Land Rights and the Forest Peoples of Africa

Land rights and the forest peoples of Africa – Part II
into protected areas without their consent. In the case of relocation, both consensual and
non-consensual, ILO 169 87 also contains specified remedies: the right to return to traditional
lands once the reason for relocation no longer pertains; allocation of lands of equal quality
and legal status, unless the people(s) concerned express a preference for compensation; full
compensation for any loss or injury resulting from relocation.
In summary, indigenous peoples’ rights to land and natural resources are strongly affirmed
and guaranteed by numerous inter-related human rights decisions and instruments, which
have emerged from both regional and international human rights mechanisms in the past
decades. However, the realisation of these rights through the implementation of the relevant
decisions and instruments remains very challenging. While international and regional bodies
have created solid instruments and taken groundbreaking decisions, very few of the principles
expounded have been implemented in practice in the countries studied. But it is important to
bear in mind that the principles and rights emerging from international law should be seen as
minimum standards of protection for the rights of indigenous peoples, beneath which no
state legislation should fall.
3 Conclusion: the way forward
The findings of the five country studies, along with the anthropological and legal elements
described in the composite publication on indigenous forest peoples’ land rights in Africa, call
for reflection on possible ways forward. Retracing legal developments in each of the five
countries has shown how indigenous peoples were dispossessed from their ancestral lands
without being compensated and how they have been suffering from the consequences of these
measures ever since. Country-specific recommendations can be found in each of the country
studies. On a regional basis, three types of recommendations can be made to redress the
issues raised in the studies: implementation, reparation and consultation.
A
Implementation
The wide ratification by African states of international and regional instruments pertaining to
indigenous peoples’ rights demonstrates a strong commitment toward the protection and
promotion of indigenous land rights. But concrete measures must be put in place for the
standards to be translated into reality, including those of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples Rights, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the
United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and the
Convention on Biological Diversity. In addition, states can show greater commitment by
ratifying other recent international and regional treaties engaging the rights of indigenous
peoples, such as the revised African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources and the International Labour Organization Convention No 169.
Fundamentally, the recognition of the existence of indigenous forest peoples in Africa is
crucial to the realisation of the human rights guaranteed in the international and regional
instruments. The particular situation of ‘Pygmy’ hunter–gatherers in Africa has led the
African Commission to define them as indigenous peoples. Confusion around the concept of
87
ILO 169, Article 16 (3–5).
Couillard & Gilbert 46
March 2009