Source: The Guardian Briefing Paper on INTRODUCTION The Indigenous Peoples of Asia are Indigenous Peoples occupy lands rich Business and high up on the list of targets and in natural resources (waters, forests victims of human rights violations. and minerals) that are valuable for Killings, enforced disappearances, business operations. However, their Human Rights arbitrary arrest and detention, rights, including to their lands, intimidation, persecution and territories and resources and Free, 2020 violence against Indigenous Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), Peoples, Indigenous women and are very often not recognized and/or effectively implemented in business BHR SITUATION OF INDIGENOUS human rights defenders are PEOPLES IN ASIA increasing, even during this COVID- contexts. Laws, plans and activities 19 pandemic period. This trend of related to business and development Indigenous Peoples rights violations (narrowly understood as economic is expected to worsen as the growth) are mostly designed and implemented without meaningful An Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact government continues to centralize and consolidate its powers and participation of Indigenous Peoples, Report, November 2020 pursues its neoliberal economic particularly Indigenous women, even development program. when those laws and projects directly affect them.

www.aippnet.org | 1 These result in profoundly negative human rights impacts, Secure governance systems coordinate voluntary including forced evictions/resettlements and loss of lands, isolation and community quarantines which are resources and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples. When capable of maintaining Indigenous Peoples safe. In indigenous communities fight back, they face extreme these incidents, the right to FPIC is key as a community reprisals and risks, such as harassments, attacks, in involuntary isolation, to protect their community disappearances, violence against women and killings of from a virus must have been seen as withholding Indigenous leaders and human rights defenders. Worse, consent by default until a safer date for a consultation lack of access to effective remedy or justice for the human can be agreed upon. Instead, we observe the rights abuses continues as a daunting challenge for the continuation of extractive activities and other business affected Indigenous communities. ventures which expose vulnerable, isolated, and otherwise autonomous communities to the virus. The This briefing paper prepared on the eve of the ninth annual mining sector has been highlighted as spreading the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights (BHR), was virus to remote Indigenous populations and areas of organized virtually, from 16 to 18 November 2020, takes the world, and many countries have deemed the into account the extraordinary circumstances relating to industry as essential allowing them to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on global travel nation-wide lockdowns. with the theme of preventing adverse impacts to build a sustainable future. This paper briefly discusses the Land-use change, ecosystem fragmentation, situation of Business and Human Rights of Indigenous deforestation, global trade, and high intensity livestock Peoples in Asia focusing on some countries i.e. Bangladesh, farming all contribute to the rise of zoonotic diseases, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar and the their crossing into human hosts and their subsequent Philippines. As per an informal trend analysis of human proliferation across national and global populations. rights violations of Indigenous Peoples reported in the Through COVID-19 the consequences of IPHRDs Network of AIPP, business activities in the order environmental degradation, in seemingly “remote” of mining, agribusiness, energy projects, real estate, parts of the world, in the intact and healthy ecosystems tourism, etc. cause the most violations of land and resource traditionally managed by Indigenous Peoples, was rights and/or against indigenous human rights defenders. demonstrated to impact us all. The stark reality of our Environmental “conservation” undertakings such as interconnectedness with global environmental national parks and false climate change solutions, and processes and the implications of “business as usual” infrastructure development such as mega-dams are other has entered our homes, dismantled families and contributors for rights abuses. These activities are usually disrupted the global economic ecosystem. However, accompanied by militarization or heavy use of security under lockdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the forces to tackle opposition, which results in more virus deforestation has continued to rise, only to violations. exacerbate an existential issue facing us all.

AIPP has been observing the situation and the trend of A “renewed emphasis on the need to prevent adverse human rights violations of IPs in Asia from March-October impacts on people and the planet resulting from 2020. In this paper, AIPP provides some of the trends on harmful business activities is urgently required.” the issue of business and human rights in Asia and is based However, in a recent publication co-authored by the on information compiled by AIPP i.e. both secondary Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), the Rights and sources and communication from the ground. Resource Initiative (RRI) and the Indonesia Tenure Coalition, government strategies that promote COVID 19 economic recovery at the detriment of the tenure and forest rights of Indigenous Peoples are being pushed Zoonotic diseases are a part of humanity and human through during COVID-19. The COVID-19 induced history. Sixty-one percent of all human diseases are recession has been used by governments to continue, zoonotic in origin and in the last decade alone this figure and even augment destructive and unsustainable has risen to seventy-five percent. While COVID-19’s industrial practices which risk undermining the next impact on the world is truly spectacular, epidemics and generation of environmental targets before they are pandemics alike have been commonplace. Indigenous even formalized by the Conference of Parties. Peoples have traditional practices to prevent the spread of virulent pathogens.

