Prior Consultation and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2015

By Emma Banks

Vanderbilt University

Between April 20-May 1, the United Nations hosted its fourteenth annual Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.  Representatives from state institutions, NGOs, indigenous advocacy groups, and other organizations from around the world gathered to discuss the future of indigenous people, and how the UN can incorporate the diverse indigenous agenda in its programs and policies.    This year was an especially important meeting as the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire this year, and will be replaced by a new set of fifteen-year goals, which will be called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The MDGs made no explicit mention of indigenous peoples, but the UN has since recognized the importance of indigenous voices in achieving development goals and protecting natural resources for years to come.  The UN must not only guarantee the participation of indigenous people in name, but also monitor and evaluate compliance with UN norms worldwide.  To this end, several organizations are experimenting with pilot programs to allow indigenous people to report on state, regional, and local compliance with the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).  These programs are part of the UN goal to create more robust development indicators that disaggregate data on indigenous peoples to better understand their specific development challenges and needs in the future.

The community that dies from thirst

A three year old child died of malnutrition last Friday in Uribia, a town of Colombia located in the department of La Guajira, mostly inhabited by the indigenous population Wayuu. The lack of water in recent years has taken the lives of nearly 5,000 children, according to Javier Rojas, leader of the Association of Traditional Indigenous Authorities Shipia Wayuu Wayuu. The more than 400,000 people who make up this community live 365 days a year with temperatures between 35 and 42 degrees, without water. Since a mining company was installed more than 10 years in the region, there has been a decline in the possibilities to access the liquid. The deaths make clear the drama that is lived.

The case has already reached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which called on Wednesday the Colombian Government to explain what measures it has taken to address this community and follow up to any attempts they have made to solve the food crisis that also affects those indigenous peoples. At the end of the process, according to Carolina Sáchica, the lawyer handling the case on behalf of the Wayuu, they expect to recover the water from the largest water resource in the area, the Rancheria River, which was dammed for the exclusive use of companies expected engaged in coal mining.

Cerrejón mine in Colombia: can it address its human rights risks?

An interesting article discussing what Cerrejon thinks and plans for addressing the allegation of their human right violations. Is it enough to just inform their personnel about Human Rights Law? or to impose ways to deal with situations that are incommensurable, such as the use of territory in indigenous ancestral lands?

La Guajira only has a handful of formal petrol stations. Instead, drivers in this remote corner of north-east Colombia fill up at temporary kerbside stops, where a vendor stands with a plastic drum of contraband fuel and a shorn-off hosepipe.
Over the years, the state has earned a reputation as Colombia's Wild West. As well as pimpineros (petrol smugglers), its porous border with nearby Venezuela is a popular route for narcotic gangs and leftwing guerrilla groups. The region also bears the scars of Colombia's decades-long civil during which millions were displaced and an estimated 200,000 killed.