The Costa Rican government is distributing a final draft of a document that sets out a “dialogue mechanism” to the country’s 24 indigenous territories for their input, said the vice minister of the presidency earlier this month.

“This stage will allow us to refine details of the mechanism that we have built together with indigenous peoples, so that the result is a document that responds to the reality and possibilities of state institutions, the current legal framework, and cultural diversity at the same time,” said Ana Gabriel Zúñiga Aponte, vice minister of political affairs and citizen dialogue.

After several rounds of meetings, a final draft of a report to guide dialogue between the country’s indigenous population and the Costa Rican government is now ready. This round served to follow-up on agreements reached at a national meeting in which 94 delegates met in San José earlier this year.

Government representatives started visits to the territories to deliver the draft report on July 29, and will continue to make the visits through August and September.

The instrument will mark the rules of the game to ensure a respectful dialogue between the Costa Rican government and indigenous peoples, and is the result of more than a year of work initiated by the Ministry of the Presidency in which public discussions and activities were carried out in all communities.

During this participatory process, information was collected on procedures for government consultations with indigenous on issues that concern them. In all, more than 120 activities were carried out throughout the country involving more than 5,000 indigenous people.

The consultation process responds to the mandate of Convention 169 on Indigenous Peoples of the International Labor Organization to provide indigenous peoples and the state with a mechanism to enable them to dialogue. The convention was ratified as law of the Republic by Costa Rica in 1993.