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recommendations and proposals on appropriate measures and activities to prevent and
remedy violations of the rights of indigenous peoples (Council resolution 15/14). In
carrying out her mandate, the Special Rapporteur is to coordinate with other human rights
bodies, including the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Expert Mechanism on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as with the treaty bodies and regional human
rights mechanisms. The Human Rights Council has also asked the Special Rapporteur to
pay particular attention to the situation of indigenous women and children, an aspect of her
mandate to which she intends to devote particular attention, as noted further below.
6.
The principal normative framework for the mandate is the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Human Rights Council
specifically requests the Special Rapporteur in its resolution 15/14 to promote that
Declaration and international instruments relevant to the advancement of the rights of
indigenous peoples, where appropriate. Other instruments that the Special Rapporteur will
promote throughout her mandate include the International Labour Organization Convention
No. 169 (1989) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, which
has been widely ratified by countries in Latin American and is thus of particular relevance
in that region. Also important are the core United Nations human rights treaties, especially
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, all of which have been authoritatively interpreted by
the corresponding treaty monitoring bodies to protect a range of indigenous peoples’ rights.
7.
At the regional level, the American Convention on Human Rights and the American
Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man also contain provisions relevant to indigenous
peoples. Since 2001, the inter-American human rights system has developed a rich body of
jurisprudence on the basis of those instruments which affirms indigenous peoples’ rights to
lands and resources, the duty of States to consult in the context of natural resource
development, and the right of indigenous peoples to political participation. The African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has also more recently addressed indigenous
rights in the Endorois case from Kenya and through its Working Group on Indigenous
Populations/Communities in Africa, established in 2000, which has carried out several
research-based missions to individual countries to assess their human rights situations.
8.
The Special Rapporteur has also been mandated by the General Assembly to
participate in the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly, to be known as the
World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, in September 2014. The General Assembly, in
its resolution 65/198, in which it decided to organize the World Conference, invited the
President of the General Assembly to conduct open-ended consultations with Member
States and with representatives of indigenous peoples and the Special Rapporteur.
Accordingly, on 17 and 18 June 2014, the Special Rapporteur participated in an interactive
consultation convened by the President of the General Assembly in New York, and
provided comments on priority issues for indigenous peoples in the context of development
and the post-2015 agenda. In a second resolution on the World Conference (resolution
66/296), the General Assembly decided that the Special Rapporteur should participate in
the interactive panel discussion during the conference, which is to focus on indigenous
peoples’ development and the post-2015 development agenda. As noted in more detail
below, that is also the subject to which the Special Rapporteur is dedicating her first report
to the General Assembly.
9.
In the view of the Special Rapporteur, the World Conference represents an important
opportunity for States to recommit to implementing the rights of indigenous peoples and for
direct negotiations between Member States and indigenous peoples’ representatives on key
outstanding issues. The Special Rapporteur is committed to participating in all stages of
planning for the World Conference and follow-up to any outcome document.
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