Introduction of The Wildlife Protection (Amendment) BILL, 2013 in India

http://www.mid-day.com/imagedata/2011/sep/tiger.jpg

The Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2013 was recently introduced in India in order to facilitate stricter enforcement of laws to protect wildlife, in view of the increase in wildlife crime. The proposed amendments, as listed in the Statement of Objects and Reasons, relate to prohibition on use of animal traps except under certain circumstances, requirement of a grant of permit for scientific research, increase in punishment for wildlife offenses, making exemptions to allow certain activities such as grazing or movement of livestock and bona fide use of drinking and household water by local communities, and protection of hunting rights of the Scheduled Tribes in the Union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Lists of flora and fauna are sought to be inserted for purposes of regulation of international trade under Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in order to fulfill India’s international obligation to bring in necessary legislative changes to facilitate implementation of the CITES given that India is a party to the said Convention.

The proposed Amendments have raised certain apprehensions. It has been mentioned that consultations with the Gram Sabha will take place before declaring any Scheduled Area as a National Park. However, provisions containing the requirement for monitoring of such consultations are missing, and this is liable to lead to severe gaps in accountability.

Critique of stricter penalty for offenses relating to tiger reserves

• The punishment for hunting in a tiger reserve or altering the boundaries of a tiger reserve has been increased to imprisonment of at least 7 years and also with fine of at least 5 lakh rupees up to 30 lakh rupees.
• Simply increasing punishment will not achieve the objective of curtailing wildlife crime, and in fact may actually deter courts from sentencing offenders given the harshness of punishment, which would lead to a fall in the already low rates of conviction, and defeat the objective of the amendment.
• The language of the proposed amendment, unlike the language of the current Act, singles out tiger reserves. This has sparked great dissatisfaction especially amongst lion conservationists, who argue that both the Indian tiger and the Asiatic lion have been listed in the category of endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Critique of grant of permit for scientific research

• The Chief Wildlife Warden has been empowered to grant a permit to any person to conduct scientific research upon application being made and certain conditions being satisfied. Concerns have been raised that even petty offences like simple trespass and/or minor research/tourist permit condition violation would lead to a minimum imprisonment of 3 years and fine, and that a student might be jailed for a minor breach.
• Researchers have argued that the amendment would lead to unjustified bureaucratic interference with research as decided by a Forest Official. They feel that the government should not be given such a high degree of control over the kind of ecological and conservation research that may be conducted in the country.

The full text of the Bill is available for download here. For more information, please contact our team in India at arpitha@naturaljustice.org.

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Strategies to Secure Community Land Rights and Resources

A meeting on securing community land rights and resources on the 19th and 20th of September ended with a pledge from stakeholders to work together to address this growing global crisis. Representatives of community groups, civil society, business and government met over the two days in the hope to form the initial strategies on the relevant topics within securing community lands and resources, including: the mapping and documentation of community lands and resources; legal recognition and empowerment; Expanding and Leveraging Private Sector Interest in Securing Community Land Rights; Making Community Land Rights a Global Priority; Deepening Synergies between Community Land; and Resource Rights and Conservation Efforts.

Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) attended the legal recognition and empowerment stream and took part in a panel discussion on "Community-based strategies: Strengthening community land and natural resource governance from the bottom-up." Gino spoke about Natural Justices' experiences with communities developing community protocols to address their local challenges through dialogue and negotiation with government and business.

Natural Justice and its community partners will continue to be involved in these important discussions and development of strategies for positive change.

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Learning about intellectual property, community protocols and ABS

A training for indigenous peoples and local communities in Africa on intellectual property, biocultural community protocols (BCPs) and access and benefit sharing (ABS) is taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from the 23rd to the 27th of September. The meeting is organized by the ABS Initiative, in collaboration with Natural Justice, the Indigenous Information Network, the Indigenous Peoples Coordination Committee of Africa and hosted by the African Union Commission.

Intellectual property protections, such as patents, are often placed over developments that have originated from the knowledge held by indigenous and local communities. Unfortunately, these communities rarely provide their consent for such actions nor are able to share in any benefits that emerge from the developments.