www.aippnet.org | 2 While building back better and transformative change are Key developments in the Region admirable goals, the reality is that “more of the same” is prevailing with both governments and businesses Major changes in Law and Policy supporting these processes. In a world where “business as usual” is the cause and driver of the multiple biodiversity, In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo’s government has climate, COVID-19 and human rights crises we are used COVID-19 to push controversial legislative experiencing, AIPP has not observed clear attempts to processes that were widely criticized prior to the “build back better” in Asia. States who hold the “duty to pandemic. The most contentious of these, mentioned protect human rights abuses” and businesses with the previously, is the Workplace Creation Law, or the “responsibility to respect human rights” have Omnibus law, which passed on October 5th. The opportunistically used COVID-19 to sidestep Omnibus law has been strongly opposed by peasant, environmental and human rights responsibilities in favor of Indigenous Peoples, labor unions, student movements, economic growth. and environmental organizations. The Omnibus law deregulates mining, diminishes penalties for For example, in Indonesia, the recently passed OMNIBUS environmental violations, removes requirements for law will have drastic implications on environmental environmental impact assessments, creates favorable protections and the human rights of Indigenous Peoples conditions for corruption and excludes Indigenous and local communities across the country. Nonetheless, the Peoples and local communities from decision making World Bank has supported the law even through the clear processes altogether. involvement of business elites and systemic exclusion of civil society in formulating the law itself. This in part, can be Twelve politicians, instrumental in promoting the law, attributed to the failure of contemporary human rights have links to the mining sector. Since ratifying the bill frameworks to unite human rights with those of the several versions have circulated, each with important environment. This unity is evident for Indigenous Peoples differences, leading to a lack of clarity as to the final who live in tandem with an environment that encapsulated form the Omnibus law will take. In more than 1,000 the history, knowledge and sacred relationships which amendments in some 79 laws, the Omnibus law will support both human and non-human life within complex remove the right of the public to be consulted or interwoven socio-ecological systems. These socio- challenge projects and deregulate environmental ecological systems are stewarded by Indigenous Peoples, protections to favor foreign investment, both of which and the recognition and enforcement of their rights are will have severe impacts on deforestation across consequently a strategy for achieving the very Indonesia. In the two weeks since protests began, more transformative change needed to live in harmony with than 6,000 people have been arrested. While police nature as a global community. Forests are at the heart of a brutality has been reported widely, students are being “green recovery” from COVID-19, and protecting the rights criminalized and universities are threatening students of Indigenous Peoples is essential for the successful who join the protests with expulsion and the loss of implementation of any such strategy. scholarships should they partake in their civil right to mobilize and protest. There is an urgent need for governments and businesses alike to take sustainable, people-centered strategies while The Indonesian government is now holding fighting Covid-19 and “building back better”. This brief consultations on how to implement the regulations builds from a recent publication on how ‘New Laws in Asia within the Omnibus law; however, many organizations Favor Business at the Cost of Indigenous Peoples' and are boycotting the consultations and question the very Local Communities' Territorial Rights’ by providing cases legality of the Omnibus law itself. In the meantime, the on business-linked human rights abuses in the region. Indonesian government has continued criminalizing citizens who stand against the deterioration of their rights and the selling off of the environment in their country.

www.aippnet.org | 3 In India, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate A Food Crisis Change (MoEFCC) is rolling back environmental protections through multiple means. In March 2020 a draft Due to the disruption of global trade in food and EIA notification 2020 was released which exempts certain livelihoods, and restrictions on movement, the global categories of industry from needing EIAs. The implications pandemic is expected to increase the number of people of this will have ramifications for both human rights and living in crisis-level food insecurity. There are currently the environment. Accompanying these developments, on 821 million food-insecure people in the world, of which June 11 2020, the Government of India launched a new 135 million in 55 countries are living in crisis-level food coal auction, themed “Unleashing Coal: New hopes for insecurity. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, early Atmanirbhar Bharat” involving 41 coal mines across five estimates expect the number to double by 130 million states. This move was accompanied by other legislation, people. Among some of the most vulnerable groups to such as the amendment of Section 8A of the Mines and COVID-19 are Indigenous Peoples who face entrenched Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act 1956, which inequalities, stigma and discrimination. Addressing these will automatically extend all approvals, licenses and valid underlying inequalities and building resilience in rights to the successful bidder of mining leases. These Indigenous food systems is an opportunity to compound approvals were further waived for clearances granted socio-ecological shocks and prevent future pandemics. under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the Forest However, AIPP is observing an increasing number of Rights Act 2006 for a period of two years. These coal mines national strategies aimed to ameliorate the food shortage are also located on Indigenous lands and important crisis which are targeting the ancestral lands of biodiverse forests. This move will see the privatization of Indigenous Peoples, often as a means to support industrial India’s Coal industry. food products, such as palm oil, over essential life sustaining food products. An AIPP member in Malaysia, India’s States and the Central government are also PACOS Trust, carried out a survey to identify the need of systematically dismantling the rights of laborers as a means emergency food aid across 12000 families throughout to encourage economic growth. This development will put Sabah. The majority of those in need of emergency aid an increasing strain on the country’s most vulnerable were in areas where their tenure security, ecosystems communities, including the Indigenous populations. and governance systems were not intact.

