Progressive cycle of Peruvian cultural policy : participation and the right of prior consultation regarding the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples

The aim of the article is to analyse the rights of Indigenous Peoples to the protection, preservation, and management of their cultural heritage. The second element of the research is the analysis of the politicisation of the cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples in the context of their right to participation and consultation. Considerations on this subject are presented in the context of the phenomenon of ethnic revival and empowerment of indigenous communities (both in Latin America and on a global scale), which has been developing for several decades, in line with the slogans of democratisation and decolonisation. These phenomena coincided in the first decades of the 21st century with an unprecedented moment in the political history of Latin America - the so-called progressive cycle of public policies, according to which the governments of subsequent countries rejected neoliberal concepts in favour of greater involvement of the authorities in building egalitarian societies, and in the field of cultural policies, the pursuit of 'democratisation of culture'. As a case study of the discussed phenomena, the article presents the progressive cycle of cultural policy in the Republic of Peru and an example of the activity of the interdisciplinary program Proyecto Qhapaq Ñan, established in 2001 by the authorities of the Republic for the purpose of inventory, documentation and safeguarding the remains of the Andean Qhapaq Ñan Trail. Its trajectory reflects both the variables of Peru's cultural policy, shaped in relation to the operational guidelines and international standards of the UN system, and the evolution of Peruvian ethnopolitics toward indigenous peoples in the last two decades.