Therefore, African indigenous people and local community representatives have requested training on the intellectual property regime, its linkages with access and benefit sharing and tools, such as community protocols, that can be used to protect their knowledge.

During the week long training, participants will share information on patents, geographical indications, plant variety protections, trade marks, the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing and community protocols.

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Scaling-up Strategies to Secure Community Land and Resource Rights

From the 19th to the 20th of September, Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) is attending the International Conference on Scaling-up Strategies to Secure Community Land and Resource Rights in Interlaken, Switzerland.

There is growing acknowledgement that lack of community land and resource rights has become a global crisis that undermines our progress for social, spiritual and economic well-being. Natural Justice continues to work with its community partners, advise national governments and business to address these critical issues. The meeting in Interlaken will therefore serve to:

• Collect and share best practice on community land rights with a range of stakeholders, including communities, governments, civil society and private investors;
• Raise the profile of community land rights as a priority issues to shape key investment and policy processes in ways to support local land and resource tenure;
• Provide a forum for the new collaborations and alliances between the different actors and interests around community land and resource issues.

For more information on the conference please refer to: http://www.communitylandrights.org/

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Practical Approaches to Ensuring the Full and Effective Participation of Indigenous Peoples in REDD+: Assessing Experiences and Lessons to Date.

Cath Traynor (Natural Justice) attended the Joint Expert Workshop on Practical Approaches to Ensuring the Full and Effective Participation of Indigenous Peoples in REDD+: Assessing Experiences and Lessons to Date on 10-12 September at the Castle of Weilburg, Germany.

The central workshop question was “how can we encourage and enable the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in REDD+ decision making?”  Participants discussed local level experiences and examined national level participation of Indigenous Peoples in REDD+ country programmes. Critical issues that emerged included:

• The policy and procedures which govern the operations of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and UN-REDD Programme are distinct and complex, and although some harmonisation of guidelines has occurred, further streamlining in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is required.
• Safeguards operational guidance is limited and implementation remains a real challenge.
• Whether full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples is possible without recognition of their rights to lands, territories and natural resources.
• REDD+ processes need to take into account the customary structures of Indigenous Peoples and ensure that they are fairly represented on national REDD+ decision-making bodies and that they can meaningfully influence REDD+ processes.
• Institutionalising Indigenous Peoples participation through legal frameworks and enforcement could enhance participation.
• In some countries the REDD+ process has provided a space for Indigenous Peoples to enter into dialogue with governments and to call for a greater recognition of their rights.

The biocultural community protocols approach provides important lessons for local-level Indigenous Peoples participation and these could inform REDD+ processes.

The key messages from the workshop will be released shortly by the hosting institutions: the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and the UN-REDD Programme.

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Training at Jakarta!

SOMO, Cividep India and Business Watch Indonesia have jointly organized an advanced training programme on “Business and Human Rights & Grievance Mechanisms” in Jakarta from 9-12 September 2013. NGOs and trade unions from Asia region like Philippines, Cambodia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Indonesia, China, Nepal and India had participated in the programme. Sankar Pani of Natural Justice has participated and shared his experience of engaging with the OECD Mechanism.

The training focused on the use of different non-judicial grievance mechanisms and tools to address corporate misconducts and human rights violations. In the era of globalization, many developing and under-developed countries are getting significant international investments from various international and regional financial institutions like Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, JICA amongst others. Sometimes these investments contribute or lead to the process of involuntary displacement, abuse of human rights and grabbing of resources restricting the access of communities to local resources. So as to deal with situations where international investments lead to human rights violations, each of these financial institutions have independent redressal mechanisms. Some of the grievance mechanisms used are the CAO (Compliance Advisory Ombudsman) and World Bank Inspection Panel instituted by World Bank to look into the human rights violations caused by business houses. In a similar fashion, the ADB has a grievance redressal mechanism to deal with the issues of human rights violations arising out of their investment in various projects.

