UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). 23nd session
Agenda item 4. Discussion on the six mandated areas of the Permanent Forum (economic and social development, culture, environment, education, health and human rights), with reference to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Statement by The Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI)
Report on Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights
Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) would like to congratulate Permanent Forum experts Naw Ei Ei Min and Rodrigo Paillalef for the report submitted for this UNPFII session on criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ human rights. We believe the report is a very valuable contribution on a topic on which our organization is particularly focused and to which we think the Permanent Forum should pay continuous attention. As reported by Indigenous Peoples’ institutions and organizations, UN human rights mechanism and civil society organizations, criminalization and violence against Indigenous Peoples when we exercise our human rights seems to be increasing, including reprisals against Indigenous Peoples’ representatives participating in the sessions of the Permanent Forum itself.
Criminalization and violence against Indigenous Peoples defenders has been described as a ‘global crisis.’ [1]Urgent action is needed to respond to this situation.
As described in the report, criminalization can be understood as the result of structural racism and discrimination, pervasive in many countries. It is also manifested in the denial of the mere existence of Indigenous Peoples, and in the non-existent or inadequate recognition of their fundamental rights, including their right to self-determination, their rights to their lands, territories and resources and their cultural rights, among others. In some cases, Indigenous Peoples’ economic practices, culture and religious beliefs are considered criminal behaviour and thus repressed and persecuted.
Indigenous Peoples are also subjected to criminalization through the misuse of the State’s punitive power, including police and judiciary. They are used to enforce the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ exercise of their fundamental human rights, including the right to peaceful assembly and protest. Criminalization is combined with violence, repression and denial of access to justice, commonly accompanied by misinformation and stigmatization and slander campaigns. These are directed against Indigenous Peoples in general and against Indigenous human rights defenders in particular, who are without legitimate justification accused of serious crimes, including being termed as ‘seditionist’ or ‘terrorist.’ The results are well known, including a tragic toll of deaths, arbitrary arrests and incarcerations, unfair convictions, enforced disappearances, forced displacements and other gross violations of human rights.
The report stresses the occurrence of criminalization in the context of industrial developments taking place in Indigenous Peoples’ lands without their free, prior and informed consent. IPRI has documented and denounced many such instances, in all the regions of the world, and shares the concerns expressed in the report on the potential increase in criminalization linked to mercantilization of measures adopted to combat climate change, including mining of transition minerals. We have also documented and supported Indigenous human rights defenders and their communities that are facing criminalization and violence in the context of conservation, including the establishment of protected areas, World Heritage sites and similar so-called conservation initiatives affecting their lands and territories.
All actors involved in these kinds of activities should be well aware of the risks that their actions may provoke in terms of criminalization and violence. States must develop preventive and protective measures in all related legislation, policies and projects, always respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights to effective participation in decision making and their free prior and informed consent, and all involved parties, including business and civil society organizations, must make sure that no criminalization or violence against Indigenous Peoples is promoted or arises from their activities.
We share the view expressed in the report that current measures adopted in several States for the protection of human rights defenders do not adequately take into account the specific rights and needs of Indigenous Peoples, including the need to understand the collective dimension of criminalization as it usually has dual character. This results in gaps in protection, increasing the risks to Indigenous defenders, their peoples and communities.
The legal review included in the report shows that international human rights bodies have already developed some jurisprudence and have made various recommendations to member States calling for an end to violence and criminalization against Indigenous Peoples. That these issues are regularly addressed by the Committee Against Torture attests to their serious nature. More can be done by all these bodies, however, and we urge the entire UN system to focus more attention on them. Also, court decisions, including by regional human rights courts, and the recommendations and of various UN treaty bodies and mechanisms must be implemented by States with due diligence and in full collaboration with Indigenous Peoples.
In this context, IPRI would like to support the recommendations contained in the report. We encourage the UNPFII to take up those recommendations in their dialogues with Member States and with the Inter Agency Support Group to achieve the adoption of definite and concrete measures to end the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples and repair the damage, sometimes inter-generational that has been caused. States must fulfil their human rights obligations in this regard. In this sense, UN agencies have a privileged position to work with Indigenous Peoples and Governments at the country level to ensure the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ and their human rights defenders on the ground.
We will comment on specific actions recommended in the report when the future work of the UNPFII is discussed.
Thank you, Madam Chair
[1] A/HRC/39/17
