Economic, social & cultural rights

Relevant resources

FPP and Partners' Submission to the UN Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, March 2013

FPP, CED, YMP, JASOIL, HuMa, PUSAKA, Sawit Watch and Scale Up

6 March, 2013

RE: Civil society inputs to the public consultation on the thematic report on indigenous peoples and business and human rights.

Click here to read the submission.

Submission - English (0.4 MB)

Request for Consideration of the Situation of the Karen Indigenous People Forcibly Evicted from the Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand, under UN CERD's Urgent Action and Early Warning Procedure

Karen Network on Culture and Environment, Inter Mountain Peoples Education and Culture in Thailand Association (IMPECT), Indigenous Knowledge and Peoples Network (IKAP), Northern Farmers' Network, Indigenous Peoples’ Foundation for Education and Environment (I.P.F), Forest Peoples Programme

13 February, 2012

Click here to read the Request to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

Request to CERD - English (0.3 MB)

Request for Further Consideration of the Situation of the Indigenous Peoples of Merauke, Papua Province, Indonesia, and Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia in General, under UN CERD’s Urgent Action and Early Warning Procedures

Forest Peoples Programme, AMAN, Sawit Watch

6 February, 2012

Please click here to read the Request

Request - English (0.4 MB)

Karen People forcibly expelled from the Kaeng Krachan National Park in Thailand

31 January, 2012

In January, indigenous peoples’ organisations sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra, asking her to take immediate action to redress the forcible expulsion of Karen people from their ancestral territory in north-western Thailand, which is now overlapped by the Kaeng Krachan National Park.

According to sources that have visited Kaeng Krachan National Park and collected information, the harassment of Karen villagers has been going on for some time and became severe in May, June and July 2011, when many of the villagers’ houses and rice stores were burned and money, jewellery, fishing and agricultural tools were stolen by a group comprising National Park wardens and military forces. As a result, some of these villagers moved away and are now staying with relatives elsewhere and a number of them (allegedly around 70 people) are hiding in the forest in fear of meeting government officers, and are without sufficient food and shelter.

International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) Letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand regarding the forced relocation of Karen people from Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand

International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB)

15 January, 2012

Click here to read the IIFB Letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand

IIFB Letter - English (0.2 MB)

Rural Indonesians Demonstrate to Demand Land Rights and an End to Land Grabs

13 January, 2012

Rural Indonesians Protest to Demand Land Rights and an End to Land Grabs, Jakarta, January 2012

Following high profile cases of police violence and killings of rural people protesting land grabs, a new alliance of rural people - indigenous peoples, farmers, workers and landless people as well as supportive NGOs - is demanding the repeal of laws which allow the State to expropriate people's lands and resources in favour or large businesses. They are also demanding the passing of new laws that secure the people's rights in land and ensure ecological justice, through agrarian reforms and the recognition of indigenous peoples' rights.

Statement - English (0.1 MB)

Statement - Bahasa Indonesia (0.1 MB)

Inter-American Court of Human Rights adopts compliance orders in the Saramaka People v. Suriname case, 23 Nov 2011

13 January, 2012

On 23 November 2011, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights adopted
compliance orders in the Saramaka People v. Suriname case. The Court finds that Suriname has failed to comply with the most important of its orders made in the 2007 judgment; holds that Suriname is in some respects "in direct contravention of the Court's decision and, accordingly, of the State's international treaty obligations;" and decides to convene a hearing on the case during 2012. Click here to read the IACHR Order

IACHR Order - English (2 MB)

Updated Press Release: Bali Declaration acclaimed at Agribusiness and Human Rights in Southeast Asia Workshop

1 December, 2011

The international meeting of South East Asian Regional Human Rights Commissions on ‘Human Rights and Business: Plural Legal Approaches to Conflict Resolution, Institutional Strengthening and Legal Reform’ hosted by the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (KOMNASHAM), in conjunction with Sawit Watch and Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) was held in Bali, Indonesia, from 28th November to 1st December 2011.

Updated Press Release - English (0.2 MB)

Press Release: Agribusiness and Human Rights in Southeast Asia Workshop brings together Human Rights Commissioners, indigenous peoples’ representatives, academics and NGOs from across the world. November 2011

28 November, 2011

PRESS INFORMATION – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A landmark workshop, “Human Rights and Business: Plural Legal Approaches to Conflict Resolution, Institutional Strengthening and Legal Reform”, is taking place at the Santika Hotel, Kuta, Bali, from today until 1 December 2011, convened by the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and supporting NGOs SawitWatch and Forest Peoples Programme. The event will be attended by over 60 participants, from the National Human Rights Commissions of the Southeast Asian region, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission, notable academics, representatives of indigenous peoples, as well as members of supportive national and international NGOs.

Nur Kholis, Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), said,

“We are taking this initiative in collaboration with the other human rights commissioners of South East Asia as a way of ensuring a more balanced approach to development based on respect for peoples’ rights, with an emphasis on the need to secure livelihoods and the right to food.”

Press Release - English (1 MB)

New Publication: Divers Paths to Justice - Legal pluralism and the rights of indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia

Marcus Colchester & Sophie Chao (Eds) with Ramy Bulan, Jennifer Corpuz, Amity Doolittle, Devasish Roy, Myrna Safitri, Gam Shimray and Prasert Trakansuphakon

Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests & Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)

26 November, 2011