Following the Enhanced Community Quarantine and the Conservation and Tourism Bayanihan Act (extended in Bayanihan 2), which extended the executive powers of President Duterte, the Philippines The systemic origins of COVID-19 are clear, the is appropriating funds from other branches of the continued destruction of the environment coupled with government to propel infrastructure plans, many of which high intensity farming of livestock provide two avenues target the ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples. 50% of where new pathogens can enter populations. The spread the funds of a US $2.6 billion stimulus package, the of the virus is associated with our rapidly changing Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the climate and the loss of the planet’s biodiversity. If Economy of the Philippines (ARISE Philippines), have been “business as usual” continues, the prognosis is devastating allocated towards infrastructure projects to resuscitate the for all life on Earth. An ambitious and collective strategy is economy. The flagship “Build Build Build” program (BBB), needed to build back a better world and charter a path under the Philippines Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022, towards a much-needed transformative change. This past is the main beneficiary of the budget. Over 100 projects decade, all Aichi Biodiversity Targets were missed by within the BBB, target the ancestral territories of governments while only six were partially completed. (2) Indigenous Peoples and local communities. More than 110,000 Indigenous Peoples from at least 106 villages could be affected by five proposed dam projects, with a further 230 approved mining applications encroaching on at least 542,245 hectares of ancestral lands. (1)

(1) Information provided by the Cordillera Peoples Alliance. (2) Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. (2020). Global Biodiversity Outlook 5. Montreal. Retrieved from https://www.cbd.int/gbo/gbo5/publication/gbo-5-en.pdf

www.aippnet.org | 4 The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to reevaluate The land is the ancestral home of over 100 Pubabu our relationships with the natural world, however the Indigenous Peoples who confronted the members of associated economic recession has seen governments ramp the entourage, rejecting the proposed reforestation up the destructive industrial processes which contribute to project as a legal dispute over the land is still underway environmental collapse. In doing so, achieving the next and expressed anger at their presence during the decade of environmental targets is being undermined ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. before they are even ratified under the Conference of Parties’ Convention of Biological Diversity. For Indigenous Five members of the Pubabu were subsequently Peoples who customarily manage over 50% of the earth’s attacked by a member of the Civil Service Police Unit terrestrial surface, but legally own just 10% (3), COVID-19, (Satpol PP) 4). The Omnibus law was accompanied by the environmental crises and mitigating strategies all pose the Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 66 2020 on an existential threat. Conservation and strategies to Land Procurement for Public Interest Development “protect” biodiversity. Projects. Perpres No. 66 was signed and enacted on the 19th of May 2020 and will dramatically accelerate The moral and existential imperative of conserving land-grabbing putting vast tracts of intact forest biodiversity and the environment often overshadows the landscapes and territories inhabited indigenous fact that protecting biodiversity is a lucrative industry, one Peoples and local communities, such as the Pubabu, at which is expected to substantially grow in the coming risk. years. Environmental collapse, of which COVID-19 is associated, is often portrayed as a threat to the global In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo, instructed state- economy over the existential crisis it poses to all life and owned enterprises to open new rice fields on 900,000 biocultural diversity on Earth. Environmental crisis hectares across Central Kalimantan. Many of the narratives coupled with a rapidly growing “green” industry proposed areas are traditional agricultural lands of risk accelerating the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples Indigenous Peoples and important carbon storage peat from their ancestral territories. lands. This proposed government program is likely to cause more agrarian conflicts and land grabbing if not Business and Human Rights Situation of Indigenous done for and by the people, as well as severe Peoples in Asia consequences for Indonesia’s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. The areas Indonesia targeted are the lang Pisau and Kapuas Regencies of Central Kalimantan. This decade, 2021-2030, is the United Nations' Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. There are an estimated 295 million On the 29th of September 2020, 60 hectares of the people living on lands targeted for restoration under the Badan Perjuangan Rakyat Penunggu Indonesia (BPRPI) Bonn challenge. While the Strategic Framework for the UN customary land were evicted by the Indonesian armed Decade on Ecosystem Restoration highlights the forces (TNI) to make way for a sugar cane farm importance of rights-based restoration strategies, belonging to PTPN II. Indigenous women organized to reforestation and afforestation initiatives continue to block the movement of heavy equipment onto their create land conflicts and displace Indigenous Peoples from territory and were attacked resulting in injuries to their traditional territories. In Indonesia, on the 14th of women, grandmothers and children. The October 2020, members of the East Nusa Tenggara criminalization of forest defenders is also on the rise provincial government along with an entourage of over during COVID-19. On the 27th of August 2020, police 200 people went to the Linamnutu Village in the South officers arrested Effendi Buhing, the traditional leader Amanuban District to plant Lamtoro (Leucaena of the Laman Kinipan Community in Lamandau Central leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit). Kalimantan, and five others on charges of stealing equipment belonging to a palm oil company, PT Sawit Mandiri Lestari. This company has long had conflicts over land with the Kinipan Indigenous Community.

