Indigenous Peoples' Rights

Primary tabs

We marked International Women´s Day and Women´s History Month with a global call for an all-agreed fair Social Pact on Care. We started advocating for this 3 years ago when Covid-19 exacerbated the global care crisis. Since then our members have continued to multiply our actions to highlight the need to put care at the center of the political agendas globally.

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). 

There is no denying that the historical and present responsibility for the climate crisis lies primarily with wealthy, highly industrialized countries and powerful corporate actors. Despite contributing the least to the climate crisis, frontline communities in the Global South are paying the price with the destruction of their territories and the erasure of their cultural heritage.

Between 13-29 March 2022, intersessional meetings were held in Geneva ahead of COP15, an upcoming major United Nations biodiversity summit. Ahead of these preparatory talks amongst States, ESCR-Net members sent a collective letter calling on all Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to adopt a human-rights based approach overall, and in particular to recognize, respect, protect and promote the overarching right to self-determination, including free, prior and informed consent, the right to land and tenure rights in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF), which is currently being negotiated and likely to be adopted at COP15. It further called on governments to adopt a ‘land tenure indicator’ as well as emphasized the importance of strengthening protections for human rights defenders.

Ahead of upcoming intersessional meetings in Geneva in March 2022, ESCR-Net members have adopted a...

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.

"For too long, brutal and illegal evictions have been terrorizing communities, even during a pandemic that requires us to stay at home for public health reasons. We therefore demand an end to all evictions in our cities. We demand an end to all land dispossession, utilities cut offs

...

In Lhaka Honhat v. Argentina, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held that Argentina violated its obligations under Article 1.1 of the American...

Indigenous community members from the Lhaka Honhat Association sued Argentina on behalf of 132 Indigenous communities belonging to the Wichí (Mataco), Iyjwaja (Chorote), Komlek (Toba), Niwackle (Chulupí), and Tapy'y (Tapiete) peoples who live on lots with the cadastral registrations 175 and 5557 in the Province of Salta (previously known as and referred to in the case as lots 14 and 55).

The complaint was initiated against GVL in October 2012 before the RSPO. The Complaints Panel’s first decision in the case was on December 13, 2012, finding that the complaints had merit and issuing a Stop Order against GVL. Beginning in 2013, GVL was required to file quarterly reports on its activities in Liberia, including its efforts to improve its operations and to comply with later decisions from the RSPO.