Volume X of the compilation of United Nations human rights treaty bodies’ jurisprudence on Indigenous Peoples covers the period of 2023-2024. It also contains the advice of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), the observations and recommendations of selected Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council (e.g., Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups), and a few other mechanisms under the Human Rights Council.
The case law of the various UN Committees is noteworthy. Most of it positively addresses Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including in relation to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). For example, consistent with the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women’s (CEDAW) General Recommendation No. 39, the Committee of the Rights of the Child (CRC) decided that it will read the Convention on the Rights of the Child “in the light of the evolutionary interpretation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, in particular, the [UNDRIP], as an authoritative framework for interpreting State party obligations under the Convention concerning Indigenous peoples’ rights….” This further supports EMRIP’s conclusion that UNDRIP is “a contextualised elaboration of general human rights principles” and the standards affirmed therein “connect to existing State obligations under international human rights law….”
