scholarly journals Constitutional Law, Ecosystems, and Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: Biocultural Rights and Legal Subjects

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-540
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Macpherson ◽  
Julia Torres Ventura ◽  
Felipe Clavijo Ospina
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Resource Ownership ◽  
New Type ◽  
Legal Subjects ◽  
Collaborative Natural Resource Management

AbstractThe recognition of rivers and related ecosystems as legal persons or subjects is an emerging mechanism in transnational practice available to governments in seeking more effective and collaborative natural resource management, sometimes at the insistence of indigenous peoples. This approach is developing particularly quickly in Colombia, where legal rights for rivers and ecosystems are grasping onto, and evolving out of, constitutional human rights protections. This enables the development of a new type of constitutionalism of nature. Yet legal rights for rivers may obscure the rights of indigenous peoples and their role in resource ownership and governance. We argue that the Colombian river cases serve as a caution to courts and legislatures elsewhere to be mindful, in devising ecosystem rights, of the complex and interrelated rights, interests and tenures of indigenous peoples and local communities.

When Rights Embrace Responsibilities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Sajeva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Group Rights ◽  
Potential Applicability ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Relationship Of

The conservation of environment and the protection of human rights are two of the most compelling needs of our time. Unfortunately, they are not always easy to combine and too often result in mutual harm. This book analyses the idea of biocultural rights as a proposal for harmonizing the needs of environmental and human rights. These rights, considered as a basket of group rights, are those deemed necessary to protect the stewardship role that certain indigenous peoples and local communities have played towards the environment. With a view to understanding the value and merits, as well as the threats that biocultural rights entail, the book critically assesses their foundations, content, and implications, and develops new perspectives and ideas concerning their potential applicability for promoting the socio-economic interests of indigenous people and local communities. It further explores the controversial relationship of interdependence and conflict between conservation of environment and protection of human rights.

Reply to Bridgewater (2021), 'Response to Davies et al., 'Towards a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands"

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 1401
Author(s):  
G. T. Davies ◽  
C. M. Finlayson ◽  
E. Okuno ◽  
N. C. Davidson ◽  
R. C. Gardner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Indigenous And Local Knowledge ◽  
Rights Of Nature ◽  
Areas Of Concern ◽  
Management Approaches ◽  
Conservation And Management

We reply to the main concerns raised by Bridgewater (2021) in his response to Davies et al. (2021a), ‘Towards a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands’. We appreciate the contribution of Bridgewater (2021) to this emerging conversation and, although we disagree with some of his assessments and statements, we do not find his points to be incompatible with support for the Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands (ROW). This reply focuses on four areas of concern raised by Bridgewater (2021). First, we describe why a wetlands-specific declaration will add important value to other Rights of Nature declarations. Second, we discuss how the ROW does not detract from, but rather can contribute to and complement, existing conservation and management approaches and mechanisms. Third, we agree on the importance of weaving Indigenous and local knowledge with other knowledges and emphasise that the ROW should not be confused with or misused to undermine the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. Finally, we explain how legal rights can and have been granted to non-humans, including elements of Nature, such as wetlands.

Friends and Foes

2018 ◽  
pp. 50-75
Author(s):  
Giulia Sajeva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Conservation Practices ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Relationship Of

Chapter 3 explores the controversial relationship of interdependence and conflict between environmental concerns and the protection of human rights by offering insights on the necessity—and the opportunity—of new ideas such as biocultural rights. Such necessity is made clear by bringing forward the inadequacy of human rights rhetoric in fully incorporating environmental challenges, as well as the damages environmental conservation can do to human rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. The chapter introduces attempts to combine conservation and rights interests through the recognition of the stewardship relationship indigenous peoples and local communities have towards the environment. Keeping distance from the dangers of the myth of the noble savage, and describing the important steps forward that have been done against fortress conservation practices, the chapters underlines those steps that still need to be taken.

Understanding Rights, Human Rights, and Group Rights

2018 ◽  
pp. 21-49
Author(s):  
Giulia Sajeva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Group Rights

Chapters 2 provides an introduction to the concept of rights, useful for understanding the sui generis nature of biocultural rights. It looks at the birth of human rights and group rights, the foundations of human rights, the relation between human rights and the general interest, and the hardship of balancing human rights with other interests and goals. The chapter also introduces a brief outline of indigenous peoples and local communities’ rights, with focus on their different status in international law. This allows for comparison of biocultural rights with other human rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and for elaboration on the significance and different challenges that biocultural rights may have for local communities and indigenous peoples.

