A/70/301 III. International investment and free trade agreements A. Background 6. The increase in foreign investment related to indigenous peoples’ lands, waters and the extraction of natural resources such as minerals and metals, oil, gas and timber, among others, continues to be a matter of grave concern to the Special Rapporteur. It has compelled her to look more deeply into international investment regimes and how they interact with the respect or violation of the human rights of indigenous peoples. International investment treaties or agreements are instruments that primarily provide legal protection to foreign investors in relation to their investments in host States. Indeed, trade and financial liberalization have been central to many developing countries’ economic development strategies and can create economic opportunities and growth. However, their impact on the human rights of citizens within countries hosting investment projects can not be assumed to be exclusively or even predominantly positive. 7. The Special Rapporteur has become increasingly concerned about the actual and potential detrimental impacts of international investment and free trade agreements on the rights of indigenous peoples. While the present report aims to provide a general assessment of the key impact that those agreements have on indigenous peoples and the implementation of their rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, she intends to dedicate ongoing attention to the subject throughout the remainder of her mandate. The following report will broadly frame the Special Rapporteur ’s concerns in relation to international investment agreements and treaties, and investment protect ion chapters of multilateral and regional free trade agreements, and set the framework for her ongoing work in the area. In that regard, the Special Rapporteur plans to send questionnaires to Member States and civil society organizations and organize a series of regional consultations to gain further insight into the issue. 8. In the development of the present report and her ongoing work in the area, the Special Rapporteur recognizes the work of other special procedures mandate holders and United Nations mechanisms. The Special Rapporteur has consulted the report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order to the thirtieth session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/30/44) on the adverse human rights impacts of international investment agreements, bilateral investment treaties and multilateral free trade agreements on the international order. She is also aware of the upcoming report produced by the Independent Expert for the seventieth session of the General Assembly on the human rights implications of State-investor dispute settlement mechanisms. 9. The Special Rapporteur also consulted the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/19/59/Add.5), which provides guiding principles for Member States on ways to ensure that the trade and investment agreements they conclude are consistent with their obligations under international human rights instruments; and the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health to the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly (A/69/299), which includes analysis of the impact of investment agreements on the right to 15-12526 5/24