(3) The recognition of secure collective land and resource rights are broadly recognised by state and non-state actors as contributing towards the advancement of internationally defined social, economic and environmental objectives. In practice, national legislative bodies have been slow to formalise tenurial regimes that support the communities and traditional practices of indigenous peoples, local communities and rural women (4) nformation provided by Perempuan AMAN.

www.aippnet.org | 5 The planned “Marriott” tourist complex: Photo: Dhaka Tribune

Bangladesh

The situation of the Indigenous Peoples of the country is The international CHT commission has voiced its concern becoming more and more critical due to the food crisis regarding the potential human rights abuses and and unemployment caused by the ongoing COVID-19 evictions which are expected to take place. The Sikder pandemic and above all the fear of being infected with Group has been trying to grab about 1,000 acres of jhum the deadly virus. land from Kapru Para Bazar to Jiban Nagar area in the name of constructing a hotel and creating a tourist spot. Tourist complex is being set up in CHT evicting the Some 200 families from 6 villages face eviction which Indigenous Mro Peoples would see over 10,000 jhum cultivators removed from their ancestral lands. In Bangladesh, a joint venture between the army and Sikder Group (of R&R Holdings Limited) risks displacing On 8 November 2020, Bandarban Mro people including Jumma people of the Mro and Marma communities from children, youth, women with placards protested the their ancestral homes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) construction of a five-star hotel and tourist spot by R&R to construct a five-star hotel. It is alleged that the Holdings Limited, a concern of Sikder Group. Pictures: military have begun occupying areas in Dala Mro Para Zannat E Ferdousi (Jibannagar), Kapru Mro Para (Nilgiri), Chimbuk Shola Miles, and Keokradong Peak of Keokradong Hill in Ruma Upazila to make way for the construction of a resorts, restaurants, and shopping centres that will cater for tourists who would visit this uniquely biodiverse region of Bangladesh.

www.aippnet.org | 6 On 8 November 2020, Bandarban Mro people including children, youth, women with placards protested the construction of a five-star hotel and tourist spot by R&R Holdings Limited, a concern of Sikder Group. Pictures: Zannat E Ferdousi

Reserve Forest: On the 14th of September, 2020, a group of 10/12 people led by Assistant Commissioner of Forest Department Jamal Hossain Talukder, Ranger Abdul Ahad and local Ward Member of ruling Awami League Jahangir cut down a Banana plantation belonging to Basanti Rema (45) and her husband Getis Jetra, an Indigenous family in Madhupur of Tangail district. The government declared 9,145.06 acres of forest land, home to the Indigenous Garo people in Madhupur in 2016 without prior notice of local indigenous people, for establishing an eco-tourism area. The forest department cut down the banana The forest department cut down banana plants owned by Basanti Rema, a Garo Indigenous forest-dweller of Pegamari village of plantation of Basanti Rema in the name of recovery of Madhupur upazila, Tangail on September 14, 2020. land for reserve forest. (5) Photo: Prothom Alo

Dam construction: Using the military Steel Industry: In Bangladesh, 30 families belonging to the to aid the development in business ventures and Tripura Indigenous Peoples are expected to be evicted. enforce lockdowns in areas Their territory on the hills of Sitakundu upazila in the CHT, where business activities will impact the lives of where they have lived for generations, was purchased by an Indigenous Peoples is becoming a normal practice. In industrial steel manufacturing company named GPS Ispat. Sajek of Baghaichari upazila, the army is being used to The push the construction of a small dam on Sijokchara in communities’ only access to water has been blocked by the the name of creating a beautification and tourism company. The only road to the village has also been blocked project. The construction of the dam in Sajek will by the company. Construction has damage 500 acres of land and displace 150 Jumma already begun and are guarded by security personnel. families from biodiverse forest lands in the hinterland. Authorities claim that the roadblock is to protect the (6) children from wandering to close to heavy machinery operating in the area.

(5) https://www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/news/the-cries-modhupur-garh-1987609 (6) CHT News, May 13, 2020.

www.aippnet.org | 7 Housing: As a result of the housing project in the Nepal Catholic Christian Dharmapolli of Rajshahi district, 130 families of Indigenous People are facing eviction. It is Chitwan National Park burned down IP houses to evict learnt that Indigenous People have been living in them in a municipality of Chitwan Nepal Mushrail village for 21 years. Father Paolo Chicheri, the Italian PIME in charge of the Rajshahi Good Incident: Conflicts in the name of conservation are Shepherd Cathedral, assisted in the settlement of the becoming more prevalent as pressures on indigenous people by purchasing the land for biodiversity mount. In Nepal, on the 22nd housing for the poor and helpless indigenous people. of July 2020, Raj Kumar Chepang (24) of Rapti But on 19 August 2020, a signboard was hung on the Municipality was shot and killed by an Army personnel property. From this they know that their place of officer after he was caught inside the Chitwan National residence has been purchased by the Rajshahi Park. Raj Kumar Chepang was a member of the Christian Co-operative Housing Society Limited. Since Chepang Indigenous community. then, the housing society has repeatedly threatened to A few days earlier, on the 18th of July, employees of evict the indigenous people from their villages.(7) the Chitwan National Park burned down two houses and destroyed eight others using elephants to evict Super Dyke Project: 100 Rakhine families in Cox’s Chepang Indigenous families from their Bazar’s Chaufaldandi Union are at risk of eviction. settlement. Having lived in the area for over 400 years, the Rakhine families are to be displaced due to the planned The Chepang settlement is in a remote part of the construction of a super dyke to protect the coast. municipality which is also home to a multitude of There are over 400 Buddhist temples and shrines in the landless people, many of whom have been internally area which are irreplaceable and deeply attached to displaced by floods. The Chepang community are a the history and identity of the Rakhine highly marginalized group of Indigenous Peoples who peoples. While there is a need for development have been deprived from basic facilities and do not projects such as dyke construction, alternative legally own their lands and are therefore partially solutions and location exist which would not see the nomadic in the region.(8) ancestral lands of the Rakhine destroyed and the assimilation of their cultures guaranteed should they The park claims the land where the settlement is built be relocated. falls under the park’s territory. While the government and other consulting parties have since agreed to build houses for the community, these processes ignore the deep history the community has with the area and the relationship which underpins their livelihood.

