Session co-organized by the Working Group on Business and Human Rights and the Indigenous Caucus Interpretation provided in English, Spanish and French.Brief description of the session: Globally, there is rapid increase in the demand for land and its resources. Businesses, including investors, are pursuing large-scale land acquisition for economic projects related to food, fuel, minerals, renewable energy, and conservation and more. However, transparency and participation are often lacking in these acquisition processes, enabled by poor or inexistent accountability mechanisms and legal frameworks to protect the rights holders, in particular Indigenous Peoples.
Indigenous Peoples make up more than 6% of the world’s population and hold an estimated 20% of the Earth’s land mass - one-half to one-third of the collectively-held land globally. However, they have formal legal ownership of less than 10% of this land. As a result, their lands are constantly under threat of unfair and forced acquisition for business investments, often leading to serious abuses of Indigenous Peoples ' rights and those of their defenders.
This session will engage relevant stakeholders in discussing how land acquisitions have been or should be integrated into businesses human rights due diligence processes across their value chains. It will also explore the types of smart mix of measures that may help governments protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights in the context of land acquisition, in particular with regard to the requirement to obtain a Free, Prior and Informed Consent from the concerned Indigenous Peoples. .
Key objectives of the session: - To contextualize the growing trend of large-scale land acquisition for business activities, and their impacts on Indigenous Peoples ' rights.
- To examine practices and lessons learned regarding different measures adopted by governments to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of large-scale land acquisition.
- To discuss what kinds of a smart mix of measures could support the Free, Prior and Informed Consent from Indigenous Peoples with regard to land acquisition.
- To discuss emerging practices from businesses, including investors, to prevent, mitigate and account for adverse impacts of land acquisitions on Indigenous Peoples rights, including the right of participation and FPIC.
