IWGIA's submission on the Congo Brazzaville country report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples
45th regular session of the Human Rights Council
14 September to 6 October 2020
Item 3
Interactive dialogue with SR on the rights of indigenous peoples
24th of September 2020
IWGIA's submission on the Congo Brazzaville country report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/45/34/Add.1
The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) welcomes the country report on Congo Brazzaville made by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. The report gives an excellent overview of the legal and policy frameworks for indigenous peoples in Congo Brazzaville and of the dire situation that indigenous peoples in the country are facing. IWGIA also considers the recommendations provided to the government and civil society in Congo Brazzaville – and to international donors and conservations agencies -. extremely relevant and hopes they will be fully implemented.
While references are made in the report to the previous UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of indigenous Peoples country visit to Congo Brazzaville, no references are made to previous visits made to Congo Brazzaville by the regional African human rights system.
IWGIA would like to call the attention of the Special Rapporteur to the work of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The mandate of the Working Group is to gather, request, receive and exchange information and communications from all relevant sources; undertake country visits to study the human rights situation of indigenous populations/communities; formulate recommendations to prevent and remedy violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous populations/communities and to co-operate with other international and regional human rights mechanisms, institutions and organizations.
In accordance with this mandate, the Working Group has made several visits to Congo Brazzaville and produced reports and recommendations regarding the human rights situation of Indigenous peoples in the country[1]. The outgoing chair of the Working Group Commissioner Ms Soyata Maiga has also been on several other regular trips and missions to Congo Brazzaville and had dialogue with the authorities.
IWGIA believes that the report on Congo Brazzaville of the UNSR would have benefited from considering the recommendations made by the WG-ACHPR, thus linking the UN and the African human rights system more closely together.
Therefore, we will would like to recommend that the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples increases his cooperation with the African Commission and its Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities, including by liaising with the Commission in relation with country missions to Africa and taking into account its existing reports and recommendations..
[1] https://www.iwgia.org/en/resources/publications/305-books/2542-mission-to-the-republic-of-congo.html
