The Indigenous World 2024: Editorial
This year’s edition of The Indigenous World takes a closer look at Indigenous Peoples’ right to lands, territories and resources.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), adopted in 2007, devotes several of its articles to land rights – especially Articles 25, 26 and 32 – recognizing this as an essential human rights issue for Indigenous Peoples. The UNDRIP preamble recognizes “the urgent need to respect and promote the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples which derive from their political, economic and social structures and from their cultures, spiritual traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to their lands, territories and resources.”[1]
ILO Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and tribal peoples likewise includes a human rights-based approach to land. It notably affirms that, in applying the Convention: “Governments shall respect the special importance for the cultures and spiritual values of the peoples concerned of their relationship with the lands or territories, or both as applicable, which they occupy or otherwise use, and in particular the collective aspects of this relationship.”[2]
2023 commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR). It is essential to highlight the profound significance the UDHR has for Indigenous Peoples' rights worldwide as it offers a universal legal framework that underscores the fundamental values of equality, non-discrimination and justice. It importantly upholds the universality of human rights and serves as a moral and legal framework for promoting justice, peace and dignity for humanity as a whole.
Since the UNDRIP’s adoption in 2007, the UN Treaty Bodies have increasingly made reference to it in their reviews of State party reports. Some Treaty Bodies have further urged States to “comply” with the UNDRIP and integrate it into national legislation. Recently, the UNDRIP has also become a regular reference point in UN Treaty Bodies’ general comments and recommendations. In one of its most recent general comments, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) identifies a core obligation of States to obtain free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) where Indigenous Peoples’ natural and cultural resources are threatened.
The right to FPIC, as spelled out in Article 32 of the UNDRIP, is one of the most fundamental rights of Indigenous Peoples, who have the right to give or withhold consent for any project affecting their lands, territories and resources. And their decision must be respected. Despite this core right, powerful actors continue to encroach onto Indigenous Peoples’ territories in all regions of the world without proper, if any, information, consultation or consent, that is in a culturally appropriate manner, in Indigenous Peoples’ own languages and with enough time to seek genuine FPIC.
The resulting land grabbing is happening virtually everywhere Indigenous Peoples live and is driven by a number of powerful forces, including governments, businesses and dominant elites, that are pushing projects of all sizes – from small artisanal mining operations to mega development/infrastructure projects – without respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Government of India, for example, is ploughing ahead with its much-criticized 17,000-hectare Great Nicobar Island mega project, which, at the very least, will threaten the survival of two Indigenous tribes. In the first six months of 2023 alone, Myanmar exported over EUR 710 million worth of rare earth minerals to China. Additionally, 80 hydropower dams are scheduled to be built, including one in northern Shan State that will threaten 11 villages as their areas will be flooded and tens of thousands will need to be relocated. In the United States, the Biden administration approved the building of the large onshore oil drilling Willow project on Indigenous lands in northern Alaska, which is projected to produce 600 million barrels of oil over the next 30 years (approx. 200,000 barrels a day). And in Kenya, authorities destroyed dozens of homes in the name of conservation in the Mau Forest Complex, a legally-recognized traditional Indigenous land, making over 700 Ogiek women, children and men homeless.
In many countries extractive industries continue their relentless advance onto Indigenous territories in search of resources, and many Indigenous Peoples and organizations find it difficult to resist the enormous pressure from industries such as those of oil and mining.
In addition to the ever-increasing pressure, including a seemingly insatiable global demand for hydrocarbon extraction, Indigenous Peoples’ natural resources are increasingly targeted under the green transition paradigm, which has precipitated an industrial and financial boom requiring vast quantities of transition minerals at an unprecedented pace unheard of in the history of industrialization.
This article is part of the 38th 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 man harvesting quinoa in Sunimarka, Peru. This photo was taken by Pablo Lasansky, and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2024 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2024 in full here
Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ lands is connected to the protection of our shared climate
Despite having contributed the least to climate change, Indigenous Peoples are among the first to face its direct effects. Many live in particularly sensitive ecosystems, such as tropical forests, and are heavily reliant on their natural resources.
This is particularly of concern when 2023 saw record forest fires sweep across Canada and in several countries of Europe and Latin America. In Bolivia, 49 of the 58 Indigenous territories in the lowlands were the site of over 25,000 forest fires, in some of which people lost homes and crops. Territories in Beni were some of the worst affected, with over 16,000 forest fires. More than half of the 16 communities in the Multiethnic Indigenous Territory (TIM) were affected by the loss of over 22,000 hectares to forest fires, the largest area it had lost to fire in the last five years.
