The Constitutional Court of Colombia is asked to declare the unconstitutionality of articles 2, 3 (partial), 5, 6, 11 (partial), 35 (partial), 37, 39, 48, 58, 59, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 261, 267 (partial), 271 (partial), 275 and 332 of the Law 685/2001 that sets the Code of Mining.

The plaintiff, on behalf of the National Organization of Colombian Indigenous, claims that the above-mentioned norms infringe the fundamental right to the indigenous consultation established in the ILO Convention 169 and in articles 53, 93 and 94 of the Constitution. The plaintiff argues that the Congress and the Government ignored that indigenous should be consulted before enacting a norm that is susceptible of directly affect them.   

The Constitutional Court does not accept the request. The judgment analyses, in first place if the indigenous communities were effectively consulted during the elaboration of the Code. The Court concludes that indigenous organizations were effectively consulted during the elaboration of the law. In second place, the Court analyses if the norms themselves respect the constitutional precepts regarding to indigenous participation and concludes that they do not infringe the Constitution.