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Ability of associations to access financial resources as a vital part of the right to freedom of association & Ability to hold peaceful assemblies as an integral component of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly 2013, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- This has also been the case for peaceful protestors advocating economic, social and cultural rights, such as indigenous peoples protesting the exploitation of a coal mine (Bangladesh), local residents denouncing the health impact of nuclear power plants (India), students protesting university reforms (Chile), employees protesting the closure of a mine (Myanmar), activists criticizing the increase in fuel prices (Sri Lanka) or students supporting an ethnic group forcibly displaced by the construction of a dam (Sudan).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- Activists
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Access and participation of women and girls in education, training and science and technology, including for the promotion of women's equal access to full employment and decent work 2011, para. 22ss
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions, as appropriate:] [Making science and technology responsive to women's needs]: Respect, preserve and maintain women's traditional knowledge and innovation while recognizing the potential of rural and indigenous women to contribute to the production of science and technology and of new knowledge to improve their lives and those of their families and communities;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Environment
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The following examples illustrate the positive role played by regional human rights mechanisms. In the case Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council v. Kenya, the Endorois, a primarily pastoralist indigenous community, were removed from their lands by the Government of Kenya to establish a wildlife reserve. The African Commission found Kenya to have violated articles 8, 14, 17, 21 and 22 of the African Charter. The Commission noted that, as a consequence of its removal, the community had been "relegated to semi-arid land", which was unsuitable for pastoralism. The ability to graze animals, a key means of subsistence for the community, had become impossible as a result of loss of their land and this threatened the community's survival.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- In its case SERAC v. Nigeria, the African Commission held that the treatment by Nigeria of the Ogoni indigenous community violated the right to food implied in the African Charter. In their statement to the African Commission, the NGOs submitting the claim contended that: "the Nigerian government ... destroyed and threatened Ogoni food sources through a variety of means. The government ... participated in irresponsible oil development that poisoned much of the soil and water upon which Ogoni farming and fishing depended. In their raids on villages, Nigerian security forces have destroyed crops and killed farm animals. The security forces have created a state of terror and insecurity that ... made it impossible for many Ogoni villagers to return to their fields and animals. The destruction of farm lands, rivers, crops and animals created malnutrition and starvation among certain Ogoni communities."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Development-induced displacement is an increasingly widespread phenomenon with devastating impact. An estimated 15 million people each year are forced to relocate and resettle as a result of such interventions. Despite some of the more recent efforts to highlight land dispossession, as yet global institutions have been unable to discourage the practices and processes that undermine land rights, prevent equitable access and establish the context for large and small-scale displacements. The expanding mining sector has contributed to strong economic growth in some countries, with mining and oil concessions dramatically increasing in countries. The industry has however also generated social conflict in many States, particularly in rural areas, with mining activities coming into direct competition with small-scale agriculture. Indigenous peoples are particularly vulnerable as they are often forced to leave their land and sources of livelihood. A lack of engagement and opportunities for participation in decisions that affect their lives has left many communities in situations of dire poverty and without access to adequate food and nutrition.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- One billion people are hungry today. For the vast majority - smallholders or agricultural workers, herders, artisanal fisherfolk and members of indigenous communities - access to land is a condition for the achievement of a decent standard of living. The reason why approximately 500 million people depending on small-scale agriculture are hungry is not only that the price they receive for their crops is too low and they are less competitive than larger production units, but also that they cultivate plots that are often very small - which makes the vast majority of them net food buyers - and they are often relegated to soils that are arid, hilly or without irrigation as they compete against larger productive units for access to land and water. Whether because small-scale farming has become non-viable or because they have been expelled from the land in the absence of effective security of tenure, many such farmers become agricultural workers on large-scale plantations, where they are often paid lower than subsistence wages and left without social or legal protection. Artisanal fisherfolk pastoralists and agro-pastoralists now face a similar threat: as land becomes scarcer, they increasingly risk being excluded from the fishing and grazing grounds on which they have been able to rely for generations. And the precarious position of indigenous peoples and forest-dwelling populations may be attributed in particular to the increased pressure on the forests on which they depend for their livelihoods.