The companies who are operating or have their parent company in Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries (34) and 10 more non-OECD countries who have adopted the OECD Guidelines for Multi National enterprise have to respect the guideline for responsible business conduct. Anybody who wishes to file a complaint for violation of human rights against the brand company or its supply chain can file the complaint with National Contact Points where the company or its supply chains are operating.

However most of these non-judicial grievance mechanisms encourage mediation or negotiation between the parties and leave no choice for parties who think their rights are non-negotiable. In some cases the mechanism allows for compliance of guidelines and directs the companies to exercise due diligence of respecting the human rights in their business operation. More often the recommendation or directions or statements have no legal obligation on the parties. Similarly all the states have adopted the UN Guiding Principle on Business and Human Rights which is based on the Protect, Respect and Remedy frame work. This frame work mandates that the state protect its citizens against human rights abuses by third parties, corporate to respect human rights and victims to remedy against the human right violations. Though the UN Guiding Principles are backed by UN members they are not legally binding, have no grievance mechanism, no extra territorial obligation or direct reference to indigenous communities.

Despite several limitations, non-judicial grievance mechanisms are gaining acceptance for many reasons - less expensive, wider scope of jurisdiction like filing of complaints in all countries along the supply chain of the  company, prompt response from NCPs and quicker settlement where the parties have agreed to enter into mediation.

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Natural Justice and the Berne Declaration Submit New Letter to EU MEPs Regarding the Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol as the European Parliament considers its Implementation within the Union

On 6 September 13, Natural Justice and the Berne Declaration sent an letter to the Members of the European Parliament regarding the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (Nagoya Protocol) in the European Union.

The original Draft Regulation on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization in the Union presented by the European Commission (EC) in October 2012 (Draft ABS Regulation) included a number of short comings, including the fact that user obligations were only going to be triggered by the physical access of genetic resources in the provider country post ratification of the Nagoya Protocol. When the Draft was considered by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI Committee) on 4 July 2013, the ENVI Committee adopted a number of amendments that addressed some of these short comings, including the modification of the scope of the regulation to include new and on-going utilizations of genetic resources (GRs) and traditional knowledge (TK). In their letter, Natural Justice and the Berne Declaration urge Members of the European Parliament to adopt the balanced proposal tabled by the ENVI Committee without further amendments.

The two organizations argue that if the ENVI Committee text were amended to revert back to access-based trigger points for user compliance, the European Regulation implementing the Nagoya Protocol would not apply to the new utilization of GRs and TK accessed before its entry into force, even when the use of such GRs and TK is newly initiated or the GRs or TK has been accessed illegally. They underscore that this approach would undermine the Nagoya Protocol’s principles in relation to the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, be inconsistent with an overwhelming body of ABS laws of provider countries, thereby increasing legal uncertainty for European users, and would lead provider countries to take extensive control measures at the moment when GRs are taken out of the country, regardless of the purpose for removal. Similar and additional arguments  were submitted to EU MEPs by the African Union on behalf of the African Group on 9th September.

The upcoming vote at the European Parliament in the coming days is key as it will set the path of the next negotiation phase. In order to ensure a greater legal certainty for providers and users of GRs, as well as to facilitate access to GRs for European users and consistency with the spirit of the Nagoya Protocol, Natural Justice and the Berne Declaration therefore call for the adoption of the proposal tabled by the ENVI Committee in its current form.

See also:
Joint Letter to the European Union Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety on the EC’s Draft ABS Regulation
Letter by Indigenous Information Network and Natural Justice, signed by 53 civil society organisations and individuals, 2013

Joint Submission to the European Union on the Draft Proposal on the Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing
Submission by Natural Justice and the Berne Declaration on access, utilisation, and user obligations, 2013

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Block Level Training Programme on Community Forest Rights in Keounjhar District

A Series of workshops on community forest rights (CFR) was organized in Harichadanpur, Banspal & Telkoi Block of Keounjhar district on 22nd, 23rd and 24th August 2013 respectively. The programme was organized by Natural Justice's local partner organization KIRDTI with co-operation from the district administration and Block officials. Sankar Pani of Natural Justice facilitated the workshop.