Social environmental injustices against indigenous peoples: the Belo Monte dam

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 865-876
Author(s):  
Heidi Michalski Ribeiro ◽  
Jose Rubens Morato
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Hydroelectric Power Plant ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Hydroelectric Power ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Belo Monte

PurposeThis proposal is a case study of the Belo Monte dam. The article deals with human rights and environmental violations arising from the construction of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant in the northern region of Brazil. This paper aims to evidence human rights violations brought by the construction Belo Monte dam, a glimpse of the COVID-19 scenario and how Brazilian regulation allowed those violations.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the objective of this article, the Brazilian norms, public policies and the current situation of the affected communities were analyzed, focusing on the human rights violations and the historical timeline of this mega-project. The analysis was directed to the hardcore social sciences, considering analytical and qualitative research.FindingsThe data gathered and the references consulted proved that many human rights violations occurred and that the vulnerability of indigenous and local people increased with the construction of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant in the northern region of Brazil. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this adverse scenario since indigenous and local people already had their vulnerabilities increased with the construction of Belo Monte.Research limitations/implicationsThe Belo Monte Dam has had severe and irreversible impacts on the lives of local communities, especially indigenous peoples, as it had destroyed their culture and the environment. The authors were not able to do fieldwork, due to the great distance of the dam. In this sense, the research does not cover all the social–environmental issues, as an ethnographic approach is necessary.Originality/valueThe authors intend to bring attention to harms caused to indigenous people and the local communities, expecting to create an alert of what this kind of project can do to vulnerable peoples' life, especially now with the pandemic scenario, which makes indigenous and traditional communities more vulnerable to diseases due to the loss of their territories.

PERLINDUNGAN HUKUM TERHADAP PROFESI KEPOLISIAN DALAM MENJALANKAN TUGAS POKOK DAN FUNGSI PENYELESAIAN TINDAK PIDANA DI KEPOLISIAN DAERAH (POLDA) PROPINSI KEPULAUAN BANGKA BELITUNG

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinta Jayanti Apriana
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
The State ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legal Subjects

Legal protection is very effort to shelther the human dignity and recognize of human rights in the legal field. A country has the responsibility to socialize new regulations to its society so that they will be aware of the law and also of their rights protected by the state. If society’s legal awareness is growing well, then legal protection in this country will run properly. The development of law enforcement is the beginning of the Police Force. It offers a very interesting history in the development of humanity. Despite the progress that goes slowly, the efforrt is gradually continued in line with the development of human civilization. Thus the ask of the Police is to perforn law enforcement, and the authority of its duty is restricted under the law. In reality, the Police offers in Indonesia are not Legal subjects who never made mistake; hence the author deems that the legal rights and obligations of these officers should be similar as the community at large.

scholarly journals Indigenous Peoples and Litigation: Strategies for Legal Empowerment

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-320
Author(s):  
Jérémie Gilbert*
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
National Level ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Land Grabbing ◽  
Legal Empowerment ◽  
Political Will ◽  
General Lack

Abstract Across the globe indigenous peoples are increasingly using litigation to seek remedies for violation of their fundamental human rights. The rise of litigation is to be placed in the larger context of increased land grabbing, exploitation of natural resources, and the general lack of recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights at the national level. This lack of legal rights is usually coupled with a lack of political will to address the issues faced by indigenous peoples, often leading to serious human rights violations, leaving indigenous advocates with few options but to turn to courts as a last resort to seek remedies. This article examines some of the issues faced by indigenous peoples and their advocates when engaging in human rights litigation. The goal is to offer a practice-based reflection on the encounter between courts and indigenous peoples with a specific focus on analysing strategies to support indigenous peoples’ legal empowerment. This is particularly important knowing the technicalities, externalities and complexities of the process of litigation, and the fact that many decisions do not get implemented. In this context this article explores how the process of litigation in itself can support legal empowerment and the wider fight for justice.

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