Submission to the UN Global Compact on Practice Note on FPIC

On 1 March 2013 Natural Justice submitted a letter to the United Nations Global Compact, commenting on their Draft Practice Note on Free, Prior and Informed Consent (the draft practice note can be found here). The concept note aims to identify key issues that companies should consider in appropriate engagements with indigenous peoples.

Natural Justice’s submission sought to clarify elements of the draft practice note, bringing it into line with international human rights and environmental legal principles found in instruments such as the Declaration on the Rights on Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Nagoya Protocol and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as well as the work of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and international jurisprudence such as the Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council v Kenya and Saramaka v. Suriname.

Global Compact was urged to:
1. Amend its practice note to reflect international standards, by specifying the obligations of states to respect the rights of indigenous peoples to free prior and informed consent with respect to projects and decisions that are likely to affect them;
2. Amend its practice note to reflect a company’s obligation to apply and respect internationally recognized human rights (such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), and to honour these rights where there are conflicts with domestic laws.

This and other submissions are available here.