(8) https://kathmandupost.com/province-no-3/2020/07/20/chitwan-park-authority-accused-of-burning-huts-of-landless-squatters-in-madi

www.aippnet.org | 8 A clash erupted between locals of Khokana and police when the authorities intervened in a “paddy transplantation protest”

On 4 July 2020, a peaceful protest of planting paddy turned into a riot when the government authorities intervened in Sudol, Khokana on the outskirts of Lalitpur, Nepal.

There was a clash between the locals of Khokana and the government authorities when the locals expressed dissatisfaction over the projects: the Kathmandu-Nijgadh expressway, the outer Ring Road, the Bagmati Corridor, a

satellite city, and a high-tension power line in the area. This The clash between locals of Khokana and police, Photo: The Kathmandu Post was due to government not keeping their promise to provide the locals sufficient compensation, furthermore, they were not consulted while designing the projects Cambodia that threaten their cultural sites and also the relocation of the residence, according to a media report. Police say four Bunong ethnic community’s land allegedly destroyed, but personnel were injured while the locals say over a dozen the state claimed it is the forest protected land: A were hurt in the incident.(9) community representative of the Bunong ethnic community, Mrs Pleuk Pirom, said that she along with This conflict has been ongoing since 2015. The government other 20 community members went to authorities and the local community had patrol, as usual, when they saw an excavator was clearing reached an agreement at some point but when the locals of the forest. The incident took place on the 20 October 2020. Khokana went to plant paddy in June 2020, government The members of the patrol asked to authorities intervened leading to the clash stop clearing the forest. But the driver of the excavator between the two parties. The locals have been demanding said that the forest is the farmland which sold to Mr. Pros to remove army camp from Khudol and continue the who works in the rural development department. When project 5km away from Khokana. As per the locals, they the community asked Mr. Pros, he said that he bought the were not against the development but also would not land which had the signature of Mr. Oun Ev, latest tolerate injustice when it comes to their cultural heritage commune chief and Mr. Long Vibol, the latest mayor and and history. Later the government previously the Deputy Governor. authorities disengaged the security personnel. The locals have harvested crops without interruption by the Community Activists Arrested in Chheb district, Preah government, but no such deal or agreement has been Vihear province, Cambodia: Acts of criminalization are also made legally for future references. In September when occurring in other countries in Southeast Asia. In army officials tried to build a bridge in the conflicted area, Cambodia, on the 7th of October 2020, two Kui community the locals retaliated against them. members were arrested by Preah Vihear military police on charges of drug dealing. Three other Kui activists were also Isuwa Hydropower (97.2 MW) Project is in operation on accused and summoned by the court. It is expected an the traditional homelands of Yamphu Indigenous Peoples additional three Kui activists will be targeted shortly some in Nepal, has allegedly not gone through the FPIC process. of whom are members of Ponlok Khmer (PKH).

(9) https://kathmandupost.com/visual-stories/2020/07/04/four-policemen-injured-in-clash-with-locals-in-khokana

www.aippnet.org | 9 Prior to the arrest, the provincial court accused the activists of impounding and damaging the machinery of Chinese company, Hengfu Group Sugar Industry Co Ltd. There is a long-standing conflict between the Kui community and Hengfu. Before the arrest, the provincial court had summoned five activists, accusing them of impounding company’s machinery and deliberately causing damage occurring in Busthom village, Mlu Prey Mouy commune, Chheb district, Preah Vihear province.

