CERD/C/106/D/61/2017
traditional authorities of the Escaleras indigenous community or the Confederación de
Pueblos de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del Ecuador. Therefore, the petitioner should have been
married by the competent State authority.
Self-determination, autonomy and indigenous jurisdiction
4.4
The Committee notes that the 2008 Constitution, which establishes Ecuador as an
intercultural and plurinational State (art. 1), recognizes and guarantees that “indigenous
communes, communities, peoples and nationalities” hold collective rights to “freely maintain,
develop and strengthen their identity, sense of belonging, ancestral traditions and forms of
social organization”, to “preserve and develop their own systems of coexistence and social
organization and methods for establishing and exercising authority in their legally recognized
territories and on their communal lands of ancestral possession”, to “establish, develop, apply
and practise their distinct or customary laws, provided that these do not breach constitutional
rights, especially those of women, children and adolescents” and to “establish and maintain
organizations to represent them, in the spirit of pluralism and cultural, political and
organizational diversity. The State shall recognize and promote all their forms of expression
and organization” (art. 57 (1), (9), (10) and (15)). The Constitution also establishes that “the
authorities of indigenous communities, peoples and nationalities shall perform judicial
functions, based on their ancestral traditions and their own law, within their own territory”
and that the State must ensure that the judicial decisions of indigenous authorities, which are
subject to constitutional review, “are respected by public institutions and authorities” (art.
171). The Committee notes that, in addition to the Constitution, the Organic Code of the
Judiciary also establishes with regard to the “scope of indigenous jurisdiction” that the “the
authorities of indigenous communities, peoples and nationalities shall perform judicial
functions, based on their ancestral traditions and distinct or customary laws, within their own
territory” (art. 343) and that the actions and decisions of civil servants must adhere to the
principles of diversity “taking into account the law, customs and ancestral practices of
indigenous persons and peoples”; non bis in idem, in other words “the actions of indigenous
judicial authorities cannot be judged or reviewed by … any administrative authority”; “pro
indigenous jurisdiction”, according to which “in case of doubt between the ordinary
jurisdiction and the indigenous jurisdiction, the latter should take precedence so as to ensure
its greatest possible autonomy and the least possible intervention”; and the “intercultural
interpretation” of rights, bearing in mind “cultural elements connected to customs, ancestral
practices, norms and procedures of the distinct law of indigenous peoples, nationalities,
communes and communities” (art. 344).
4.5
In addition, the Committee notes that the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
Convention, 1989 (No. 169), which the State party has ratified, protects the practices and
institutions of indigenous peoples (art. 5) and stipulates that, in applying national laws to
indigenous peoples, “due regard shall be had to their customs or customary laws” and that
indigenous peoples “shall have the right to retain their own customs and institutions, where
these are not incompatible with fundamental rights defined by the national legal system and
with internationally recognized human rights” (art. 8). Similarly, the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples establishes that indigenous peoples “have
the right to self-determination” (art. 3). In exercising this right, they “have the right to
autonomy or self-government” (art. 4), “to maintain and strengthen their distinct political,
legal, economic, social and cultural institutions” (art. 5), “to practise and revitalize their
cultural traditions and customs”, including the right to maintain, protect and develop the
manifestations of their cultures, such as ceremonies (art. 11), “to determine the structures and
to select the membership of their institutions in accordance with their own procedures” (art.
33) and “to promote, develop and maintain their institutional structures and their distinctive ...
juridical systems or customs, in accordance with international human rights standards” (art.
34). The American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, meanwhile, establishes
that “States shall recognize fully the juridical personality of indigenous peoples, respecting
indigenous forms of organization” (art. IX), that “indigenous people have the right to promote,
develop and maintain their institutional structures and their distinctive ... juridical systems or
customs, in accordance with international human rights standards” and that “indigenous law
and legal systems shall be recognized and respected by national, regional and international
legal systems” (art. XXII). The Committee also notes that the Declaration establishes that
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