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Tuesday November 26, 2024 3:00pm - 4:20pm CET
Session co-organized by the Working Group on Business and Human Rights and the Indigenous Caucus 

Interpretation provided in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

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.
Moderators
avatar for Pichamon Yeophantong

Pichamon Yeophantong

Member, UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
Ms. Pichamon Yeophantong is Associate Professor and Head of Research at the Centre for Future Defence and National Security, Deakin University. She also leads the Responsible Business Lab and the Environmental Justice and Human Rights Project, which are funded by an Australian Research... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Tulia Machado-Helland

Tulia Machado-Helland

Head of Human Rights, Storebrand Asset Management
Tulia Machado-Helland is the Head of Human Rights at the Sustainable Investment team at Storebrand Asset Management. Her main responsibilities are to develop policies and procedures to integrate human rights in investment decisions; to conduct human right due diligence of portfolios... Read More →
avatar for Antonina Gorbunova

Antonina Gorbunova

Member, Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Antonina Gorbunova is an indigenous Nenets lawyer and leader, born in the Kanin Peninsula in Russia’s High North. She practices law for ten years, including eight years of work on the rights of indigenous peoples. Her human rights career evolved from assistant to an indigenous Member... Read More →
avatar for Ebo Mili

Ebo Mili

Siang Indigenous Farmers Forum
avatar for Edward Porokwa

Edward Porokwa

Executive director, Pastoralists Indigenous NGO (PINGO) Forum
avatar for Paula Andrea Villa Vélez

Paula Andrea Villa Vélez

Directora Jurídica, Unidad Administrativa Especial de Gestión de Restitución de Tierras Despojadas del
Tuesday November 26, 2024 3:00pm - 4:20pm CET
Room XIX

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