Derechos humanos colectivos y Multiculturalismo: Respuesta a las críticas universalistas y desarrollo constitucional en Colombia

The Colombian Constitutional Court is pledged to the protection of human rights and multiculturalism. A fundamental jurisprudential change, which has encountered serious resistance in doctrine, has to do with the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples, both at individual and collective levels. This article controverts the recurrent reproaches against collective rights, and points out their suitability as a key tool to develop a legal pluralism environment in states which have recognized themselves as multicultural. It moreover, shows that Colombian indigenous peoples are also stakeholders of both the individual --and universal rights, approved within the national Constitution and international Conventions-- and collective rights, namely: 1) free self-determination and self-government; 2) rights to ancestral territories and their resources; 3) rights of public participation and consultation; 4) cultural integrity; and 5) non-discrimination.