Abstract/Summary

We address issues of rights, identity and the Mapuche Question in Chile. In different country contexts, the institution of a rights-based approach to development necessarily encounters a long established comprehension of acknowledging, denying and claiming rights, which leads to certain ways of expressing problems, tracing solutions or generating or mediating conflicts. Such a fabric of rights in society cannot be swept away in attempts to assert a new rights agenda on local situations. This raises questions concerning how international understandings about rights connect to local understandings, practices and histories, as well as questions about what we can learn from countries where the institutionalisation of rights is part of an existing national political process. One case is that of Chile.