A/70/301
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on
the rights of indigenous peoples on the impact of international
investment and free trade on the human rights of indigenous peoples
Summary
The present report is submitted to the General Assembly by the Special
Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples pursuant to her mandate under
Human Rights Council resolution 27/13. In the report, the Special Rapporteur
provides a summary of her activities since her last report to the General Assembly.
She dedicates the thematic section of the present report to an analysis of international
investment agreements and investment clauses of free trade regimes and their
impacts on the rights of indigenous peoples. She views the present report as the
starting point for that issue, which she intends to be of continuing importance
throughout the course of her mandate.
As a starting point for her ongoing work on international investment and free
trade regimes, the report discusses a number of areas of concern, relating both to
direct violations of the rights of indigenous peoples and the systemic impact of those
regimes on their lives and communities.
The Special Rapporteur contends that investment clauses of free trade
agreements and bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, as they are currently
conceptualized and implemented, have actual and potential negative impacts on
indigenous peoples’ rights, in particular on their rights to self -determination; lands,
territories and resources; participation; and free, prior and informed consent. That is
not to suggest that investments are inherently destructive. Future studies will focus
on how investment agreements can be equally beneficial for indi genous peoples and
investors.
The present report highlights her analysis of the unjust elements of the
prevailing system of global economic and financial governance and the constriction
of the protective capacity of States and local governance systems. It discusses how
indigenous peoples, as some of the most marginalized in the world, bear a
disproportionate burden of a system that contains systemic imbalances between the
enforcement of corporate investors’ rights and human rights. The report concludes
that both a more thorough review of implications of international investment and free
trade agreements and deeper policy and systemic reforms are needed to ensure the
respect, protection and fulfilment of indigenous peoples’ rights.
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