The workshops in Harichandanpurl and Telkoi Block were conducted at Block Headquarters and the Banspal workshop at Kuanar Panchayat office premises.

The Welfare Extension Officer (WEO) of Harichandanpur Block stated that approx 10,000 individual forest rights claims have been filed in the block while around 6,400 of those claims have been recognized and titles issued. He further stated that around 2,900 claims have been rejected at Gramsabha level. Approximately 99 villages have been covered in terms of distribution of title and few more villages are pending as of now.   He has sought help of the local NGO to identify villages and expedite the process of community rights recognition.

Similarly the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Telkoi Block declared that approximately 3,360 individual titles have been distributed while 4 community claims are under process for recognition.

In Banspal Block the Special Officer of Juang Development Agency (JDA) has requested villagers to co-operate in implementation of CFR rights in their respective villages and has prioritized the implementation at 35 micro project villages in the first wave.

Further, a target has been set by the Block officials to identify at least 10 villages every month with help from local organizations and to then expedite CFR processes at these villages.

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Theatre and the Law with the Borana Community

Natural Justice has been working with its Kenyan partner, Kivulini Trust, to support the Borana Pastoralist community assert their traditional land and resource rights. Through this process the Borana have been developing a bio-cultural community protocol (BCP) to highlight their community vision, traditional land and resource use based on their customary laws. During the week of the 19th of August, members of the Borana community, including elders, women and youth met in Isiolo town, Kenyato continue their BCP development through the use of theatre techniques. These interactive techniques facilitated discussion on issues facing the community and proposed positive solutions for change.

The visioning experience included setting out where the community is now, where it plans to be in the future and concrete steps on how it wishes to get there. The process was facilitated by community theater expert, Hjalmar Joffre-Eichhorn, who has also been working with Natural Justice and the National Khoi-San Council in South Africa.

This group of the Borana community then travelled to Marsabit County to attend the Kalacha Festival, a gathering of over 600 pastoralists from northern Kenya. During the festival the group performed a short play they had written during the week of training, which highlighted real issues affecting the Borana and other pastoralist communities. The audience included approximately 400 pastoralists and members of the Marsabit County Government, including the Governor. Using forum theatre techniques, the audience was invited to participate by proposing solutions to address the issues they had just witnessed in the play.

During the festival, Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) and Hassan Roba (Kivulini Trust) also held a panel session on pastoralism in Kenya, focusing on community land rights.


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Natural Justice attends Fracking Lecture at University of Western Cape

On 26 August 2013, Stephanie Booker and Lesle Jansen of Natural Justice attending a lecture entitled: “Fracking: Towards a Promised Land or a Broken Promise” presented by Ralhus, a project of the Faculty of Law of the University of Western Cape.

A Fracking billboard at the lecture

Three guest lecturers, Professor Jan Glazewski of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law at the University of Cape Town, Jonathon Deal from Treasure the Karoo Action Group and Matt Ash of Norton Rose Fulbright, presented on various topics within the current fracking debate in South Africa.  Presentations included taking a precautionary and principled approach towards fracking within the South African legal framework, whether the efficacy of shale gas mining for South Africa has been sufficiently proven to permit exploration and an analysis of facts on shale gas and hydraulic fracturing.

Presentations were followed by a lively panel discussion of the different viewpoints within the fracking debate in South Africa, considering South Africa’s current energy requirements, the need for a strategic environmental assessment and actual potential for community inclusion in future employment and benefit sharing.

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Natural Justice legally supports the National Khoi-San Council in historic benefit sharing agreement

On 19 August 2013, the indigenous San and Khoikhoi groups signed a historic benefit sharing agreement with Cape Kingdom Nutraceuticals Pty under South Africa’s Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004. Cape Kingdom Nutraceuticals is a pharmaceutical company that processes Buchu, a small shrub endemic to the Western Cape used for its essential oils. Buchu’s medicinal qualities are associated with the traditional knowledge (TK) of the Khoikhoi and San peoples. The agreement acknowledges that the Khoikhoi and San’s medicinal plant knowledge predates that of subsequent South African inhabitants and that the Khoikhoi and San are “legally entitled to a fair and equitable share of the benefits that result from the commercial development of the Buchu plant.” Although the San Council was previously involved in entering into similar agreements, this marks the first time the Khoikhoi represented by the National Khoi-San Council (NKC), entered into such an agreement where their TK is recognized as such.

