IWGIA ANNUAL REPORT 2018 1 Acknowledgements

ANNUAL REPORT 2018 IWGIA ANNUAL REPORT 2018 1 Acknowledgements IWGIA promotes, protects and defends indigenous peoples’ rights. We promote the recognition, respect and implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights to land, cultural integrity and development on their own terms. We would like to acknowledge all the valuable individuals and groups who have made our work in 2018 possible through various ways of support. We thank: our partners for their continued commitment and integral support; our network for their invaluable resources, time and energy; international institutions and mechanisms for their support and creating a platform for change; academics and experts for their knowledge and insights; our volunteers for their dedication and time; The Indigenous World authors, who year-after-year voluntarily contribute their expertise into this one-of-a-kind documentation tool; our members for their financial and operational support; our individual donors for their generous donations; and our project and institutional donors listed below for their partnership and financial support. DESIGN WWW.NICKPURSERDESIGN.COM COVER PHOTO THE WAYUU PEOPLE/DELPHINE BLAST Contents Indigenous peoples’ rights are key to a sustainable and just world 4 Who we are 6 Our work in 2018 7 Land rights and territorial governance 8 Maasai women elect leaders to their community-based organisation in northern Tanzania 9 Government official promises no village eviction over wildlife project in India 10 Wampis Nation legitimacy strengthened with international and national bodies 12 Indigenous communities in Nepal successfully fight for their rights 13 New steps in the decade-long battle of the Ogiek peoples for their land 15 Indigenous governments in Bolivia organise to obtain recognition of their territorial autonomy 17 Recommendations to ensure extractive industries do not harm indigenous peoples in Uganda 18 Climate action 20 Communities in Myanmar claiming their right to free, prior and informed consent 21 Indigenous peoples strengthen position at UN climate talks 22 Land rights intervention safeguards community from eviction in Thailand 23 Towards a federal protection of the livelihood of indigenous peoples in the Russian Federation 25 Green Climate Fund adopts Indigenous Peoples Policy 26 Global governance 28 UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights warns that indigenous peoples are pushed behind 29 Strengthening indigenous women strengthens indigenous communities 30 Putting human rights mechanisms at work for indigenous peoples 33 Indigenous communities use data to protect their rights and drive their own development 35 Engaging indigenous peoples, States and UN agencies in constructive policy dialogues 37 Indigenous Rights Defenders at risk 39 Engagement, publication and communication highlights 40 Finance 42 IWGIA ANNUAL REPORT 2018 3 Indigenous peoples’ rights are key to a sustainable and just world The world today faces many challenges: a global Indigenous peoples’ special relationship to their climate and biodiversity crisis, rising inequality, lands, territories and natural resources is also shrinking civic space in many countries, and central to their collective identity as peoples. increasing distrust in international institutions However, core to the problem is that their and national political systems. Indigenous collective rights to land are seldom recognised peoples make up five percent of the world’s and secured. Power relations are skewed, and population and are disproportionately affected by many private companies are drivers of human much of this; but they are also key to many of the rights offences committed against indigenous world’s solutions. peoples, too often with the complicity of the state. Due to their close connection to land and natural In many countries, state authorities are in fact the resources, indigenous peoples’ livelihoods most common perpetrators of violations against are directly affected by increasing floods, human rights defenders, even though they bear contaminated rivers and extractive and logging the primary responsibility for ensuring their activities. Additionally, the lands of indigenous protection. Police and other security forces carry peoples are seen as fertile ground for the out arbitrary arrests, illegal searches and physical establishment of biofuel plantations, wind power violence. Non-state actors such as armed groups have used killings, abduction and death projects and hydroelectric dams, and as such, threats, among other acts, as regular tactics these renewable energy projects and climate to silence human rights defenders. To a large actions risk being developed without including degree, perpetrators of crimes against indigenous or consulting indigenous peoples, or taking into peoples continue to act with impunity. consideration their centuries-long knowledge in sustainable livelihoods practices. In 2017 indigenous peoples made up approximately half of all environmental and It is sadly ironic that those who live most human rights defenders killed. sustainably are also among the ones most affected by the climate crisis. IWGIA put focus on this worrying trend by organising an international conference: Defending It was an achievement and a step in the right the Defenders, in Copenhagen in September 2018 direction when the Board of the Green Climate to gather a broad range of relevant actors to get Fund (GCF) in March 2018 adopted an Indigenous a better understanding of the key drivers behind Peoples’ Policy, which requires that all projects this alarming trend, and identify possible actions funded by the GCF must respect the rights of that could help change the situation and protect indigenous peoples and promote indigenous indigenous rights defenders at risk. peoples’ access to the benefits of the fund. However, a policy is only useful if its application Strong institutions, respect for human rights, is done appropriately; IWGIA is looking forward to including indigenous peoples’ collective rights, see its effective implementation. and the recognition of the particular vulnerability of indigenous peoples is needed, as is increased At the national level, IWGIA has supported partner support to indigenous peoples’ struggles and organisations to strengthen their capacity and their own mechanisms in defence of their policy engagement in climate actions, including rights to land, natural resources and territorial in relation to the development of projects to governance. be potentially funded by the GCF. This further contributes to the effective implementation of the The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are policy. the important key global framework for putting 4 IWGIA ANNUAL REPORT 2018 attention on the situation of indigenous peoples. Throughout 2018—as part of the Indigenous It was thus of high significance when the UN Navigator project and data portal—national Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, partners in over 200 communities in 11 countries Andrew Gilmour, at the High Level Political Forum conducted comprehensive surveys documenting in July in his keynote remarks warned about those 13 broad thematic areas that affect the daily lives who are not just being left behind but are being of indigenous peoples. The community-owned pushed behind, stressing indigenous peoples’ data was then analysed to prioritise their needs, limited access to decision-making. which led to the approval of an initial seven small grants for local innovative projects enhancing the Claiming their right to self-determination and to rights of indigenous peoples. take part in decisions that affect their lives is a key principle of the UN Declaration on the Rights Together with partners we are pleased to have of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), empowering achieved all this and much more, which you can indigenous peoples with a tool to take action and read about in the following pages. We hope that fight for their rights. you will share our excitement about some of our achievements in support of indigenous peoples’ In Thailand, the Karen communities in the Kaeng rights and help us spread the word. Krachan Forest Complex documented their land use system to negotiate with park authorities To IWGIA, engaging more individuals, on land demarcation to prevent their impending organisations and institutions in the rights of evictions and prevent future conflicts over land indigenous peoples is essential. One way to do claims. so is via social media. In 2018 we increased our followers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn by In Nepal, four large-scale business projects 26%; saw a 34% increase in people coming to recognised indigenous peoples’ rights to free, our website with an average of approximately prior and informed consent and to provide 11,000 visits per month; had more than 3,000 adequate compensation, environmental clean-up subscribers receive our newsletters; and were and infrastructure repair, after intense advocacy featured in the press 106 times. by local organisations. We supported the production of 14 books, In the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, 26 mainly including our flagship production: The young Maasai women took up leadership of the Indigenous World, as well as 37 reports and women’s community based organisation, for other publications, 162 radio programmes and the first time dealing with the election process podcasts, and 44 videos and documentaries. on their own without the involvement of the dominating and powerful male leadership that has Indigenous peoples are at the heart of the traditionally been the

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