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- For some of the groups that are the most vulnerable today, this means protecting existing access to land, water, grazing or fishing grounds, or forests, all of which may be productive resources essential for a decent livelihood. In such cases, as detailed below, the right to food may complement the protection of the right to property or of indigenous peoples' relationship with their lands, territories, and resources. In other cases, because landlessness is a cause of particular vulnerability, the obligation of the State goes further: it is to strengthen such access or make it possible - for example, through redistributive programmes that may in turn result in restrictions on others' right to property. This obligation of States is especially clear in cases in which the members of such groups have no alternative means of producing food or gaining sufficient income to purchase food that is sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Indigenous peoples are increasingly victims of the exploitation of natural resources on their lands, which are often regarded as belonging to the State. The demarcation of their lands and territories is a lengthy process that includes many obstacles. Participation is generally lacking. Yet, International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169, concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries, which entered into force in 1991, provides for a number of guarantees related to land. Although the Convention has been insufficiently ratified, that has been compensated for in part through the adoption on 13 September 2007 by the General Assembly, in its resolution 61/295, of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which contributes to the formation of international customary law on this issue. The Declaration provides, in its article 8 (2) (b), that States should prohibit "any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing [indigenous peoples] of their lands, territories or resources", a requirement that replicates article 18 of ILO Convention No. 169. It also prohibits, in its article 10, any forcible removal of indigenous peoples from their lands or territories, imposing the requirements of free, prior and informed consent, agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, the option of return (for relocations).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- In addition, the right of all peoples to freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources - as provided for in article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 16 December 1966 and in article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966 - entails the protection of indigenous peoples from certain forms of dispossession from their territories or from the resources on which they depend. Article 5 (d) (v) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination also protects the right of indigenous communities to their lands. And the right of indigenous peoples to the official recognition and registration of their territories has been affirmed under relevant regional human rights instruments. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights consider that indigenous people's traditional possession of their lands has effects equivalent to those of a State-granted full property title: therefore, where members of indigenous peoples have unwillingly lost possession of their lands after a lawful transfer to innocent third parties, they are entitled to the restitution thereof or to obtain other lands of equal extension and quality. The right of indigenous communities to their lands includes the right to the natural resources contained therein. Property, as protected under article 21 of the American Convention on Human Rights, is considered to constitute a collective right of indigenous people, since land ownership is often centred not on the individual, but rather on the group and its community. Thus, States may have to recognize the customary systems of land tenure that protect communal property rights - for example, by giving the community a right to veto the alienation of its land by one of its constituent members, whether an individual or a clan, village or tribe.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- International human rights law protects the relationship of indigenous communities with their lands, territories and resources by requiring States to demarcate such land, protect it from encroachment and respect the right of the communities concerned to manage it according to their internal modes of organization. Although sometimes those guarantees seem to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance, case law shows that use rights derived from customary tenure can be recognized and protected by the legal system; it also shows that the right to communal property - a right of the community rather than of the individual - is an alternative to individual property rights. On both counts, it can serve as a source of inspiration, in order to enhance the protection of the rights of other users of natural resources.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- For these groups, the existence of commons is vital. As noted by the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, in some legal cultures, community-based ownership of natural resources such as grazing lands, forests, water, fisheries and surface minerals is a traditional and effective way to grant control and proprietary rights to persons who have little or no other property. Such systems should be both recognized and fully protected against arbitrary seizure. Indeed, under existing international law, the requirements applicable to indigenous peoples may have to be extended to at least certain traditional communities that entertain a similar relationship with their ancestral lands, centred on the community rather than on the individual. That would encourage the management of common-pool resources at the local level by the communities directly concerned, rather than through top-down prescriptions or privatization of the commons. When such arrangements are institutionalized, the decentralized management of common-pool resources, recognizing their function as collective goods, is recognized as highly effective. Those negotiating the modalities of the use of the commons have the best information about its carrying capacity, and thus about uses that are sustainable, and the users have strong incentives to monitor the use of the commons and to report infractions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 40c
- Paragraph text
- [In order to respect the right to food, States should:] Respect the needs of special groups. States should implement the specific rights of indigenous peoples by demarcating their lands and territories and by providing them with specific protection. States should also protect access to fishing grounds, grazing grounds and water points for fisherfolk, herders and pastoralists, for whom the protection of commons is vital. The recognition of communal rights should extend beyond indigenous communities, at least to certain communities that entertain a similar relationship with the land, centred on the community rather than on the individual;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 43a (ii)