Meanwhile, in Africa, Kenya experienced massive flooding in 38 counties in the northern part of the country that left over 500,000 people homeless, killed thousands of livestock and flooded over 640,000 hectares of land. Despite the flooding, Kenya also suffered its 7th consecutive year of drought. The story is much the same in Ethiopia, which has endured its 5th consecutive failed rainy season but was also racked by flooding in seven of its 12 regions. All of this continues to exacerbate conflicts between communities throughout the continent over scarce water and pasturelands.
Constituting just 6% of the world’s population, Indigenous Peoples protect at least 28% of the global land surface. Their territories contain the vital ecosystems, biodiversity and carbon that are stored within. Studies document that nature is better conserved in Indigenous territories than in adjacent areas.[3] In line with this, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that “...securing and recognising tenure for Indigenous communities…has been shown to be highly cost effective in reducing deforestation…and is therefore also apt to help improve Indigenous communities’ ability to adapt to climate changes”.[4]
Indigenous Peoples have cultivated knowledge systems and customary practices for countless generations that have helped them to manage and protect the ecosystems in which they live. Indigenous Peoples can therefore contribute positively to addressing climate change with their knowledge, innovations and practices, which have historically contributed to the efforts to conserve ecosystems and biodiversity.[5]
While the important role of Indigenous Peoples in protecting and conserving the environment is recognized, their marginalisation and discrimination at the country level has had dire consequences for their livelihoods and socio-cultural practices, resulting in discriminatory policies and legislation. Part of this legislation is directly related to environmental protection and climate action.
As mentioned above, the current model for the global energy transition requires an increasing quantity of transition minerals, infrastructure and land. There is immense pressure to spend and incentives to rapid action, often at the cost of human rights.
Climate finance continues to grow and many mitigation initiatives are impacting Indigenous Peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources. These initiatives have the potential to bring positive change provided that Indigenous Peoples are consulted and engaged in their design and implementation. Unfortunately, however, many projects still fail to do this or at least encounter tremendous challenges in their attempts to do so. Without obtaining the FPIC of the Indigenous Peoples affected, these projects risk violating their rights.
This also places the very projects at risk because, without ensuring that Indigenous Peoples are on board and take ownership, these projects are likely to fail in meeting their climate objectives.
At a more general level, it is crucial for Indigenous Peoples to continue monitoring climate finance flows, including from green development projects such as renewable energy and carbon credit initiatives, as many of these investments are increasingly placing pressure on Indigenous Peoples’ land, territories and resources and unfortunately do not address the root causes of the climate crisis.
To use an example from this book, in the Philippines, President Marcos Jr. has been aggressively pursuing his renewable energy programme, which has completely ignored the Indigenous Peoples affected by energy projects even when they are implemented in Indigenous territories. Alarmingly, in the Cordillera region alone, 100 renewable energy projects are planned, some of which are in official Indigenous Community Conservation Areas, Protected Areas and biodiversity hotpots.
However, there have been positive developments as well.
The election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signalled a stark contrast in the Brazilian State’s stance towards Indigenous issues and the environment after years of Jair Bolsonaro’s devastating polices, which had disastrous consequences for Indigenous Peoples and the climate. Politically, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples has been set up with a mission to craft and implement policies that address the specific needs of Indigenous communities, protect their rights, and respect their autonomy. Further, Joênia Wapichana, Brazil’s first Indigenous woman lawyer, was appointed President of FUNAI (Brazil’s National Indigenous Peoples Foundation).
With regard to environmental protection, although an estimated 9,000 km2 of forest in the Amazon was cut down, there was a 22% reduction in the deforestation rate of the Amazon compared to 2022 and President Lula has committed the country to a zero deforestation target for 2030, while acknowledging at the same time the importance of Indigenous lands to achieving this target. Consequently, after a five-year hiatus, the government resumed the demarcation of Indigenous territories and demarcated six Indigenous territories in 2023, representing an area of over 6,000 km2, bringing the total up to 732 such territories and over 117 million hectares, or nearly 14% of the country’s total area. These areas are thus not only about protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights and traditions but also an acknowledgement of the crucial role they play in environmental conservation efforts.
