Indigenous World 2025: European Union Engagement with Indigenous Issues

Written on 25 April 2025. Posted in European Union Engagement with Indigenous Issues

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 Member States. Its legislative and executive powers are divided between the EU main institutions: the European Parliament (co-legislative authority), the Council of the European Union (co-legislative and executive authority) and the European Commission (executive authority). In addition, the EU has its own diplomatic service, the European External Action Service (with EU Delegations throughout the world).

The EU maintains trade relations with the whole world and is the biggest donor of development aid. Aside from the influence within the territory of its Member States and its influence in international organisations, the EU also has a global impact, being an international key player in the area of ​​human rights, development, and control of corporate and environmental issues.

The EU is part of the international process of promotion and protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Five EU Member States have ratified ILO Convention No 169^[1] and the EU supported the adoption of the UNDRIP in 2007 as well as the Outcome Document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in 2014.

In recent years, the EU has moved from a relatively passive position regarding recognition of Indigenous Peoples' rights to much more active involvement in ensuring the effectiveness of these rights in its policies.

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

European legislative developments in the protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples

Since the European elections took place in mid-2024, European institutions have had to conclude, sometimes with some urgency, a number of ongoing legislative processes.

Following on from the adoption of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)^[2] in 2023, the EU this year finalized the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).^[3] These new European regulations aim to strengthen requirements for companies to integrate human rights and environmental protection standards into their operations and supply chains.^[4]

The CSDDD requires very large European companies and those operating in the EU to identify, prevent, mitigate and remedy the negative impacts of their activities on human rights and the environment. This framework explicitly includes considerations relating to the rights of Indigenous Peoples, notably with regard to their right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and provides for the possibility of legal recourse on the part of victims against companies failing to meet their obligations.

The EUDR aims to reduce the EU's impact on global deforestation by restricting imports of products associated with forest destruction, such as palm oil, soy and timber. It requires companies to conduct due diligence on their supply chains to ensure that certain commodities they import to the EU have not led to deforestation and that they have been produced lawfully. In December 2024, the European Union decided on a 12-month additional phasing-in period, making the law applicable on 30 December 2025 for large and medium companies, and 30 June 2026 for micro and small enterprises.

The application of this legislation is likely to open up new options for Indigenous Peoples to address human rights and environmental abuses caused by larger companies by creating mechanisms for legal redress and remedies and increasing vigilance over supply chains to better document violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights.^[5]

Moreover, the emergence of such regional legislation could have a significant impact on the evolution of UN legislation on the subject by modifying the position of the EU and its 27 Member States on the need to more actively support the creation of a binding UN international treaty on business and human rights. Indeed, during the negotiations surrounding the CSDDD directive and the EUDR regulation, political groups and lobbies opposed to these initiatives argued that these obligations would penalize European companies / the European market compared to other companies not subject to these human rights obligations. The European Parliament has called on Member States and the Commission to take action in this area, and it is not too far-fetched to assume that these same political groups and lobbies would welcome the creation of an international treaty putting all companies on an equal footing this time round.

Young defenders of Indigenous Peoples' rights and European institutions

Bound by its treaties to protect and apply its commitments and those of its Member States, the EU has adopted policies and mechanisms designed to protect and promote human rights in its political relations, trade agreements and allocation of funds, and has set up various strategic human rights instruments for more targeted action. The effectiveness of these mechanisms relies heavily on collaboration between the EU and local civil societies, and the European institutions draw on their network of almost 140 delegations spread around the world.

These delegations act as the EU's external representation and can be viewed as embassies. Delegations are in constant contact with the authorities in host countries, as well as with civil society. A human rights focal point is present within each delegation to gather testimonies from human rights defenders, support their action, report on the situation in their country and monitor the impact of European actions.

Given that young people are largely excluded from decision-making processes that have an impact on them, despite the fact that they represent almost a third of the world's population and 90% of them live in developing countries, particularly in Africa where three-quarters of the population are under 35, the EU has recognized the need to adapt its system to promote the inclusion of young people, making this a priority in the Council Conclusions on Youth in external action,^[6] the European Consensus on Development^[7] and in the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024.^[8]

In 2022, the EU adopted a Youth Action Plan (YAP) in EU external action 2022 - 2027 entitled “Promoting meaningful youth participation and empowerment in EU external action for sustainable development, equality and peace”^[9] to include and support young advocates.

