Law of Nations-Moral Standing

IACHR rapporteurship urges respect for rights of Indigenous peoples.

PRESS RELEASE
N° 34/08

IACHR RAPPORTEURSHIP URGES RESPECT FOR RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Washington, D.C., August 8, 2008—On the eve of the International Day of
the World’s Indigenous People, the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
through its Rapporteur, Commissioner Víctor Abramovich, urges the OAS
Member States to ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples are respected
and guaranteed, especially their rights to lands, territory, and
natural resources, and to participation and consultation.

The Inter-American Commission views with concern the frequency of
social conflicts and acts of violence associated with disputes over
indigenous peoples’ lands, territories, and natural resources. These situations
of conflict normally arise because the States do not guarantee due
protections of indigenous territories, nor do they guarantee indigenous
peoples the right to participate in decision-making about the activities
that affect their rights.

Given the situation faced by indigenous peoples in the Americas, the
IACHR, through its Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is
preparing a thematic study on the scope of the right to consultation
and its connection with the right to land, territory, and access to
natural resources. The Commission invites representatives of indigenous
peoples, civil society, the States, and academic institutions to present
applications for thematic hearings and offer other contributions to the
Rapporteurship’s study.

The IACHR reminds the States that international human rights law
specifically recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands,
territory, and natural resources. Case law in the inter-American human
rights system has further reaffirmed the States’ obligation to consult with
indigenous peoples regarding any economic activity or project that may
affect their lands and natural resources, including such cases in
which the State seeks to exploit subsoil resources. The right to
consultation encompasses the positive duty of the States to make available
appropriate and effective mechanisms to obtain prior, free, and informed
consent, in accordance with indigenous peoples’ customs and traditions,
before undertaking activities that may have an impact on their interests
or could affect their rights to their lands, territory, or natural
resources.

Along the same lines, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples recognizes “the urgent need to respect and promote
the inherent rights of indigenous peoples which derive from their
political, economic and social structures and from their cultures, spiritual
traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to their
lands, territories and resources.” It also holds that States “shall
consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned
through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their
free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project
affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in
connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral,
water or other resources.”

The Inter-American Commission considers it urgent that States undertake
the necessary efforts to comply with the recommendations of the IACHR
and the judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that have
to do with indigenous peoples and their special relationship with the
land and natural resources, and most of all with their right to be
consulted about any measure or activity that may affect those rights.

The IACHR created the Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples in 1990 to focus on the hemisphere’s indigenous peoples who are
especially exposed to human rights violations, as well as to strengthen,
advance, and systematize the work of the Inter-American Commission in this
area. The Rapporteur, on behalf of the Commission, will continue to
closely monitor developments on this issue throughout the Americas.