During November 2012 Natural Justice entered into a memorandum of understanding with the National Khoi-San Council. Under this agreement, Natural Justice offers legal support to the NKC in its ongoing struggle for legal recognition of its collective rights which includes amongst others, legal processes relating to benefit sharing.  Natural Justice was also able to assist the NKC in forming a negotiating team with the San council represented by Roger Chennels.  In terms of this historic partnership,the NKC and the San council act as a representative structure for the Khoikhoi and San peoples to protect their rights around associated traditional knowledge for related plants. 

It is all too rare for a private company to recognize, especially financially, traditional knowledge and the intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples. Under the benefit sharing agreement with Cape Kingdom, the Khoikhoi and San communities will receive 3 percent of the profits related to Buchu products. Cape Kingdom also commits to share its knowledge of the commercial use of the plant with the indigenous communities in exchange for the San and Khoikhoi endorsing the products. In response to the agreement, NKC Chairperson Cecil LeFleur stated: “We are very proud and excited to be part of this process. Today we share the benefits of our historical knowledge with Cape Kingdom Nutraceuticals. We feel that this partnership will be to the benefit of the Khoikhoi and San people in South Africa, and will contribute to our development and empowerment.”

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2013 Global Environments Summer Academy (GESA)

In early August, Natural Justice participated in the 2013 Global Environments Summer Academy (GESA) on socio-ecological interactions that brought together eighteen young environmental change-makers from around the world and from a myriad of sectors, professions and disciplines. Most participants have extensive experience in working with indigenous and local communities.

Marie Wilke from Natural Justice and a GESA alumni lead a three-day workshop on “Law, Policy & Advocacy”. The aim of the course was to equip the participants with the tools needed to proactively engage with international, regional and domestic law-making and shaping processes. Through interactive group work, case studies and moot courts the course aimed at making law available to non-lawyers and to introduce useful approaches for engaging in legislative and adjudicative processes.

During the first day the participants produced small universes of international law by ordering different international organizations, laws, courts and actors that they were familiar with according to themes, legal subjects and hierarchies.

These systems informed the group work on day two, when the participants developed legal strategies for three fictional indigenous and local communities that were confronted with challenging policy changes such as large-scale infrastructure projects, prohibitions of customary practices for conservation and animal welfare reasons, and land right reforms and competing land claims. Some groups opted for court action in the light of recent jurisprudential developments, in particular in regional human right courts, while others preferred negotiated settlements. Importantly, using Natural Justice’s Toolkit, all groups found that bio-cultural community protocols were useful tools for jointly developing legal strategies with the communities. 

On day three the GESA participants argued a fictional case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Moot Court case developed by the International Law Student Association (ILSA) concerned a small island nation that lost it’s homeland due to rising sea levels and that now struggles to find a new land and appropriate shelter for it’s climate refugees. The participants developed important legal arguments on the status of climate refugees, the collective responsibility for climate change, and on responsible developing lending. The diverse backgrounds of the participants were definitely of great help as all suggested approaches were informed by the perspectives of non-lawyers.

In a final discussion the participants agreed that international law yields many (unforeseen) opportunities for disadvantaged groups and that there is ample space for engagement, but that the biggest challenge remains the inaccessibility of law for non-lawyers.

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Natural Justice partner works to alleviate poverty and protect biodiversity

Natural Justice attended the Annual General Meeting of Phyto-Trade Africa from the 29th to the 31st of July. During the 3-day meeting, Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) met with Phyto-Trade members to discuss their strategies on collaborations with communities in the bio-trade industry.

