ACCESS RIGHTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS IN THE RAIZAL COMMUNITY AS AN EXPRESSION OF BIOCULTURAL RIGHTS

Abstract

Through a qualitative methodological design in which the hermeneutic and phenomenological methods were used, and the semi-structured in-depth interview and focus group techniques, this work addressed the question “why are the rights of access to information, participation and justice in environmental matters in the Raizal ethnic community of the archipelago department of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, expressions of biocultural rights in the Colombian legal system?”. The resolution of this problem initially allows divulging the methodological experience that was used to obtain the findings. These were oriented from two objectives, each one supported by a question and a predefined category; the first one conceptualizes the rights of access in environmental matters as dimensions of the fundamental rights to information, participation and justice, giving rise to the question “what are the rights of access in environmental matters as dimensions of the fundamental rights to information, participation and justice?” and the second, establishes the significance of the raizality as a differential ethnic condition from which the rights of access in environmental matters are configured as expressions of biocultural rights, an objective that is reflected in the question “what meanings does the raizality of the community of the archipelago department of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina have that contribute to the configuration of the rights of access in environmental matters as biocultural rights?”.