Globally, while COP 28 in Dubai received its share of criticism for not being strong enough in its language for fossil fuel phase-out, in a year that was the hottest on record, Indigenous Peoples’ representation continued to grow and references to Indigenous Peoples in the Global Stock Take decision text improved compared with the COP 27 outcome text from the year before. The decision text made nine references to Indigenous Peoples, including references to their rights in the preamble to the Paris Agreement, as well as references to building solutions using Indigenous knowledge, engaging in meaningful participation and dialogue with Indigenous Peoples for sustainable and just climate crisis solutions, and recognizing the importance and protection of their values, traditions, culture and worldviews in climate-resilient infrastructure.
The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Alvaro Lario, officially opened the 6th Global Meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD by emphasizing that the only way to turn the tide on climate change was for governments and institutions to join forces with Indigenous Peoples because they know the land, seas and earth’s plant and animal life “with an intimacy that no agronomist, project designer or funding provider ever will”. Lario added that, for humanity to respond to climate change, “there is a need to advocate for social justice and land rights for Indigenous Peoples’ communities”.
José Francisco Calí Tzay, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, focused one of his two 2023 thematic reports on green financing, emphasizing that the transition towards a green economy should be just, and based on human rights. He further noted that the transition must not perpetuate the current violations linked to extractive and fossil fuel projects, as the likelihood of green initiatives unfolding on Indigenous lands is high. The Rapporteur stressed in the report that it is crucial for national governments and finance institutions to implement human rights due diligence from the very beginning of a project, from its very planning, and that such projects must be rooted in acknowledging Indigenous Peoples' collective rights to land and self-determination.
In his other thematic report, presented to the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in October 2023, on the impact of the tourism industry on Indigenous Peoples, Calí Tzay highlights that the preservation of Indigenous lands for tourism purposes has seldom resulted in an improvement in Indigenous Peoples’ security of land tenure. On the contrary, it has often led to widespread evictions from forests, grazing areas, wildlife habitats, and seashores. Additionally, it has resulted in restricted access to sacred places and resources for Indigenous communities.
As the demand for Indigenous Peoples’ lands, territories and resources increases, they often have to defend their lands at great risk, a trend that is sadly reported too often in this, and other, editions of The Indigenous World. Year after year, thousands of Indigenous environmental defenders all over the world are being harassed, intimidated, threatened, surveilled, evicted, arbitrarily detained, illegally arrested and, worse, killed for protecting lands that have been theirs since time immemorial.
The danger that defending Indigenous land poses
The attack on rights activists and stigmatization of Indigenous Peoples reflects a continued shrinking of the democratic space. An increasing number of attacks are being detected against defenders of the lands and forests that are being exploited by extractive industries, agribusinesses or even “green” energy projects, among others.
Another concerning trend experienced in 2023 was the increasing acts of intimidation, harassment, and reprisals toward Indigenous representatives who seek to exercise their right to report on their human rights situation in UN meetings.
Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights Defenders and environmental defenders are protecting much of the remaining rich and biodiverse ecosystems left in the world, as well as their peoples’ homes, which they have inhabited for centuries. And they are paying a high price.
In Bangladesh. there were over 24 dangerous incidents in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), including violent attacks and forcible land occupation / grabbing attempts, which led to over 200 Indigenous persons suffering human rights violations, including the killing of six persons. In the plains, over 10 such incidents were also reported.
Without acknowledging the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and in many cases openly violating them, the loss of land and natural resources continues to erode the economic security, socio-cultural cohesion and human dignity of numerous Indigenous communities around the world. With loss of land and natural resources comes loss of traditional livelihood practices and, with that, the inter-generational transfer of traditional knowledge, the undermining of social organization and traditional institutions, and of cultural and spiritual practices. All of which causes poverty, food insecurity, social disintegration, and a loss of identity and human dignity.
The invasion and grabbing of Indigenous Peoples’ lands is exacerbated by the fact that many Indigenous Peoples suffer from weak legal protection (lack of formal legal recognition and titles) of their collective (and individual) community lands and are therefore very vulnerable to land grabbing and the associated human rights violations.
This is particularly the case in Africa and Asia where very few countries have ratified ILO Convention 169 and where almost no countries have legal frameworks providing for the recognition and protection of Indigenous Peoples and their lands.
Where legal frameworks do exist, their implementation is very weak or non-existent. Indigenous Peoples’ collective lands are often perceived as “empty” and “unused” by States and government authorities, which paves the way for easy, often violent and widespread, land grabbing.
