EMRIP Submission for the Call for Input for the Study on ‘the rights of Indigenous Peoples in conflict and post-conflict situations’

This joint submission by International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India, Indian Alliance Paris, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact and International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs is in pursuance of informing the EMRIP’s report on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations, to be presented to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-third session in September 2026. The submission draws upon state reports, investigative reportage by local journalists, civil society fact-finding missions, and consultation with activists and legal workers in the region.

There is a long and distinctive history of India’s Indigenous Adivasi peoples’ resistance movements to protect their stewardship of jal, jangal, jameen [waters, forests, lands] and sustainable livelihoods from rapacious deforestation, displacement and industrialization in the name of ‘development’. The associated rights of Indigenous Peoples/Adivasis (meaning ‘first inhabitants’) to their lands, natural resources and customary practices are safeguarded in the provisions of the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. This submission details the specific and prolonged form of state intervention – ‘developmental violence’ – used by the Indian state to suppress the Adivasi/Indigenous Peoples’ efforts to assert their identity, autonomy and rights to land and resources through justice-based peacebuilding efforts, in particular in the Bastar Division in the state of Chhattisgarh, where a conflict situation has impacted the lives of the Adivasi/Indigenous Peoples ever since the state’s formation in 2000. The aims of this approach are territorial control and resource appropriation, a policy described as ‘clear, build, hold’ by the Indian government.