A/HRC/33/42 prior to approving or undertaking an investment. Some extractive industry bodies and companies sourcing palm oil, sugar, soy and other resources have also made policy progress towards the recognition of rights recognized in the Declaration, including the requirement for such consent, as has the United Nations Global Compact. Those developments reflect the general acknowledgement by transnational corporations of their responsibility to respect indigenous peoples’ rights. 24. However, implementation of those commitments remains poor, and issues remain surrounding the interpretation of indigenous peoples’ rights, in particular the right to give or withhold free, prior and informed consent. 25. Tackling the underlying issue of corporate participation in violations of indigenous peoples’ rights would contribute significantly to addressing the current imbalance and incoherence in international law. Mechanisms have been proposed to address business and human rights, such as arbitration tribunals dedicated to providing a remedy for affected peoples and individuals. Discussions at the intergovernmental level on a treaty on business and human rights have also raised many of the issues witnessed in the context of promoting investor obligations under international investment agreements. V. Impacts on indigenous peoples’ rights of investments, international investment agreements and investor-State dispute settlements A. Impact of investments on indigenous peoples 26. The Special Rapporteur’s research reveals an alarming number of cases in the mining, oil and gas, hydroelectric and agribusiness sectors whereby foreign investment projects have resulted in serious violations of indigenous peoples’ land, self-governance and cultural rights. Those violations, which can extend to crimes against humanity, have been addressed extensively in the recommendations and jurisprudence of international and regional human rights bodies. 27. Typically, the host States involved employ economic development policies aimed at the exploitation of energy, mineral, land or other resources that are predominantly located in the territories of indigenous peoples. The government agencies responsible for implementing those policies regard such lands and resources as available for unhindered exploitation and actively promote them as such abroad to generate capital inflows. Recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights in the domestic legal framework is either nonexistent, inadequate or not enforced. Where they exist, institutions mandated to uphold indigenous peoples’ rights are politically weak, unaccountable or underfunded. Indigenous peoples lack access to remedies in home and host States and are forced to mobilize, leading to criminalization, violence and deaths. They experience profound human rights violations as a result of impacts on their lands, livelihoods, cultures, development options and governance structures, which, in some cases, threaten their very cultural and physical survival. Projects are stalled and there is a trend towards investor-State dispute settlements related to fair and equitable treatment, full protection and security and expropriation. 28. Despite significant developments in the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights and safeguards under international human rights law, investment in those sectors is generating “increasing and ever more widespread effects on indigenous peoples’ lives” 5 as 5 See A/HRC/24/41, para. 1. 7