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur also makes the following recommendations to the international community:] Establish adequate governance instruments to operationalize the commitments set out in the Final Declaration of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. The Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources could make a significant contribution, provided that they: Provide for the systematic and comprehensive interpretation of existing provisions of international human rights and environmental law that protect the rights of land users in all categories, whether indigenous peoples or other rural groups such as peasants, pastoralists and fisherfolk. The international recognition of the rights of these groups is scattered among various instruments and lacks systematic interpretation. The FAO Committee on World Food Security could also play an important role by: a. Establishing a mechanism for follow-up to the Conference commitments; b. Commissioning an independent review by the Committee's High-level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of best practices in agrarian reform;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- The diversity of species on farms managed following agroecological principles, as well as in urban or peri-urban agriculture, is an important asset in this regard. For example, it has been estimated that indigenous fruits contribute on average about 42 per cent of the natural food-basket that rural households rely on in southern Africa. This is not only an important source of vitamins and other micronutrients, but it also may be critical for sustenance during lean seasons. Nutritional diversity, enabled by increased diversity in the field, is of particular importance to children and women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), cancellations or alleged violations of contracts and revocation or denial of licences are among the most commonly challenged State actions,with approximately 30 per cent of all settlements relating to the extractive and energy industries, which account for most new investments. The majority of such cases are taken against States with significant populations of indigenous peoples in whose territories the exploited mineral, energy or forest resources are located.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Indigenous peoples' territorial and property rights are sui generis in nature, encompassing the territories and resources that they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired, including the right to own, use, develop and control resources. Those collective rights exist irrespective of State titles and are premised on: their status as self-determining peoples entitled to the lands and resources necessary for their physical and cultural survival; their customary land tenure regimes; and long-term possession of ancestral territories.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- This power imbalance is generally mirrored in the relationship between institutions established to protect indigenous peoples' rights and those responsible for promoting and facilitating natural resource exploitation. Therefore, even in jurisdictions with advanced legal frameworks, deep-rooted structural discrimination and vested interests can render ineffective the legal protections afforded to indigenous peoples.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The standards of a growing number of multi-stakeholder initiatives include respect for indigenous peoples' rights, as affirmed under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and consequently require free, prior and informed consent prior to approving or undertaking an investment. Some extractive industry bodies and companies sourcing palm oil, sugar, soy and other resources have also made policy progress towards the recognition of rights recognized in the Declaration, including the requirement for such consent, as has the United Nations Global Compact. Those developments reflect the general acknowledgement by transnational corporations of their responsibility to respect indigenous peoples' rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur's research reveals an alarming number of cases in the mining, oil and gas, hydroelectric and agribusiness sectors whereby foreign investment projects have resulted in serious violations of indigenous peoples' land, self-governance and cultural rights. Those violations, which can extend to crimes against humanity, have been addressed extensively in the recommendations and jurisprudence of international and regional human rights bodies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Typically, the host States involved employ economic development policies aimed at the exploitation of energy, mineral, land or other resources that are predominantly located in the territories of indigenous peoples. The government agencies responsible for implementing those policies regard such lands and resources as available for unhindered exploitation and actively promote them as such abroad to generate capital inflows. Recognition of indigenous peoples' rights in the domestic legal framework is either non-existent, inadequate or not enforced. Where they exist, institutions mandated to uphold indigenous peoples' rights are politically weak, unaccountable or underfunded. Indigenous peoples lack access to remedies in home and host States and are forced to mobilize, leading to criminalization, violence and deaths. They experience profound human rights violations as a result of impacts on their lands, livelihoods, cultures, development options and governance structures, which, in some cases, threaten their very cultural and physical survival. Projects are stalled and there is a trend towards investor-State dispute settlements related to fair and equitable treatment, full protection and security and expropriation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Despite significant developments in the recognition of indigenous peoples' rights and safeguards under international human rights law, investment in those sectors is generating "increasing and ever more widespread effects on indigenous peoples' lives" as the legal vacuum arising from the lack of recognition or enforcement of their land rights facilitates arbitrary land expropriation, enabling national and local officials to make those lands available for investment projects. At the same time, the vast majority of those lands are protected under international investment agreements, and related investor-State dispute settlement disputes in agribusiness and extractive sectors are expected in Africa and Asia, while in Latin America there is a growing number of claims concerning settlements in relation to such activities in or near indigenous territories.