authoritarianism.

No to the “Gag Law”!
Respect for the autonomy and self-determination of Indigenous peoples! We will not be silenced!

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