[E-rundbrief] Info - 1720 - UN DESA - Protecting the rights of indigenous peoples

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief Info 1720 - UN DESA Voice: Protecting the rights and 
well-being of indigenous peoples.

Bad Ischl, 2.4.2018

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https://www.un.org/development/desa/undesavoice/feature/2018/04#39109

     UN DESA Voice
     April 2018
  Vol 22, No. 04 - April 2018


Protecting the rights and well-being of indigenous peoples

Indigenous communities play a vital role as custodians of our planet, 
possessing vital knowledge that will support global efforts to achieve 
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But despite progress to 
protect their rights, many of the world’s 370 million indigenous 
peoples face discrimination and threats to their livelihoods and 
ancestral lands. To tackle these challenges, more than 1,000 
representatives of indigenous people’s organizations, Members States 
and UN agencies will gather for the 17th session of the UN Permanent 
Forum on Indigenous Issues taking place at UN Headquarters on 16-27 
April 2018.

A sustainable way of life

Indigenous peoples have deep spiritual, cultural, social and economic 
ties with their lands, territories and resources; this is vital to 
their identity and existence. “Nature is part of us, you cannot 
separate indigenous peoples from nature,” said Jane Meriwas, Executive 
Director and Secretary to the Board of the Samburu Women Trust, an 
organization that works to uphold the human rights of women and girls 
in pastoral communities in Kenya.

Ahead of the Forum, which this year will focus on indigenous peoples’ 
collective rights to lands, territories and resources, UN DESA Voice 
spoke with Ms. Meriwas and Chandra Roy-Henriksen, Chief of the 
Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in UN 
DESA’s Division for Social Policy and Development. Both described this 
special bond to the environment, and how it contributes to our joint 
efforts to make this world more sustainable.

“When you look around the world today and you look at the areas which 
are green, those are the areas where indigenous peoples live,” said. 
Ms. Roy-Henriksen. She also described the sustainable lifestyle of 
indigenous communities, which follows the principle that you only take 
what you need from nature. “It’s not something that you really take as 
yours forever. You borrow it and you pass it on to the next generation.”

Indigenous peoples’ tradition of collective rights to lands and 
resources is often in sharp contrast with dominant models of 
individual ownership, privatization and development. There is growing 
recognition that advancing indigenous peoples’ collective rights to 
lands, territories and resources does not only contribute to their 
well-being but also to the greater good of the world by tackling 
problems such as climate change and loss of biodiversity.

Challenges remain to realize rights to lands, territories and resources

Significant progress has been made in international human rights 
standard-setting for indigenous peoples’ collective rights to lands, 
territories and resources, following the adoption of the UN 
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. A number of 
countries have recognized those rights through constitutional or legal 
protections or adjudication, constructive agreements and 
administrative programmes. Many States, however, have yet to recognize 
and ensure these rights and a wide gap remains in realizing them, even 
in countries where they are recognized.

Even where indigenous peoples have obtained legal protection or title 
deeds to their lands and resources, those are often violated by 
development projects; mining or logging concessions, bio fuel 
plantations or other business operations; or designation of 
conservation areas. In addition, indigenous peoples are often caught 
in the middle of conflicts taking place on their ancestral lands and 
territories.

Despite increasing jurisprudence of national and regional courts and 
other human rights mechanisms for protection of indigenous peoples’ 
rights to lands, territories and resources, a major challenge is the 
effective enforcement of these judgments. The implementation gap 
between law and practice is wide and indigenous peoples continue to 
face serious abuses against their rights to lands, territories and 
resources daily.

Reports of grave human rights violations have been heard from every 
corner of the world, most often perpetrated against indigenous human 
rights defenders protecting their rights and their lands, territories 
and communities. Forced evictions and dispossession of lands have 
particularly severe impacts on indigenous women, who often face 
additional violence and discrimination based on gender and identity.

International platform to find solutions

At the 2018 session, the Permanent Forum will build on its continuing 
work to provide the space and platform to identify opportunities for 
concrete action to recognize and strengthen the indigenous peoples’ 
rights to lands, territories and resources. The Forum will facilitate 
discussions among indigenous peoples, Member States, UN agencies and 
other stakeholders around good practices and challenges and recommend 
effective strategies to realize those rights.

“We hope that the end result will have a positive impact on those 
communities who have been agitating when you talk about issues on 
land,” said Jane Meriwas. “We hope even that the recommendation can 
reach the relevant government and […] be effectively implemented […] 
and disseminated to the communities that are affected.”

The Forum will also follow up on the 2014 World Conference on 
Indigenous Peoples, prepare for the 2019 International Year of 
Indigenous Languages, and hone in on the realization of the 17 global 
goals, leaving no one behind.

“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has given indigenous 
peoples a certain level of expectation,” said Ms. Roy-Henriksen, 
explaining that as the world moves forward towards 2030, there is hope 
among indigenous communities that their priorities, concerns and 
rights will be recognized.

For more information: 17th session of the UN Permanent Forum on 
Indigenous Issues

-- 

     Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
     Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
     Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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