Myanmar Rescuers work at the site of landslide in Hpakant on July 2: devastating tragedy was likely avoidable. After Another Mining Disaster, Ethnic Minorities Lose Source: Myanmar Fire Service Department Patience with Myanmar’s Leadership: Around 200 people killed in jade mine landslide: Myanmar produces some 70% of the world’s jadeite, with the industry bringing in almost Philippines half the country’s GDP, US$31 Billion, per year at its peak in 2014. On the July 2, 2020 a landslide at a jade mine in the The Philippines had the one of the highest number of Hpakant region of Myanmar’s Kachin state claimed around killings of land and environmental defenders in the world. 200 lives. This was the deadliest incident at a jade mine in This country has been in the limelight these past few Myanmar, however incidents are common and occur years for its alarming human rights record under the annually. While the industry is lucrative, Kachin notorious autocratic regime of President Rodrigo communities do not receive the benefits for the risks they Duterte. (10) endure with the money being funneled into continuing the country's civil war. According to the Burma Environmental The existence of destructive projects such as mining in Working Group, most jade mining companies’ partner with Indigenous territories is continuing. Indigenous Peoples state-owned enterprises, including the military’s Union of protesting these projects are targets of harassment under Myanmar Economic Holding Limited (UMEHL). These the cover of COVID-19. The mining company OceanaGold enterprises were sanctioned by the United States and the broke through and dispersed the people’s barricade in European Union until 2016. As a result, the industry Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya to bring in their fuel supplies finances ethnic conflict in the region and the country has despite the lockdown. In Quezon province at the not implemented any effective social or environmental construction site of the Kaliwa dam, military forces are controls risking the lives of vulnerable people. heavily guarding the construction equipment in the area even while construction activities have halted. This clearly shows that the government plans to continue with this widely protested project after the Enhanced Community Quarantine. (11)

(10)https://indigenousrightsinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/State-Criminalization-and-Impunity-against-Indigenous-Peoples.pdf (11)The information is provided by Jill Carino, an Executive Member of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact

www.aippnet.org | 10 Oceanagold: Photo: PUNGANAY & KATRIBU Oceanagold and peoples campaign Photo PUNGANAY & KATRIBU

Illegal Arrest and Detention, Physical Assault, and Trumped-up Charge

Around a hundred elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) dispersed villagers who have set up a barricade against Australian-Canadian mining firm OceanaGold in Didipio Nueva Vizcaya on 6 April 2020. The state forces escorted the company's three fuel tanker and forced their way through twenty-nine people, mostly women and elderly. This, despite all business activities being suspended due to community quarantine imposed in the country. The Nueva Vizcaya Police said in a statement that they received an order to provide security for the delivery of the fuel as it was authorized by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea. They arrested Didipio Earth Saver's Movement Association (DESAMA) Chairperson, Roland Pulido for violating the Republic Act No. 11332 (Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act) and Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code.

In 1994, a 25-year Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) was issued by the Philippine government to explore 27,000 hectares in the Nueva Vizcaya town of Dipidio, which is believed to hold 1.41 million ounces of gold and 169,400 tons of copper. This project was acquired by OGPI in 2006. In the past 25 years, many local residents complained about the adverse impact of mining operations on the environment and the displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral lands.

Source: https://globalvoices.org/2020/04/10/philippine-police-dismantle-anti-mining-barricade-amid-covid-19- lockdown/

Jill Carino, an executive member of AIPP, said the Build In pursuit of their neoliberal economic agenda, the Build Build program of the government plans to Philippine government implements policies, programs implement some 4,000 infrastructure projects worth up and so-called “development projects” that displaces to Php9 trillion within six years, funded mainly by foreign indigenous peoples and violates their rights to self- loans, which are likely to significantly inflate the determination. According to the information of country’s foreign debt. Government programs on mining, PUNGANAY and KATRIBU, many hydropower projects energy development, plantations, forestry, special i.e. Build Build Build program, are ongoing or planned in economic zones and infrastructure are marking a clear other ancestral territories that will displace more than path towards widespread land grabbing and 100,000 Indigenous Peoples from at least 106 villages. displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral territories in violation of their right to self- determination.

www.aippnet.org | 11 Mining is still a major threat faced by many indigenous Mega infrastructure projects and Special Economic groups in different regions of the Philippines. 230 of Zones are another priority in Duterte’s Build, Build, the 447 approved mining applications are in ancestral Build program. The New Clark City (NCC), a special territories, encroaching in at least 542,245 hectares of economic zone being set up entirely for business ancestral lands. These comprise 72% of the 748,590 interests, covers more than 9,400 hectares hectares covered by all approved mining applications. encroaching on the ancestral lands of the indigenous Agribusiness plantations pose a serious threat to Ayta in Tarlac, Pampanga and Zambales. Mega roads indigenous peoples, especially in Mindanao and construction, setting up of a new city or techno hubs Palawan. At least 130,000 hectares of ancestral lands entirely for business interests and tourism, Military are occupied and controlled by giant local and foreign Complex for US Military exercises, and Airports for corporations for different kinds of monocrop tourism are being set up. The implementation of the plantations including banana, pineapple, oil palm, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA), the right to free coffee and other crops. and prior informed consent (FPIC) and land rights has been problematic and manipulated resulting to conflicts and violations of indigenous peoples’ rights.

