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Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: Sixteenth Session - 10th Meeting
Seeking informed consent from indigenous peoples before undertaking projects affecting their territories and resources was crucial to their survival and human rights, participants told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today.
“The goal of tribal consultation is not simply to check a box,” emphasized Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. Rather, such consultation was crucial for providing federal decision makers with the context, information and perspectives they needed to make informed decisions that protected tribal interests.
Pointing to the tribes that were potentially affected by the Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States, she highlighted how they had been denied access to information and excluded from consultations at the planning stage of the project. Furthermore, the non-violent protests at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation had been confronted with militarized and at times violent escalation of force.
It was also crucial to consider the impact of the international investment regime on indigenous people’s rights, she added, noting that corporations that made investments in mining, extraction and agricultural plantations were given more protections by Governments than the indigenous peoples on whose lands and territories those investments were happening.
Albert Barume, Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, also spoke, saying that without adequate protection of their right to health, indigenous peoples faced the threat of extinction. Diabetes, neglected tropical diseases and drug and alcohol abuse were among health-related challenges. Also highlighting the criminalization of indigenous peoples’ activities in their efforts to protect their land, he underscored the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.
Mirna Cunningham, of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples, said that the Fund, among other activities, made possible the participation of indigenous groups in United Nations meetings. Beneficiaries had contributed to significant achievements, including the adoption of the Declaration and the development of international human rights jurisprudence on indigenous peoples’ rights by human rights mechanisms.
During the day-long meeting speakers spoke of surviving the challenges of violence, land grabs and health issues, and calls for the need for consultations with indigenous peoples and stronger protection of their rights were reiterated through both an interactive dialogue and a general discussion.
A representative of the International Indian Treaty Council reminded the Forum that according to article 32 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, States must consult and cooperate in good faith with indigenous peoples. Yet, “sometimes consultation did not happen”, she pointed out.
Others spoke about the need to protect indigenous rights defenders, with the representative of the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact, voicing concern about the killings of indigenous rights activists and defenders, while the Assyrian Aid Society described the genocide indigenous peoples in Iraq and the Middle East faced at the hands of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) in Mosul and Nineveh plain.
“We do not want to disappear” said Manari Ushigua of Nacionalidad Sapara del Ecuador, asking for the immediate withdrawal of a Chinese business that had been assigned some territories for oil exploration by the Ecuadorian Government. The indigenous way of life was an important contribution to humanity and that vision was at risk of becoming extinct.
Also speaking were representatives of the Indigenous World Association, West Papua Interest Association, Ogaden People’s Rights Organisation, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, Asian Caucus, Telke, United Confederation of Taino People, Massey University, Coordinadora de Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica, Forest Peoples Programme, Chin Human Rights Organization, Congres Mondiale Amazigh (CMA), Indigenous Native Traditional Interchange, Indigenous Crimean Tatars, Save Our Unique Landscape, Pacos Trust, Indigenous Peoples Organization of Australia, Land Is Life, Tribal Link and the Foundation for Indigenous Americans of Anasazi Heritage.
Permanent Forum members from Denmark, United States, Australia, Finland, Cameroon, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico and the United Republic of Tanzania also spoke.
Delivering national statements were representatives of South Africa, Chile, Russian Federation and Norway, also speaking for Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, as well as the European Union delegation.
The Permanent Forum will reconvene at a date and time to be announced.
