A/HRC/24/50 I. Introduction 1. In resolution 21/24, the Human Rights Council requested the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to prepare a study on access to justice in the protection and promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples and to present it to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-fourth session. 2. The Expert Mechanism called for submissions from States, indigenous peoples, nonState actors, national human rights institutions and other stakeholders to assist it in the study. The submissions received are, where permission was granted, publicly available on the Expert Mechanism’s website.1 The study also benefited from contributions made at the international expert seminar on indigenous peoples’ access to justice, including truth and reconciliation processes, held from 27 February to 1 March 2013, organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights and the International Center for Transitional Justice. The Expert Mechanism appreciates the submissions and is informed by them. II. Access to justice for indigenous peoples 3. Access to justice requires the ability to seek and obtain remedies for wrongs through institutions of justice, formal or informal, in conformity with human rights standards.2 It is essential for the protection and promotion of all other human rights. The United Nations has committed itself to taking all necessary steps to provide access to justice for all.3 4. Access to justice is of particular importance “given the gravity of the issues facing indigenous peoples, including discrimination in criminal justice systems, particularly for indigenous women and youth. Overrepresentation of indigenous peoples in incarceration is a global concern.” 4 It raises issues of both procedural fairness and substantive justice, including fair, just and equitable remedies for violations of human rights. Access to justice cannot be examined in isolation from other human rights issues, including structural discrimination, poverty, lack of access to health and education, and lack of recognition of rights to culture and lands, territories and resources. 5. In conformity with the right to self-determination, indigenous peoples must have access to justice externally, from States, and internally, through indigenous customary and traditional systems.5 Indigenous peoples must have access to justice both individually and collectively. 6. A particular dimension of access to justice relates to overcoming long-standing historical injustices and discrimination, including in relation to colonization and dispossession of indigenous peoples’ lands, territories and resources. Injustices of the past that remain unremedied constitute a continuing affront to the dignity of the group. This 1 2 3 4 5 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IPeoples/EMRIP/Pages/AccessToJustice.aspx. See, for example, Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 31 (2004) on the nature of the general legal obligation imposed on States parties, and the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law (General Assembly resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005, annex). See General Assembly resolution 67/1. Report of the Expert Mechanism on its fifth session (A/HRC/21/52), p. 4. Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, at the Human Rights Council panel discussion on access to justice for indigenous peoples, 18 September 2012. 3