Natural Justice has previously presented on its work with communities, particularly on biocultural community protocols and biocultural dialogues, which has assisted communities set out terms for engagement with biotrade companies. Natural Justice will also be collaborating with Phyto-Trade Africa and the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Initiative on a programme of work that will identify best practice examples of ABS in southern Africa.

Phyto-Trade Africa is a trade association of the natural product industry in Southern Africa with an aim to alleviate poverty and protect biodiversity in the region by developing an industry that is not only economically successful but also ethical and sustainable.

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Latest Natural Justice E-module: Introduction to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights System

Natural Justice has developed a draft e-learning module introducing the UN Human Rights System to support communities and practitioners in increasing understanding of key international human rights legal frameworks.  This e-learning module supplements existing e-learning modules and the "BCP: A Toolkit for Community Facilitiators".

The module seeks to provide an insight into:

• The United Nations;
• Human rights generally (including the International Bill of Rights and core human rights treaties non-derogable rights and permissible restrictions on rights);
• The implementation and monitoring of human rights standards (including charter-and treaty-based mechanisms); and,
• Key human rights institutions and enforcement mechanisms for Indigenous Peoples.

It is targeted at communities and anyone who is interested in an introduction to the UN human rights system.

The module can be downloaded here.  The document is not final, and any comments can be directed to Holly Shrumm (holly (at) naturaljustice.org) and Harry Jonas (harry (at) naturaljustice.org).

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Protocols for Sustainable Harvesting in Protected Areas Workshop

Gino Cocchiaro and Cath Traynor of Natural Justice, and partners Kruger to Canyons Management Committee and Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association (KTHPA) attended the Protocols for Sustainable Harvesting in Protected Areas Workshop hosted by Wits University Rural Facility on 13th July 2013. The workshop was the first of a series to start a conversation to achieve a common understanding concerning the possibility for traditional healers to access protected areas in order to harvest medicinal plants. A variety of stakeholders including protected area managers - both national, provincial and private, traditional healers, civil society organisations, and academics attended.

Twenty-seven million (72%) South Africans use traditional medicines and the industry has an annual turnover of more than 3.2 billion Rands. Over 2,000 plant species (10%) of the South African flora is utilised in traditional medicines, and many of these species are declining. Gino Cocchiaro presented on biocultural community protocols (BCP), including the BCP of the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association and Rodney Sibuyi (KTHPA) presented on the history of the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association and discussed some challenges regarding accessing traditional medicinal plant species and their management. South African National Parks highlighted parks-based protocols for non-commercial harvesting, and park objectives concerning plant harvesting which includes promoting sustainable use, alternatives, reducing illegal harvesting and monitoring. Difficulties managing traditional medicinal harvesting was illustrated by the case of Warburgia salitaris (Pepperbark tree), the bark is a popular traditional medicine. Kruger National Park has two of the largest surviving populations of this endangered tree, and recent increases in commercial harvesting pressures have resulted in collection methods changing form the sustainable harvest of small strips of bark to ringbarking trees which results in their death. Issues raised included defining ‘communities’, identifying benefits, who has rights to them and their equitable sharing, costs of access, unity and consensus among beneficiary groups. Important sustainability issues included determining what is ecologically sustainable, adaptative strategies, and addressing situations where demand is greater than supply. The outputs of the workshop will feed into further workshops which will aim to include a greater diversity of stakeholder groups.

Kukula Traditional Healers Practitioners Management Committee Meeting

Gino Cocchiaro and CathTraynor (Natural Justice) attended the Kukula Traditional Health Practitioners Association Management Committee Meeting on 15th July in Bushbuckridge, South Africa. During the meeting with the healers, Biocultural Community Protocol was revisited, and current concerns of the group discussed. Key concerns centred around recognition, access to plants, loss of knowledge, and livelihoods issues. Participants summarised the groups main activities since the formation of the Kukula Traditional Healers group which included discussions with government departments, local private nature reserves, training on prior, informed consent, and development of the traditional knowledge commons pool – a platform to share knowledge among themselves. Participants discussed the future workplan and various ideas and activities to address their priority concerns.