Photo PUNGANAY & KATRIBU

Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar This plan of the government poses a threat to announced that the government plans to utilize idle Indigenous Peoples who are doing traditional farming ancestral lands for production of high value food in their ancestral domains and who rely on their forests crops in response to food shortages especially during for their sustenance, aside from other plans to take times of crisis as part of the Plant Plant Plant program over ancestral lands for palm oil plantations, mining, of the government. While food production is good, special economic zones, among other development ancestral lands are once again being targeted for aggression projects. As has been seen in other investments in commercial agriculture. Ancestral countries in the region, the military have been lands are not idle and are being used by indigenous deployed to protect business activities and harass the farmers for their own survival. Indigenous Peoples that these activities risk impacting. This is a single case in the multitude coming from the Philippines where the military are red tagging environmental and human rights defenders.(12)

(12) The information is provided by Jill Carino, an Executive Member of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact

www.aippnet.org | 12 Militarization and Criminalization: Divestment of Four of the five civilians arrested were charged with Property, Forcible Evacuation, and Aerial Bombardment violations of the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL). Manuel Ramos Sr., an elderly was spared from the criminal More or less 659 Ayta people, mostly children, have charge since the military tagged him as simply a forcibly evacuated due to aerial bombardment and sympathizer. The community believes that the military physical assault of the five civilians in Sitio Lumibao, was deployed as an investment defense force for Dizon Barangay Buhawen, San Marcelino, Zambales Copper-Silver Mines, Incorporated. The company had committed by the 73rd Division Reconnaissance been conducting mass meetings despite the COVID-19 Company and 48th Infantry Batallion of the 7th Infantry pandemic in an attempt to acquire the Ayta people’s Division, Philippine Army (IDPA) on 21 August 2020. free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) to legalize it's Four helicopters reportedly dropped bombs after a reoperation in Barangay Buhawen, San Marcelino, gunfight erupted between the military and the New Zambales. People's Army (NPA) in the area. (13)

Some 659 individuals or 192 families from an Aeta community in San Marcelino, Zambales are temporarily evacuated to a covered court following a clash between government troops and communist rebels. Photo: Phillipines News Agency

Since 1966, Dizon Copper-Silver Mines, Kaliwa Dam: Despite protests, the old logging road Incorporated already have 57 mineral claims in the is now ready for faster horses. 513 hectares of Ayta's ancestral land. In 1975, Dizon acquired the services of Benguet Mining Dumagat-Remontado communities withstanding Corporation who mined the area until 1995. The the New Centennial Water Source Project Philippine government ordered the cessation of the (NCWSP) or the Kaliwa Dam raised alarm as access company's operation due to an ecological disaster road along the Marikina-Infanta Highway was triggered by the open-pit mining activities in the declared by authorities completed on 22 August area. 2020. According to reports, the road rehabilitation project was railroaded by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the local government unit (LGU) of General Nakar while communities were placed on military lockdown due to COVID 19 pandemic.(14)

(13) https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1113109 (14) https://www.facebook .com/katribuphils/posts/katribudamwatchkaliwa- dam-despite-protests-the-old-logging-road-is-now-ready- for/3268646216557392/

www.aippnet.org | 13 The said project extends from Sitio Kamagong, Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan and the Barangay Magsaysay, Infanta to Sitio Cablao, Barangay Network Opposed to Kaliwa, Kanan, and Laiban Dams Pagsangahan, General Nakar in Quezon province. The asserted that there is no need to build dams to address indigenous peoples group lead by Dumagat Sierra the alleged water shortage in Metro Manila. They said Madre (DSM) and Bigkis at Lakas ng mga Katutubo sa that Manila Waterworks and Sewerage Systems Timog Katagalugan (BALATIK) slammed the Philippine (MWSS) should instead focus on the rehabilitation of government for the China-funded NCWSP. They existing dams and explore other sustainable methods maintained that the dam construction will not only like rainwater harvesting among others. cause irreversible damage on the rich ecosystem in the area but also dispossess the Dumagat-Remontado people of their lands, and in the long run, submerge a large portion of their ancestral domain.

In this Photo: Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), and Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) walk along one of the roads in the rehabilitation project that connects Marcos Highway to the dam site in Quiboroza. Source: Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas

The monument of heroes of the Anti-Chico Dams The reason given for the demolition: the edge of the Struggle in the Cordillera, Philippines. monument falls within the road right-of-way. But On October 8, 2020, the Department of Public Works behind this threat is an attempt by the government to and Highways (DPWH) Upper Kalinga District hide from the public eye the true history of the Engineering Office served a Demolition Notice to the indigenous people’s heroic resistance against Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) to take down the displacement and oppression. Monument. The DPWH gave CPA seven (7) days (until October 15, 2020) to voluntarily remove the monument. Otherwise, the DPWH will tear it down and let CPA pay for the costs incurred, aside from imposing sanctions on the organization. This is downright tyranny! (15)