And where national, regional or international systems step in, such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), Inter-American Human Rights System or the UN, States and governments often ignore their rulings and recommendations.
In early November, authorities from the Kenya Forest Services and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers forcibly evicted over 700 Ogiek women, children and men, who were only informed of the forced eviction just days before, effectively receiving no prior warning, other information or plans for relocation or reparations. The actions of the Government of Kenya are in direct violation of two pioneering legal judgements by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights that recognize Ogiek ownership of their ancestral land in the Mau Forest, require the government to return the land to them and require them to pay for material and moral damages.
In neighbouring Uganda, in the name of conservation, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) carried out frequent raids on the Benet people in 2023, burning down 96 houses, destroying 33 others, arresting 70 people and impounding over 1,200 animals. The ACHPR called on the Ugandan authorities to take immediate action to stop these measures but the government has yet to respond.
In 2023, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the State of Guatemala for human rights violations against the Indigenous Maya Q'eqchi' community, particularly over the lack of response to Indigenous requests that have been made for more than 40 years asking for guarantees of the right to collective ownership of their ancestral lands. Part of the ruling is in relation to a mining concession granted in 2006 by the government without any prior consultation with the community. Among other obligations, according to the ruling, the State of Guatemala must collectively title and demarcate the ancestral lands and consult with the community according to their own criteria and customs.
Formal legal community land titles can go a long way to making the land tenure situation of Indigenous Peoples more secure but are often insufficient, as evidenced by numerous cases in this edition.
As windows of opportunity open, doors also close on rights
As mentioned earlier, internationally, the rights of Indigenous Peoples are enshrined in several UN declarations and their rights, as well as their contributions, are increasingly being recognized in other agreements and frameworks, including those concerned with climate, biodiversity and environmental protection. In some cases, those international precedents have had a positive effect on national legislation. In 2023, many States enacted laws that recognize Indigenous Peoples and their rights, including those to lands, territories and resources.
In Laos, a new Decree on Protected Areas was adopted, marking a major step forward in the management and governance of biodiverse-rich lands. The law sets up “Guardian Villages” in which inhabitants – often Indigenous – within the protected area or in surrounding villages co-manage the area, actively participating in decision-making about resource use with regard to conservation.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the 2022 Law on Protecting and Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples came into force in February 2023, officially recognizing the rights and cultural identity of Indigenous Peoples, as well as their rights to their lands, territories and resources, and their contributions to protecting forests, marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a decree to protect and preserve the sacred sites and pilgrimage routes of four Indigenous groups that have been threatened by the activities of transnational companies.
In Chile, a law came into force creating the National Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service to ensure better administration of protected areas in the country and recognize the right of Indigenous Peoples to participate in and manage these protected areas, although it does not take the further step of guaranteeing their right to self-govern those territories.
In Canada, following two years of work with First Nations, Inuit and Métis from across the country, the federal government released its 2023-2028 National Action Plan to ensure that federal laws are in line with the UNDRIP. One priority area among many in the plan is a focus on the rights to lands, territories and resources, ensuring that Indigenous Peoples can exercise their inherent rights, affirming and respecting their jurisdiction over their lands, waters and resources.
Indigenous Peoples and their defenders know full well that a law adopted on paper is only as strong as the real-time, genuine implementation of its provisions and protections. As such, despite these positive legal developments for Indigenous Peoples, 2023 was also a year of legal regression in many countries, which either blatantly ignored their legal obligations or amended laws to afford the State and corporations even more rights.
In late December, the Government of Nepal endorsed the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, which comprises six thematic sectors, including one on Indigenous Peoples, specifically recognizing the importance of following FPIC, meaningful participation and customary institutions. However, based on the previous experiences of Indigenous Peoples in the country and the current political situation, many are sceptical that the government will seriously or genuinely put this into practice.
In India, the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act 2023 empowers the government to acquire land for development, eco-tourism, mining and security/defence projects. Criticism of the act has been ongoing for years, including that it violates the forest rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as the right to FPIC.
The Law on Protected Areas 2008 in Cambodia was amended in 2023, changing the term “Indigenous Peoples” to “Local Communities”, which has no specific definition. When it takes effect in 2024 the rights of Indigenous Peoples thus risk being undermined.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law of the People's Republic of China took effect in late 2023 with the aim of conserving biodiversity through the restoration of ecosystems by setting up national parks, reserves and other protected areas. The law, however, makes no mention of FPIC, especially in relation to what will happen when people have to be relocated, and introduces measures such as grazing bans and setting up of enclosures that will affect Indigenous Peoples’ herding rights and nomadic way of life.