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Pillars in Practice: Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Business and Human Rights in Zimbabwe

On 20 June 2013, Stephanie Booker (Natural Justice) attended the "Pillars in Practice: Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Business and Human Rights" in Zimbabwe, held by Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in partnership with the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) and Social Accountability International (SAI).  

"Pillars in Practice" is an 18-month initiative to advance the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights.  The Project's objective is to "establish the trianing capacity of local civil society partners to sustainably promote and assist companies, governments, trade unions and other non-government organisations in the implementation of the Guiding Principles, to operationalise the "Protest, Respect and Remedy" Framework.

Joined by more than 75 participants from Zimbabwean businesses, government agencies, civil society organisations and communities, the multi-stakeholder forum was an opportunity for participants to be introduced to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and for participants to discuss the major issues affecting human rights with respect to mining.  Participants made concrete recommendations for government and business and suggested steps forward for stakeholders in the implementation of the Guiding Principles.  You can read the recommendations here.

More information can be found on the "Pillars in Practice" facebook page, or the Danish Institute for Human Rights webpage here.

Photo: Courtesy of "Pillars in Practice" facebook page.

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The Right to Responsibility - Our Latest Book for Peer Review

We’re pleased to announce that Natural Justice and the United Nations University – Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) have just released a new book for peer review, entitled: The Right to Responsibility: Resisting and Engaging Development, Conservation, and the Law in Asia. This edited volume explores how Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ resilience to external factors is often undermined by laws, institutional arrangements, and judicial systems. It also examines how particular peoples and communities are striving to overcome such structural barriers to self-determination by resisting unwanted developments and engaging proactively with a range of actors at multiple scales.

It is edited by Natural Justice’s Holly Jonas and Harry Jonas and UNU-IAS’s Suneetha M. Subramanian, and comprised of the following three parts:

Part I: Context and Theoretical Development

• Chapter 1: Between Development Conservation and the Law – by Harry Jonas and Holly Jonas
• Chapter 2: Will the Flamingos Return to the Fishing Shelters? Engaging with Diverse Biocultural Realities – by Kanchi Kohli

Part II: Community Experiences

• Chapter 3: The Role of Traditional Knowledge and Customary Arrangements in Conservation: Trans-boundary Landscape Approaches in the Kailash Sacred Landscape of China, India and Nepal – by Krishna Prasad Oli, Luorong Zhandui, Ranbeer S. Rawal, Ram Prasad Chaudhary, Shi Peili, and Robert Zomer
• Chapter 4: Defending and Strengthening Sharwa (Sherpa) Rights and ICCAs in Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park, Nepal – by Stan Stevens
• Chapter 5: A National Park, River-dependent Sonahas and a Biocultural Space in Peril – by Sudeep Jana
• Chapter 6: Empowering Rights-holders and Facilitating Duty-bearers to Secure Farmers’ Rights in Nepal – by Bikash Paudel and Sajal Sthapit
• Chapter 7: Livestock Keepers’ Rights in South Asia – by Ilse Köhler-Rollefson
• Chapter 8: Forest Rights and Conservation in India – by Tushar Dash and Ashish Kothari
• Chapter 9: Local Forest Governance, FPIC and REDD+ in Indonesia: A Case Study from Aceh, Sumatra – by Patrick Anderson and Marcus Colchester
• Chapter 10: Asserting the Right to Safeguard Biocultural Heritage and Customary Lands in Ulu Papar, Sabah, Malaysia – by Justine Vaz and Agnes Lee Agama

Part III: Analysis and Looking Ahead – by Harry Jonas and Holly Jonas

• Chapter 11: Reforming Rights to Support Responsibilities 
• Chapter 12: Recommendations 
• Chapter 13: Legal Empowerment for Landscapes

The book is available for download in full, in three parts, and by chapter at: http://naturaljustice.org/library/our-publications/books-volumes/the-right-to-responsibility. Please contact the editors at holly (at) naturaljustice (dot) org with any comments or feedback by 1 September.

