scholarly journals Under the Radar: Fair and Equitable Benefit-Sharing and the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Related to Natural Resources

Author(s):  
Elisa Morgera
Author(s):  
Giulia Sajeva

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 307
Author(s):  
I Gusti Ngurah Parikesit Widiatedja

From the perspective of international law, indigenous peoples have the rights to own, use, and control their natural resources within their territories. In the United States, the Navajo Tribe has enjoyed those rights. In terms of law making process, this tribe can enact some acts to preserve a control over their natural resources. Specifically, the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Solid Waste Act. Concerning law implementation and enforcement, Navajo Tribe has a right to equitable benefit sharing in natural resources and fair court proceeding for breach. As a result, the existence of rights for natural resources requires the U.S federal government to ensure fair administration of natural resources in order to mitigate an economic exploitation of natural resources in indigenous land.


Author(s):  
Giulia Sajeva

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.


Author(s):  
Giulia Sajeva

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-408
Author(s):  
M. Ya’kub Aiyub Kadir

This article investigates the problem of defining ‘people’ and ‘indigenous people’ under the International Human Rights Covenants and their application in the Indonesian context. Using analyses based on the Third World Approach to International Law (twail), this article shows the problems facing Indonesia in identifying indigenous peoples as traditional peoples, in terms of being isolated peoples (Masyarakat Hukum Adat, hereafter mha), and the non-isolated indigenous peoples who were sovereign before the independence of Indonesia. This interpretation has been confusing in relation to the entitlement to natural resources. Therefore, this article proposes a new understanding of indigenous peoples, in order to arrive at better treatment and recognition and in terms of sharing power and the benefits of natural resources in the Indonesian system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 865-876
Author(s):  
Heidi Michalski Ribeiro ◽  
Jose Rubens Morato

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.


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