Indigenous Peoples' Rights

In this Auto, the Court was gravely concerned with the threat that internal displacement posed to the existence of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia. The Court attributed this threat to three main factors: (1) rupture of structures and community disintegration; (2) culture shock outside of their ancestral lands; (3) getting caught in the middle of the violence. 

The authors, Indigenous Peoples of the Torres Strait Islands, brought a petition against Australia for violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The petitioners argued that Australia’s insufficient climate action violated their human rights, under ICCPR Articles 6 (right to life), 17 (right to private, family and home life) 24(1) (right of the child to protective measures), and 27 (right to culture). 

The claimants in this action are the Ogale and Bille communities in Rivers State, Nigeria, representing approximately 50,000 individuals. The claimants allege widespread environmental damage, including groundwater contamination, as the result of oil spills by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). The two defendants are Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS), the UK parent company, and SPDC, a Nigerian-registered subsidiary of RDS.