In 2021, the Supreme Court of Norway unanimously determined that two wind power facilities – the Storheia and Roan wind power plants on the Fosen peninsula – violated Sámi reindeer herders’ rights to practise their culture under Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The two facilities combined have built 151 wind turbines and 159 km of wide roads on traditional winter grazing lands. However, nearly two years after the judgement, the Government of Norway had yet to follow-up on its own Supreme Court’s legal ruling. Throughout 2023, Sámi and Norwegian youth led protests and civil disobedience actions that garnered international attention to call out the government’s inaction. By the end of the year, the government admitted ongoing human rights violations and publicly apologized to the reindeer herders and a settlement was eventually reached for financial compensation, replacement grazing areas provided by the State, and a power of veto over further licensing after the first 25-year concession runs out.
Indigenous women at the front line of land defence
While land dispossession and land tenure insecurity is a major problem for all Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous women are even more affected since they traditionally have very limited influence and decision-making power over land matters, and they often suffer the most when land is lost and they are no longer able to provide for themselves and their children.
Indigenous women all over the world experience a “broad, multifaceted and complex spectrum of mutually reinforcing human rights abuses”[6] due to their particular position of vulnerability within patriarchal power structures. Women are disproportionately affected by the systemic poverty that affects Indigenous Peoples due to their roles as caregivers and managers of resources in their communities. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples found that Indigenous women are commonly excluded from both Indigenous decision-making structures and local and national political processes, which leads to a lack of priority for women’s concerns in policy making.
This was noted in Guatemala where women are routinely left out of rural development and land access programmes and are often the ones most affected by violent evictions and conflict.
At the 67th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67), Indigenous women emphasized the importance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)’s General Recommendation 39 (GR39)[7] on the rights of Indigenous women and girls, adopted in late 2022, and its relevance to their empowerment. They stressed that concrete measures needed to be implemented to guarantee the legal recognition and protection of their right to lands, territories and resources, as established in GR39, as well as the effective participation and consultation of Indigenous women on these issues.
Given the various serious forms of intersectional discrimination that Indigenous women face, it is imperative to scale up the pressure on States and demand accountability in fulfilling their legal obligation to recognize, respect and protect Indigenous women's rights. This commitment must be consistently reflected in State human rights reporting, ensuring that Indigenous women's rights are fully acknowledged and addressed.
The Government of Nepal, for example, did not respond to any of the 15 recommendations made by CEDAW, including a constitutional amendment explicitly recognizing self-determination and the rights of Indigenous women, in its periodic report to CEDAW in 2023. The government report also made no mention of GR39.
Nepal is also one of many countries intensely pursuing numerous hydroelectric projects, many of which threaten Indigenous Peoples’ lands and lives and, as such, many Indigenous people are trying to oppose and rally against these projects. In 2023, armed police forces targeted their weapons specifically at the Tamang women who formed part of a demonstration demanding that the construction of an electricity substation on their land be stopped.
Indigenous women are very often targets of multiple forms of violence, including structural violence, which results in their being victimized by the circumstances of everyday life. Some of the forms of violence they face include sexual violence, gender-based killings, traditional harmful practices, domestic violence, violence in the context of conflict, tribal segregation and trafficking.
Too many reports in The Indigenous World year after year note these various forms of violence against Indigenous women and girls. In this edition, in India alone, the National Crime Records Bureau recorded a total of 1,347 cases of rape of Indigenous women and girls (some of which ended in death) in 2022, at the hands of civilians, security forces and government officials. In southern Ethiopia, extreme climate factors have dried up water sources and killed livestock, forcing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, including pastoralists, which has reportedly left women and girls in these displacement camps vulnerable to sexual violence, rape and forced marriage.
Indigenous women are also active Indigenous Peoples’ human rights defenders (IPHRDs). Facing not only many of the same challenges and threats as their male counterparts, women IPHRDs face additional risks and threats, such as sexual violence, harassment and, in some cases, discrimination within – and a lack of support from – their own communities. Figures on sexual violence remain indicative since cultural taboos, language and capacity barriers, and security concerns often prevent women from seeking justice.
Although Indigenous women and girls face enormous challenges and discrimination, they should not, however, be portrayed as victims. Indigenous women are active agents of change.