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EMRIP Side Event on the Relationship between ICCAs and Access to Justice

At the Sixth Meeting of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) a side event was hosted on 11 July by Natural Justice, the ICCA Consortium and the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) to discuss the relationship between access to justice and Indigenous peoples’ and community conserved territories and areas (ICCAs).

Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend (ICCA Consortium) opened the expert panel with an introduction to the concept of ICCAs and stories of diverse ICCAs around the world. Two local examples from the Indigenous Pygmy peoples from North Kivu (Joseph Itongwa, PIDP-Kivu) and from the Ogiek peoples (Daniel Mpoiok Kobei, Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program) from Kenya followed. Marie Wilke (Natural Justice), Nigel Crawhall (IPACC Secretariat) and Kanyinke Sena (Chairperson, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues) concluded the panel with presentations and statements on the legal perspective and the opportunities provided by the legal recognition of ICCAs as a means of environmental conservation.

The panel and the audience concluded that the concept of ICCAs provides a great opportunity for Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ self-determination as it enables them to emphasise the benefit of their customary practices to society at large in the form of conservation, rather than simply arguing from their position as rights-bearers. Recognition of ICCAs in turn would also achieve recognition of land titles, collective rights and legal standing for customary institutions.

More information about EMRIP 6, including the draft study on access to justice, is available here. Submissions by Natural Justice to the study on access to justice are available here.

The full event report is available here.

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Natural Justice Meets with Khoi & San Communities in the Eastern Cape

Lesle Jansen and Steph Booker of Natural Justice attended a three day meeting of the Khoi & San communities in the Eastern Cape from 28 to 30 June 2013.  Set in Graaff-Reinet, the heart of the Karoo, representatives of the Khoi-San communities met to discuss issues of land claims in terms of the Restitution of land rights Act 22 of 1994 and possible impacts of fracking by Shell and other international companies in their traditionally owned and utilized territories.  Supported by Treasure the Karoo Action Group, Mr Jonathan Deal and Pastor Barry Wuganaale (of the Ogoni Peoples from Nigeria) shared their views on the likely impacts of fracking on the environment (such as impacts on water sources), on the community (such as a lack of meaningful employment), and the very threats to the Khoi & San as Indigenous Peoples of South Africa.

Stephanie presented on the relevant international law and the likely impacts of fracking on the rights of the community, as well as potential methods that the community can use to identify, mobilise, strategise and advocate for their rights.  Lesle provided background to the current Amendment to the Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994 and how this is likely to impact upon the community.

At the conclusion of the meeting the participants generated a number of resolutions through which to move forward on each of the issues.

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Advanced Seminar on the Implementation and Promotion of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the Namibia context

Lesle Jansen and Stephanie Booker of Natural Justice presented in Windhoek, Namibia on the topics of indigenous peoples and the environment; post-2015 UN development agenda as well as a situational analysis on extractives industries in Southern Africa. The presentations formed part of a four-day Advanced Seminar on the Implementation and Promotion of Indigenous Peoples Rights in the Namibia context. It was hosted by the University of Namibia in partnership with Open Society Foundation in Southern Africa (OSISA) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). 

The seminar was hosted from 01 – 04 July 2013 with about 30 participants from different sectors ranging from University of Namibia staff and students; civil society; media and government officials. The objectives to the seminar were:

• To build local knowledge of human rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and how this applies to indigenous peoples in Namibia
• To look at the International Human Rights Framework and the obligations of the Namibian Government to respect, protect and fulfil human rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• To achieve a greater awareness, understanding and implementation of relevant policy guidance on indigenous issues, particularly related to effective engagement of indigenous peoples and recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights in development processes
• To explore the use of human rights indicators to establish/ ensure accountability for the implementation of IPs rights in Namibia.

The theme to the seminar was: The concept of indigenous peoples and legal instruments protecting them. It covered the topics, amongst others (i) Understanding the concept of Indigenous Peoples under international law: A human Rights Approach; (ii) International Norms and Standards relevant to IPs: ILO Convention No 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; (iii) Legal instruments and monitoring mechanisms on indigenous peoples’ rights in the African human and (iv) The recognition of indigenous peoples in Namibia.

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