(15) https://www.ipmsdl.org/statement/no-to-the-demolition-of-the-heroes-monument-stop-the-attacks-against-the-cpa/?fbclid=IwAR0- quhBrD55EWfJ4kVlhwkuLl18RQ2sFzpI_7KkVED46iBLinYoEqse7uA https://www.bulatlat.com/2020/10/20/what-is-the-weight-of-a-monument/? fbclid=IwAR1kYBXTpkhKflBFtsqCWYcUkj04UZujlbLESZN5sXOLH63LTqBCDrd3Uyc www.aippnet.org | 14 Photo from the official website of Cordillera Peoples Alliance

The Heroes’ Monument was built in 2017 upon Recommendations: the request of the people of Bugnay, including Macliing Dulag’s family, who welcomed the To the Working group on Business and Human Rights project and even helped build the monument on their ancestral land. It was built to honor the 1. To conduct country visits and issue recommendations to legacy of our heroes and martyrs who successfully specific states to protect the rights of the Indigenous opposed the Chico Dams that would have blocked Peoples and Businesses to respect the rights of the the Chico River and submerged several Indigenous Peoples and ensure that due diligence communities, thousands of hectares of rice fields processes are followed; and forests, destroying the culture and 2. To issue recommendations to the states to draft NAP on environment of the people of Kalinga and Business and Human Rights with substantive consultations Mountain Province. The monument stands today with every stakeholder including the Indigenous Peoples as a reminder to present and future generations of and adopt and implement the same; the valiant resistance by our elders to defend their 3. To hold dialogues with the businesses in respecting and ancestral land. preventing human rights abuses particularly the rights of the Indigenous Peoples to Lands, Territories and Resources.

www.aippnet.org | 15 AIPP recommend all member states Companies and investors

1. Pass national laws to implement the UN Guiding Principles 1. Recognise and respect the human rights defenders, and on Business and Human Rights, including by introducing the collective rights of indigenous peoples, and act to binding human rights due diligence legislation to ensure promote or support indigenous and/or community led companies conduct independent human rights, social and development priorities. Introduce human rights due environmental risk and impact assessments, act on their diligence policies and procedures, including findings, and commit to transparency with the results to adopt environmental, social, cultural and other impact measures to ensure all including meaningful consultations assessments, integrating mandatory requirements at the using FPIC framework with Indigenous Peoples among other upper management as well as field levels. Communities groups whose human rights can be potentially affected. should be included in, and verify the results of, impact 2. Urgently act to develop — or where they exist, to bolster the assessments. Verification should include community level effective implementation of — National Action Plans on information, as well as the use of civil society and Business and Human Rights, through broad-based, effective independent information sources, under confidential participation in meaningful consultative processes, and conditions where required. integrate actions to protect our collective human rights, while 2. Investors should require companies in which they preventing and responding to the threats facing human rights invest to conduct and act on human rights due diligence defenders; assessments, and where this is not the case, engage with 3. to stop mining operations, setting up tourism complex, their clients to adopt and implement due diligence. diverting forestlands for large-scale development projects, 3. regulate, respect and follow the FPIC including ensuring rolling back of IPs rights and environmental safeguards, and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples with to eviction drives of communities from protected areas, etc. develop standards and to achieve SDGs, adhering to without the FPIC of Indigenous Peoples in their traditional Business & Human Rights Guidelines; territories; 4. include Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of 4. to address specific impacts of business activities with special Indigenous Peoples under certain circumstances for the attention to those facing heightened risks of human rights project as Impacts on Lands and Natural Resources violations such as indigenous peoples, among others, while Subject to Traditional Ownership or Under Customary implementing the UN human rights treaties; Use, Relocation of Indigenous Peoples from Lands and 5. to implement Key International Standards on Indigenous Natural Resources Subject to Traditional Ownership or Peoples’ Rights in Business Contexts including proper Under Customary Use and Impacts on Critical Cultural implementation of the United Nations on the Rights of Heritage. Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and ratification of ILO-169; 6. to take urgent action and redress in the countries where detrimental laws and regulations have been passed during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Repeal or amend all laws that disregard indigenous peoples’ rights to land, territories and resources; 7. to stop using COVID-19 to further shrink civic and democratic spaces, to use as cover to deploy military operations for the criminalization and persecution of human rights defenders and the illegal appropriation of Indigenous Peoples lands and territories and ensure access to justice for all victims of human rights violations; 8. to take urgent and immediate action to strengthen livelihoods through the formalization of rights-based strategies for non-timber forest product (NTFP) use, community forestry initiatives, and biodiversity protection. Figure 9: Photo: KATRIBU Financial and logistical support should be provided directly to communities, particularly Indigenous Women, to help promote sustainable livelihoods, management practices, Indigenous-led biodiversity protection programs, and traditional seed banking to ensure beneficial socio-economic transformative change during and in preparation of a post- COVID world.

www.aippnet.org | 16 Published by: Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), November 2020

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Prepared by: Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP)

Contributors

AIPP’s Response and Communication Network on COVID-19 Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum (BIPF) Cambodia Indigenous Youth Association (CIYA) Kapaeeng Foundation, Bangladesh Indigenous Peopl es Human Rights Defenders (IPHRDs) Network Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP) Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples Rights (TFIP) PEREMPUAN AMAN Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)

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