The Action Plan includes mandatory consultations of youth organizations as part of the implementation of the main European financing instrument for human rights and development aid, the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument - Global Europe (NDICI-Global Europe) and the creation of country roadmaps for EU engagement with civil society, integrating a youth perspective and ensuring that youth organizations participate in a meaningful way.

The EU has also created a €10 million Youth Empowerment Fund,^[10] which will provide direct financial support for youth-led initiatives in partner countries, focused on implementing sustainable development goals at local level.

The EU is also encouraging the creation of youth advisory structures to provide advice to EU Delegations throughout the world. These structures were under development by 2024 are expected to be in place in most partner countries by 2027.

In addition to human rights focal points, more and more EU Delegations are setting up youth focal points to facilitate access to EU processes and grants for young rights defenders.^[11]

This willingness of European institutions to include young people in their actions represents a real opportunity for young representatives of Indigenous Peoples wishing to collaborate with or receive support from the EU. This new European priority should greatly facilitate their approach and their inclusion in the process of allocating European funds, or the inclusion of their issues on the agenda of negotiations between their country and the European Union.

Nevertheless, even if this system has a real desire for inclusion, it should be noted that, in practice, it may suffer from a lack of practical measures enabling the systematic inclusion of young representatives of Indigenous Peoples in the mechanisms put in place. Indeed, young representatives are likely to face the same difficulties as their elders when it comes to working with EU Delegations, as the obstacles to the participation of Indigenous Peoples are multiple and structural. In particular, the fact that European delegations are located in national capitals, and only work in the national languages of the countries and in English, makes it difficult for Indigenous Peoples' organizations to participate due to the fact that they are often small in size and with few funds at their disposal. This tends to favour the representation of the largest local civil society organizations, in which Indigenous Peoples are not always properly included.

In terms of a lack of systematic support measures, the effectiveness of the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples is likely to vary widely from one delegation to another, depending on national contexts and each delegation's commitment to finding ways of supporting the participation of Indigenous Peoples' representatives.

Mathias Wuidar is a human rights lawyer. He works as representative to the EU for the Indigenous Peoples’ Center for Documentation, Research and Information (Docip).

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

Notes and references

^[1] Denmark (1996), The Netherlands (1998), Spain (2007), Luxembourg (2018) and Germany (2021)

^[2] Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation, and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R1115&qid=1687867231461

^[3] Directive (EU) 2024/1760 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 on corporate sustainability due diligence and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937 and Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/1760/oj/eng

^[4] For more information on the CSDDD and EUDR legislative developments, please refer to Mathias Wuidar “European Union Engagement with Indigenous Issues”, in The Indigenous World 2024, edited by Dwayne Mamo, IWGIA, 2024. https://iwgia.org/en/resources/publications/5508-the-indigenous-world-2024.html

^[5] For further information, the author warmly recommends the guide written by Antoine Gibert and Anouska Perram: “Using the new EU rules to support our rights - a guide for indigenous peoples and forest peoples”, Edited by Forest Peoples Programme, 2024. https://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/default/files/documents/Using%20the%20new%20EU%20rules%20to%20support%20our%20rights%20-%20a%20guide%20for%20indigenous%20and%20forest%20peoples%20DIGITAL%20Spreads.pdf

^[6] EU Council conclusions on youth in external action, 5 June 2020. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-8629-2020-INIT/en/pdf

^[7] European Consensus on Development, 26 June 2017. https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/european-development-policy/european-consensus-development_en

^[8] EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024.

^[9] Joint communication to the European Parliament and the Council- Youth Action Plan (YAP) in EU external action 2022 – 2027, “Promoting meaningful youth participation and empowerment in EU external action for sustainable development, equality and peace”. https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/document/download/fe1bcd30-58da-4a37-ab2a-61848789da60_en?filename=Joint%20Communication%20-%20Youth%20Action%20Plan%20in%20EU%20external%20action%202022%20%E2%80%93%202027.pdf

^[10] For more information on the Youth Empowerment Fund please see: https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/youth/youth-empowerment-fund_en

^[11] For more information on the Youth Sounding Board for EU International Partnerships and the youth focal points, please see: https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/youth/youth-participation_en

Tags: Youth, Global governance, Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders