Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

274 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
The third mechanism is the Office of the UN Special
Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is part
of the UN Special Procedures, and just one of a number of
thematic Special Rapporteurs (which will be covered under
the next heading). The Special Rapporteur has a mandate to
promote good practice, report on the situation of the human
rights in countries or specific themes, and to deal with specific
cases of alleged violations of the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Special Rapporteur’s mandate includes the possibility to
visit countries, and compile reports on the experience, which
provides an opportunity for advocacy. At the time of writing
the main thematic area being researched by the current Special
Rapporteur, Professor James Anaya is on the extractive industries.
In this context, Professor Anaya has highlighted the
need for and development of an international norm requiring
the consent of indigenous peoples when their property rights,
among others, are impacted by natural resource extraction. 5
It is the last part of the mandate that may prove the most
useful, as it allows indigenous communities to make complaints.
The complaint can relate to a human rights violation
that has already occurred, is ongoing, or which has a high
risk of occurring. The process, in general, involves the Special
Rapporteur sending a confidential communication to the concerned
government requesting information, commenting on
the allegation and suggesting that preventive or investigatory
action be taken. 6
There is a UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations
that can be applied to for travel to the Permanent Forum, the
Expert Mechanism or other UN meetings (including those
mentioned below). It is administered by a Board of Trustees,
including indigenous members Its funds are of course limited,
but they do fund a significant number of representatives in any
year, and one of the criteria is for supporting candidates who
have never travelled to that particular UN meeting before. 7