A/HRC/15/34
indigenous community and designed projects to mitigate the impact of the plantation on
peoples’ livelihood and land.
18.
In Nepal, the Durban Review Conference Follow-up Committee, established with
the support of the OHCHR-Nepal, held a meeting with the country’s Prime Minister in
January 2010 and submitted a memorandum that includes the concerns of indigenous
peoples and calls for the effective implementation of the ILO Convention No. 169 and the
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. OHCHR-Nepal further followed-up with
the Government on recommendations by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination so as to ensure effective and meaningful participation of indigenous peoples
in the ongoing constitution-making process.
19.
In Cameroon, the OHCHR Regional Office for Central Africa provided advice to the
Ministry of Social Affairs in the preparation of a draft law on the rights of marginalized
populations, advocating for a dedicated law to recognize and protect the rights of
indigenous peoples in Cameroon. The human rights and challenges faced by indigenous
peoples in Cameroon were raised during the drafting of the United Nations Development
Assistance Framework for Cameroon. The Office also made a technical contribution to the
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) preparation of a negotiation strategy for formal
agreements of joint management of the national park of Campo Ma’an in eastern Cameroon
between local indigenous peoples and the local administration in April 2009.
20.
The Human Rights Adviser in Ecuador, in close cooperation with the Ministry of
Justice and Human Rights, has been working on the issue of coordination between ordinary
and indigenous systems of justice with a view to preparing a draft law on the issue. It also
developed training modules on indigenous justice addressed to police, military national
institutions and justice officials and organized pilot training workshops to validate the
contents of the modules.
21.
In the same vein, OHCHR-Bolivia provided technical advice to the Ministry of
Justice on legal pluralism and indigenous justice. It also jointly organized, with the Ministry
of Autonomies, an international seminar on indigenous autonomy and its human rights
implications. Both activities contributed to improving understanding and implementation of
key reform proposals relating to indigenous peoples, including provisions of the new
Constitution.
22.
In the context of the project to contribute to the eradication of racism and ethnic and
gender discrimination, particularly against indigenous women, OHCHR-Guatemala
supported the design and launching of the second phase of the National Campaign for
Coexistence in Cultural Diversity, entitled “Indigenous women have rights; we demand that
they are met”. It further disseminated, together with the Social Studies and Research
Association (ASIES), recommendations contained in the OHCHR-ASIES study “Access to
justice for indigenous peoples from a human rights-based approach: Perspectives from
indigenous law and from the official justice system”, particularly to representatives of the
judiciary.
3.
Capacity-building activities
23.
OHCHR in Geneva has stepped up its efforts to encourage the use of the Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the work of national human rights institutions. In
December 2009, it organized an expert meeting in Bangkok, bringing together selected
national human rights institutions, indigenous representatives and human rights bodies
resulting in concrete proposals that are now being followed up.
24.
During the period under review, the Office continued to implement its indigenous
fellowship programme (which has four linguistic components) and provided in-depth
training sessions on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to 23 indigenous
6
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents