The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) addresses in this report State obligations with regard to extraction, exploitation, and development activities concerning natural resources. Through the implementation of its monitoring mechanisms, the Commission has consistently received information evidencing the human, social, health, cultural and environmental impacts of these projects on i...

This yearbook gives a global update on the current situation of indigenous peoples and their human rights and provides an overview of the main developments that have affected indigenous women and men in the course of 2015. In 54 country specific reports and 12 articles on international processes, indigenous and non-indigenous activists, experts and scholars provide their insight and knowledge on r...

This desk study documents the adverse impacts on indigenous communities from coal mining in the regions of la Guajira and Cesar, home to 90 percent of Colombia's coal production as well as several indigenous peoples such as the Wayuu, Yukpa and Kogui. SUMMARY Colombia is home to more than 90 indigenous peoples, comprising some 1,374,000 inhabitants or 3.2% of the national population. Recog...

Eviction of Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral lands is one of the most destructive and degrading mitigation strategy performed by modern governments in developing countries to address climate change. Armed police and soldiers are used to forcefully evict indigenous peoples to pave the way for investors and conservation in the name of climate change mitigation. The advent of climate change...

Written by Robert K. Hitchcock, Ben Begbie-Clench & Ashton Murwira This report looks at the situation of the Tshwa San living in western Zimbabwe. Information on this small indigenous minority group has so far been limited. Due to unique social and cultural barriers, the Tshwa face a number of constraints and challenges that need to be dealt with. Based on an extensive survey, the objectiv...

The report explores the evictions of pastoralists and other conflicts over pastoralists’ land in Tanzania, with focus on the past decade. Although most of these evictions and land based conflicts have been documented, the associated human and legal rights violations have increasingly lead to concern amongst civil society. A study was therefore commissioned to collate the available informatio...

The fact that energy projects are green does not necessarily mean they accept and protect internationally-recognised human rights norms. This report documents the adverse impact of Kenya’s goal to develop its renewable energy sector on indigenous peoples. It looks particularly at the geothermal and wind energy sectors in Kenya and describes the human rights impacts of a number of green energ...

The global goals and targets for sustainable development have been adopted but indicators are still being formulated. Indicators define what will be measured, and thus how the goals and targets will be implemented. In this position paper Indigenous peoples point at some of their most central concerns on indicators, implementation and monitoring of the 2013 development agenda. This Paper is ela...

In the Philippines, diversity within commonality among indigenous peoples is in itself a very complicated situation. Moreover, indigenous peoples understand their rights enshrined in laws more as violations than enjoyment, while local State authorities find difficulty in bridging the gap of addressing the development aspirations of the indigenous peoples with that of “national unity and developm...

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007. Since then, the importance of the role that indigenous peoples play in economic, social and environmental conservation through traditional sustainable agricultural practices has been gradually recognized. Consistent with the mandate to eradicate hunger, poverty and malnut...

In early 2013, a working group under the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights undertook research on the human rights situation of indigenous peoples in Tanzania. For the duration of two weeks, a delegation formed by the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities met with representatives of ministries, embassies, UN agencies, international and local NGOs, including indigen...

Seven years after the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, The Indigenous World 2015 looks at the most significant developments and setbacks for indigenous peoples’ rights at the national and international level during the previous year and at indigenous peoples’ assessments of possible ways forward. With 69 articles and country reports, this edition of The In...

The success of the Post-2015 sustainable development goals (SDGs) will depend on the adoption of indicators that allow measuring progress towards targets and provide helpful information to policymakers. In preparation for the March 3-6, 2015 discussions at the UN in New York, the UN Statistical Commission compiled recommendations from the UN system. We applaud the inclusion of land rights indic...

In early 2015, Maasai and Datoga citizens living in the Morogoro region of Tanzania were victims of deadly, ethnic violence. According to reports from local media, the assaults were instigated by public figures interested in acquiring land, and state authorities have not intervened to protect Maasai citizens. Police protection has instead been given to others who are illegally cultivating official...

The book addresses cases from each of these continents, examining the experiences of indigenous peoples with access to remedy when their human rights are affected by corporate activities. By drawing from these experiences it seeks to inform the actions of corporate and State actors in relation their business and human rights obligation to ensure that indigenous peoples have access to effective rem...

The present study aims to assess the poverty levels of the various indigenous groups in Nepal. It was developed to address the lack of existing disaggregated data and statistics on the socio-economic status of Nepal’s many indigenous groups. By presenting data on a broad set of socio-economic indicators for the many indigenous groups in Nepal and comparing this with data on other major caste and...

This diverse collection of essays and articles emerged from a workshop held in Oslo in March 2012, hosted by the Norwegian Center for Human Rights and the University of Oslo. The purpose of the workshop was to gather memories of how the international community had decided to examine the situation of Indigenous peoples, to explore, explain and celebrate their pioneering work within the United Natio...

This technical briefing authored by a number of international organizations working on food security, natural resources management and poverty eradication and endorsed by many local civil society organisations around the world strongly encourage governments to keep the profile of land and natural resources high in the document on sustainable development goals to be endorsed in September 2015. ...

Indigenous peoples perspectives and recommendations to the subsidiary body for scientific and technological advice (SBSTA). AIPP Submission on Methodological Issues Related to Non-Carbon Benefits Resulting from the Implementation of REDD+ Activities. March 26, 2014

AIPP Submission to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) on Safeguards Information System.

This book includes 20 case studies of World Heritage sites from around the world and relevant background articles. The case studies explore and document, from a human rights perspective, indigenous peoples’ experiences with World Heritage sites and with the processes of the World Heritage Convention. They also identify recurring concerns and systemic shortcomings in the implementation of the Con...

Women – both indigenous and non-indigenous – have actively engaged in international and national REDD+ processes to raise their concerns regarding the potential negative impact of REDD+ on women, and to assert their right to equally participate in negotiations, planning and implementation of REDD+. Indigenous women share many of the basic concerns and needs with their non-indigenous sister...

In this research report anthropologist Steeve Daviau examines how well the international aid community in Lao has done in ensuring that their workplaces are diverse and representative of the many ethnic groups in the country. The overall goal of the research is to assist aid organizations in Laos to critically assess and improve their stated values, attitudes and actual progress in becoming inc...

This report examines the human rights situation of the 41 indigenous peoples living in the Northern and Asian territories of the Russian Federation. While their historical homelands account for two-thirds of the territory of contemporary Russia, these people number a little over 250,000 individuals in total. This is the equivalent of a medium-sized city stretched out over the better part of th...

This briefing note presents the findings of seven case studies conducted from May to June 2014. The studies were conducted in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal and Thailand and looked into the livelihood and food security among indigenous shifting cultivation communities in South and Southeast Asia. The briefing note provides a summary of the main findings of the case studies...