Beneath the Surface: A Comparative Study of the Institutional Arrangements, Indigenous Authority, and Decision-Making for Critical Mineral Extraction in Sweden and Colombia

Sammanfattning

Accelerating global demand for critical minerals intensifies pressures on Indigenous territories, exacerbating tensions between extractive imperatives and Indigenous land rights. This thesis critically analyses how state-mediated institutional arrangements in Sweden and Colombia shape Indigenous peoples' participation, authority, and influence in land-use decision-making related to critical mineral extraction. Through qualitative comparison, the study contrasts Sweden's limited statutory recognition of Sámi rights with Colombia's constitutional and jurisprudential pluralism, examining how each positions Indigenous voices along the consultation-consent spectrum, where authority resides, when influence is engaged, and what effects emerge. Drawing on decolonial and institutional perspectives, the research examines the architecture of Indigenous land rights, Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and territorial governance, alongside frameworks designating minerals as critical or strategic that set territorial priorities before participatory mechanisms are engaged. Findings reveal a structural convergence beneath formal divergence in which outcomes remain predetermined, as institutional arrangements, produced through distinct historical trajectories, recognise Indigenous claims while delimiting their effects, absorbing contestation without confronting the redistribution of power it demands. The geopolitical push for critical minerals intensifies the expansion of state sovereignty over subsoil resources, constraining Indigenous self-determination within procedural mechanisms and displacing the political, juridical, and ontological foundations of territorial autonomy.