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- International human rights law and international investment agreements play significant roles in governing the behaviour of host States in relation to resource extraction in or near indigenous peoples' territories. Agreements serve to protect and regulate property rights of investors related to the exploitation or use of land and resources. Those rights can come into direct conflict with the pre-existing - but not necessarily formally recognized and titled - inherent customary law and possession-based property rights of indigenous peoples protected under international human rights law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- In order to address the perverse situation that arises when indigenous peoples are prevented from realizing their land and resource rights owing to protections afforded to investors, a former Special Rapporteur has stressed: That resolving [indigenous peoples'] land rights issues should at all times take priority over commercial development. There needs to be recognition not only in law but also in practice of the prior right of traditional communities. The idea of prior right being granted to a mining or other business company rather than to a community that has held and cared for the land over generations must be stopped, as it brings the whole system of protection of human rights of indigenous peoples into disrepute.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- In some cases, international investment agreements, and measures deemed necessary to facilitate their implementation, have triggered large-scale conflict and significant loss of life. On 1 January 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect and triggered privatization of indigenous peoples' communal lands, the Zapatista National Liberation Army, composed of indigenous peoples from Chiapas, initiated an armed rebellion, calling the Agreement a "death sentence" for indigenous peoples.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Some 14 years later, the free trade agreement between the United States and Peru was used as a pretext for a series of neo-liberal legislative decrees, 10 of which had seriously negative implications for Amazonian indigenous peoples' territorial rights. The refusal of the Government of Peru to accept proposals made by indigenous peoples triggered mobilization, resulting in the tragic deaths of 30 people when the military was deployed in response.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- In the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes case Burlington Resources Inc. v. Ecuador (2010) the oil and gas company claimed that Ecuador had failed to meet its obligations to give its operations full protection and security against indigenous peoples' opposition and at times violent protests. The State argued that the indigenous peoples' actions had been a case of force majeure and did not address the issue of indigenous peoples' rights in its defence. The security aspect of the claim was rejected on procedural grounds without addressing the indigenous rights issues. The case was also subject to parallel consideration by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights . In 2012, the Court ruled that the failure to consult the indigenous peoples and obtain their free, prior and informed consent, and the use of force by the State, had put the indigenous peoples' survival at risk.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- In Chevron v. Ecuador (2014), the company took a series of arbitration cases to avoid paying damages awarded by Ecuadorian courts in 2011. The $8.6 billion award followed a class action suit addressing harms suffered by indigenous peoples as a result of environmental contamination. The case demonstrates the extremely broad and potentially indigenous rights-denying interpretation of "investment" as including a lawsuit in domestic courts and payments to affected people arising from the lack of remediation. Precautionary measures were subsequently sought from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights seeking to prevent any action arising from the investor-State dispute settlement award that would contravene, undermine, or threaten the human rights of the concerned indigenous communities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- In Glamis Gold v. United States (2009), an arbitration panel found against the company, which had been refused access to a sacred area of the Quechan tribal nation. The decision hinged on the tribunal's position that its role was to assess if the customary international law standard of fair and equitable treatment had been breached and not to assess if the State had fairly balanced the competing rights of the Quechan nation and the company. It held that the State had been justified in relying upon the opinion of the professionals it had engaged and that, as the investor's expectations had not been induced by the State in a quasi-contractual manner, they did not trigger a treaty breach. The decision also pointed to the significance of the highly regulated environment in California with respect to environmental measures in general and mineral exploration in particular, which should have tempered the investor's expectations. The tribunal accepted the Quechan amicus submission but did not engage with its argument that international human rights law as it pertained to indigenous peoples was applicable in the case.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- In the Permanent Court of Arbitration case South American Silver Mining v. the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the company is seeking $387 million for the alleged expropriation of 10 mining concessions and violations of fair and equitable treatment, pursuant to the bilateral investment treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The company holds that it made legitimate efforts with the communities to achieve an overall consent and that opposition to the project is from a small group of illegal miners and certain indigenous organizations, with the Government fomenting conflict. It argues that the communities have repeatedly requested it to move forward with the project, and alleges that the Plurinational State of Bolivia failed to provide full protection and security, noting its "patently unreasonable" decision not to prosecute indigenous leaders, given the implications for its investment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Analysis of the impacts of international investment agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples 2016, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- In the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes case Bear Creek Mining Corp. v. Peru, the company is claiming over $500 million for alleged indirect expropriation, lack of fair and equitable treatment, discrimination and lack of full protection and security for its presumptive mining rights at the Santa Ana concession, under the free trade agreement between Peru and Canada. The claim was made following indigenous peoples' protests, which gave rise to the withdrawal of its mining concession.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph