UN Human Rights Council Approves Resolution on Binding Standards for TNCs

The United Nations Human Rights Council has approved a resolution to start developing an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights. The resolution, presented by the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, South Africa, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, seeks to establish an intergovernmental working group with the mandate of developing an international legally binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational corporations.

Despite intense opposition from several powerful countries, the resolution was finally adopted with 20 votes in favour, 14 against and 13 abstentions. All western states members of the Human Rights Council voted against the resolution. The majority of developing countries, including most of African states as well as China, India and Russia, voted in favour.

James Anaya on the "resource curse" in the global south

Professor James Anaya (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) has written an opinion article for Al Jazeera entitled "Is natural resource development a blessing, a 'quick-fix,' or a curse?" Drawing on his experiences as a UN investigator, he argues that the resource curse is alive and well in the global south, with profits from natural resource extraction failing to reach the people and communities who bear the brunt of its environmental and social impacts, and that the heart of the problem often lies in lack of recognition of the rights of the Indigenous peoples and local communities living on the land.

Referencing the community land and resource rights conference currently taking place in Interlaken, he calls on the new UN Sustainable Development Goals to include recognition of land rights, including rights based on traditional use and occupancy, in order to address deep-rooted problems of contested ownership. For more information, please read the Al Jazeera article and download Anaya's thematic report on extractive industries and Indigenous peoples, which was recently submitted to the Human Rights Council.

UN Human Rights Bodies' Jurisprudence on Indigenous Peoples

In the rapidly changing field of international Indigenous rights, it can be difficult to track new developments. To address this gap, the Forest Peoples Programme has been monitoring all developments around the rights of Indigenous peoples in UN human rights bodies in a series entitled “A Compilation of UN Treaty Body Jurisprudence, the Recommendations of the Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures, and the Advice of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” They recently released the 5th volume in this compilation, which covers the jurisprudence of UN human rights bodies pertaining to Indigenous peoples from 2011-2012 and was compiled and edited by Fergus MacKay. 

The publication can be accessed here. For further information, see the volumes from 2009-2010, 2007-2008, 2005-2006 and 1993-2004.