In 2023, in Naga (India), for example, Indigenous Naga women broke gender barriers when Salhoutuonuo Kruse and Hekani Jakhalu became the first women elected to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, with Kruse becoming the first Naga female minister.
Indigenous-led actions
Throughout 2023, there were several key wins and positive developments by Indigenous Peoples in their fight for their lands and self-determination.
In the United States, Native tribes fought to get several lands returned that have been taken from them. In Minnesota, the Upper Sioux Community got the Upper Sioux Agency State Park back, and the Winnebago Tribe, through a Congressional bill, will get land back in Iowa and Nebraska. In California, a USD 100 million (approx. EUR 91 million) grant programme was introduced for Native tribes to buy back lands lost from colonialization for the creation of cultural and conservation projects. Additionally, where lands could not be restored to Native tribe hands, co-management cooperative agreements – almost 200 of such in 2023 – with the federal government were announced.
In Australia, over 8,500 km2 of traditional lands, including the Twelve Apostles national icon, are back in Aboriginal hands. This marks the first native title determination in 10 years in Victoria state.
Indigenous communities in the Lower Omo River Valley in Ethiopia have taken ownership and management responsibility for the Tama Community Conservation Area (TCCA), the country’s largest community conservation area. These communities are now legally responsible for ensuring the sustainable use and preservation of the area’s ecological and cultural heritage. The TCCA covers an area of 197,000 hectares where communities will be allowed to engage in their agricultural and pastoral activities, managed by the communities themselves.
In Bolivia, Indigenous organizations were able, through large scale social mobilizations and public awareness campaigns, to reverse agreements made between the National Protected Areas Service (SERNAP) and the Mining Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM) to undertake activities within protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon. Additionally, a judge ordered that mining activities in several rivers and their tributaries in the Amazon should be stopped and that the AJAM should suspend contracts with mining operators in order to implement a process of consultation with Indigenous communities.
The first autonomous government in an Indigenous territory to obtain municipal jurisdiction in Bolivia was the Multiethnic Indigenous Territory (TIM). Bolivian President Luis Arce enacted Law No. 1497/2023 creating the TIM as a territorial jurisdiction in which the Indigenous government, elected in accordance with its Autonomous Statutes, will exercise all the powers assigned by the Constitution. Elections for the new TIM government took place in July.
Land rights: a continued future of strength and resilience at the heart of Indigenous recognition
Indigenous Peoples have proven to be very strong, resilient and able to defend themselves and, to some extent, their land.
They still occupy many of their ancestral territories; they maintain, to a large extent, their unique cultures, traditions, knowledge and languages; and they continue to act as guardians of much of the world’s remaining cultural and biological diversity.
They are no longer struggling in isolation but have organized themselves in a global movement supported by many allies; they have secured their rights in international law; they play active roles in major international processes affecting their rights and livelihoods; they have, through persistent advocacy, managed to receive favourable concluding observations from several international human rights mechanisms and secured important rights recognitions and language in declarations; and they have won important legal cases nationally and internationally.
These are all unique and important windows of opportunity that they have fought for and gained and which form the point of departure for the continued fight against land dispossession.
Dwayne Mamo
General Editor
Kathrin Wessendorf
Executive Director
Geneviève Rose
Head of Programmes
Copenhagen, March 2024
This article is part of the 38th 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 man harvesting quinoa in Sunimarka, Peru. This photo was taken by Pablo Lasansky, and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2024 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2024 in full here
Notes and references
[1] UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” 2007. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf
[2] International Labour Organization. “Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169).” 1989. https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:55:0::NO::P55_TYPE,P55_LANG,P55_DOCUMENT,P55_NODE:REV,en,C169,/Document
[3] E Fa, Julie, et al. “Importance of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for the conservation of Intact Forest Landscapes.” Ecological Society of America, 6 January 2020. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2148; and Veit, Peter G. “9 Facts about Community Land and Climate Mitigation.” World Resources Institute, October 2021. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-10/9-facts-about-community-land-and-climate-mitigation.pdf
[4] UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Special Report: Climate Change and Land.” https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/
[5] UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Fifth Assessment Report.” https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar5/
[6] Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “A/HRC/30/41: Indigenous women and girls: report.” 21 July 2015. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc3041-indigenous-women-and-girls-report
[7] Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “General recommendation No.39 (2022) on the rights of Indigenous women and girls”. OHCHR, 26 October 2022, https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-recommendation-no39-2022-rights-indigeneous
Tags: Land rights, Global governance
