Living Well in the Constitution of Bolivia and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Reflections on Well-Being and the Right to Development

Abstract

The article analyzes how approaches to “Living Well” as reflected in the Constitution of the State of Bolivia, the Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Organization of American States (OAS) contribute to understanding the Andean cosmovision of indigenous peoples of the American continent. To do so, it first studied the most immediate precedents that led to incorporation of the notion of Living Well into Bolivian law. Second, it approached the right to development from the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which has as its source the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The paper thus proposes reflections on the Bolivian State and the American Declaration that advance understanding of Living Well, a notion comparable in the West to the right to development (political, social, economic, environmental, and cultural) that enables the individual and collective realization of the individual. Fullness, understood in terms of well-being, is related to the protection of health and of the environment. Finally, the paper employs a qualitative methodology with a well-documented hermeneutic focus, as well as the tool of a semi-structured interview with a Bolivian scholar familiar on the topic.