Ecuador's new constitution, approved in July 2008, marked a high point in the recognition of multi-nationality and the rights of Ecuador's indigenous peoples. It also represented an innovation in Latin American constitutionalism, by making interculturality and gender themes that crossed the magna carta. The 2008 constitution is based on the advances made in the 1998 constitution, and incorporates new frameworks of international law, in particular the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, on the one hand, and, on the other, makes reference to the rights of women to a life free of violence and gender equality, as established in CEDAW and other international instruments that prohibit gender discrimination. The new constitution and international instruments constitute key elements in the struggles of Ecuadorian indigenous women, both in terms of their rights as women, and in terms of their collective rights as indigenous peoples. (p. 58).

(Translated from Spanish)

Nemonte Nenquimo, an Indigenous activist from the Ecuadorian Amazon, first female president of her tribe (the Waorani of Pastaza Province) and co-founder of the Indigenous-led Ceibo Alliance and its sister organization Amazon Frontlines, was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people on Earth in 2020 (the only Indigenous woman on the list) and won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize among other major awards, for her struggles against the ravages of oil drilling in her people’s ancestral lands.