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(f) A panel discussion organized by Columbia University in New York in
May 2016 on how armed conflict and peace negotiations affect indigenous peoples ;
(g) A meeting by invitation of the Nordic Trust Fund of the World Bank in
June 2016. The Special Rapporteur discussed the importance of safeguarding
indigenous peoples’ rights in World Bank operations and programmes;
(h) Regional seminars co-organized by the Special Rapporteur and the
International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs and the Asia Indigenous Peoples ’
Pact and Tebtebba on the impacts on investment treaties on the rights of indigenous
peoples, in Lima for Latin America and in Bangkok for Asia, and a global seminar
held in New York in May 2016, to obtain information for her second thematic report
on this issue for the Human Rights Council in September 2016 ;
(i) The regular sessions of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and
the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Special Rapporteur
held meetings with members of these mechanisms on ways to maintain and increase
the coordination among them. In parallel to the sessions, she also held meetings
with several State delegations and indigenous organizations.
B.
Country visits and communications
3.
Since her last report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur carried
out three official country visits to Sápmi (Finland, Norway and Sweden) in August
2015, Honduras in November 2015 and Brazil in March 2016. The reports of these
visits will be presented to the Human Rights Council in September 2016.
4.
During the Special Rapporteur ’s visit to Sápmi, the Special Rapporteur
highlighted her concerns on the land rights situation of the Sami people. She
observed that the increased drive to mineral extraction and the development of
renewable energy projects in Sápmi was one of the main threats against the
realization of the rights of the Sami people.
5.
In Honduras, the Special Rapporteur noted that a fundamental problem faced
by indigenous peoples was the lack of full recognition, protection and enjoyment of
their rights to ancestral lands and natural resources and impunity for the increasing
violence against indigenous peoples. During the visit, the Special Rapporteur met
with Berta Cáceres, an indigenous Lenca activist who was killed four months later
(on 3 March 2016) because of her protests against the Agua Zarca dam project, even
though she had been awarded precautionary protection measures from t he InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights. The Special Rapporteur will continue to
monitor the investigations into Ms. Caceres’ murder and urges the State to hold the
perpetrators accountable and break the vicious cycle of impunity.
6.
Regarding Brazil, the Special Rapporteur expressed concern about the fact that
that, in the eight years following the visit of her predecessor, there had been a
disturbing absence of progress in the resolution of long -standing issues of key
concern to indigenous peoples. She noted the convergence of various disconcerting
developments endangering the rights of indigenous peoples. The risk of ethnocidal
effects in such contexts could not be overlooked nor underestimated. The Special
Rapporteur deeply regrets that, since her visit, killings and violent evictions of the
Kaiowa Guarani peoples in Mato Grosso, some of which she visited, continue to
take place.
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