A Human Rights-Based Approach To Development
The World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) play a central role in large-scale development projects, such as dams and forestry conservation initiatives, which often have devastating effects on indigenous peoples and other local communities. We are working to ensure that these institutions respect the human rights of indigenous peoples and all people through policy reform and the development of new, binding human rights standards.
We are specifically asking MDBs to adopt a human rights-based approach to development, to promote the fulfillment of indigenous peoples’ human rights as a development strategy, and to align their policies and activities with international human rights norms.
In 2013, we began working with a coalition of allies – more than 50 organizations – to launch a campaign to create new rules of international human rights law in the United Nations that would explicitly apply to MDBs and require them to respect human rights and the environment. In September, 2013, we presented a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of these allies.
In addition, we successfully advocated for more participation of indigenous leaders in the World Bank safeguard policy review process. The World Bank safeguard review provides a unique opportunity to improve the practices of the Bank and to help ensure that development works for indigenous peoples, not against us. We were instrumental in getting the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to devote a full day to examining the extent to which the World Bank and other regional development banks respect the rights of indigenous peoples.
Recognizing Community Rights To Land and Resources in Guatemala
International law says that indigenous communities have the right to control and protect their traditional lands and territories; they also have the right to live free of violence and injustice. These rights are being ignored by the Guatemala government. For more than 40 years, Agua Caliente leaders, from a small Maya Q’eqchi’ community in El Estor, have fought attempts by the government and mining interests to evict the communities from their lands. Like many indigenous territories, their lands are resource rich; beneath Agua Caliente’s territory lies a large and valuable deposit of nickel.
In February, 2011, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala issued an important decision in our case that recognized the Agua Caliente community’s property rights to its lands and ordered the government to take necessary measures for issuing a land title to the community. The government has failed to take action. In the three years since the decision, violence and threats against the community have increased.
We filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concerning the violation of the community’s rights to property, self-government, due process of law, and judicial protection by the state of Guatemala. We are seeking international pressure to stop the mine. In March, 2013, we brought a delegation of Agua Caliente leaders to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and U.S. lawmakers to create awareness about the nickel mine that threatens to destroy their homelands. In addition, we launched a radio campaign to educate Maya Q’eqchi’ communities about their rights and our legal efforts to bring justice to their communities.
We will continue to work at the highest levels to secure stronger human right protections not only for the Agua Caliente community but all indigenous communities in Guatemala.
