The United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) recently published its report examining the traditional economies of Indigenous Peoples. The report highlights principles of self-determination, intergenerational equity, reciprocity, traditional knowledge and ecological stewardship. The EMRIP discussed the need for robust legal protections, recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ governance systems and tenure rights, and the effective implementation of the principle of free, prior and informed consent. In preparation of the report, the UNPO submitted information to the EMRIP on the Baluch; Khmer-Krom; the Indigenous Peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts; and the River Peoples of Zambesia.
The EMRIP report draws attention to the essential role of traditional economies in supporting food sovereignty, food security, biodiversity, conservation and climate resistances. According to the Expert Mechanism, the denial or restriction of self-determination limits the ability of Indigenous Peoples to govern their economic systems and institutions. Traditional economies are further threatened by the non-recognition of land, territory and resource rights whereby the failure to align with the principle of free, prior and informed consent hinders the safeguards necessary to protect the economic existence of Indigenous Peoples.
The UNPO contributed to the EMRIP’s report by providing information on the Baluch, Khmer-Krom, Chittagong Hill Tracts, and the River Races of Zambesia. This contribution specifically highlighted how the right to self-determination is connected to the ability of Indigenous Peoples to maintain their traditional ways of life and sustain their traditional economies. The impacts of denying Indigenous Peoples meaningful participation in decision-making processes has far reaching implications, including landgrabbing, resource exploitation, environmental degradation, limitation of basic resources like water, food insecurity, and abject poverty.
In discussing the impact of non-recognition of the right to lands, territories and natural resources, EMRIP’s report specifically references the UNPO’s input on the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and the impact of ‘systematic land dispossession, lost livelihoods, and displacement from their ancestral territories, due to large-scale development projects by State and non-State actors’. Moreover, Viet Nam’s ‘refusal to recognize the Khmer Krom as Indigenous Peoples has facilitated appropriation of their ancestral lands and denied them access to traditional livelihoods. This lack of recognition has contributed to heightened levels of poverty and social marginalization.’
The report further explores how the loss of access of Indigenous Peoples to their lands also deprives them of culturally rooted food systems, undermining economic self-determination, ecological resilience, and sovereignty. To illustrate this point, the Expert Mechanism cites input from the UNPO regarding the peoples of Zambesia in Namibia. In particular, it highlights the 2019 approval of a 99-year lease for a Chinese company to cultivate tobacco on 10,000 hectares in the east of the Caprivi Zipfel region, despite strong local opposition citing environmental and food security concerns. The project risked ‘undermining the food sovereignty of Zambesian communities and disrupting Indigenous agricultural systems’.
The final report of the Expert Mechanism stresses that even where legal protections exist (such as the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples or the International Labour Organisation Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169), implementation by states is largely inconsistent or poor. Similarly, a lack of formal recognition of traditional systems contributes to the disenfranchisement of Indigenous Peoples and exacerbates their vulnerability to land appropriation, displacement and economic marginalisation.
The UNPO welcomes the important recognition of its Indigenous members and emphasises that many other Indigenous Peoples face similar challenges to those highlighted in the report. However, it is regrettable that the EMRIP report did not also acknowledge the situation of the Baluch, particularly in the Sistan and Baluchistan Province of Iran, as referenced in the UNPO’s input.
The UNPO stresses the relationship between the right to self-determination and the ability of Indigenous Peoples to live by their traditional livelihoods and foster traditional economies. A lack of representation and exclusion of peoples from decision-making processes and the exploitation of Indigenous land in unsustainable practices has countless negative consequences for communities. The UNPO therefore calls for the greater international and national recognition of Indigenous Peoples under international frameworks, including the protection of their fundamental human rights and their meaningful inclusion in national decision-making processes.
