A/78/162
I. Introduction
1.
The present report is submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of
Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay, pursuant to Human Rights Council
resolution 51/16. He provides herein a brief summary of his activities since his
previous report to the General Assembly (A/77/238) and considers the implications
of tourism on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
II. Activities of the Special Rapporteur
2.
Following his previous report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur
carried out six academic visits, participated in several in -person and virtual meetings
with Indigenous organizations and international and governmental institutions and
collaborated with several United Nations entities, including the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women and the Forum on Business and Human Rights. He
presented three amicus curiae briefs before the inter-American system of human
rights on the topics of land rights, free, prior and informed consent and Indigenous
Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact and an expert brief to the European
Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights. The Special Rapporteur carried out
official country visits to Greenland and Denmark in February 2023 and to Canada in
March 2023 and hopes to visit Argentina and the United Republic of Tanzania during
the coming year. The Special Rapporteur participated in the annual meetings of the
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.
III. Indigenous Peoples and the tourism industry
3.
In recent decades, community-based approaches to tourism, such as ecotourism
and ethnocultural tourism, have become increasingly popular as a sustainable
development approach. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur reviews the ways
in which tourism both negatively affects and positiv ely benefits Indigenous Peoples
by examining the roles of States, international organizations and the private sector.
He highlights examples of Indigenous-led tourism initiatives and identifies good
practices to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights in that context.
4.
The Special Rapporteur identified this theme after receiving reports of human
rights violations in relation to tourism activities in the context of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage site s, 1
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1
23-13642
Communication TZA 3/2021 addressed to the United Republic of Tanzania, available at
https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=26938;
and communications THA 4/2021 and THA 4/2020 addressed to Thailand, available at
https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=26518
and https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?
gId=25162 respectively.
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