Rights of Indigenous Groups

4.3 Rights of indigenous groups Introduction Key recommendations The 1989 International Labor Organization’s Con- vention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples • Governments should repair the discrepan- in Independent Countries49 defines indigenous peo- cies between the UN drug conventions and ple as those who, ‘on account of their descent from international human rights agreements, to the populations which inhabited the country at the ensure that the rights of indigenous peo- time of conquest, colonisation, or the establishment ples are upheld and fully protected of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some, or all, of their own • Indigenous communities should be mean- social, economic, cultural and political institutions’, ingfully involved in the design and imple- or ‘tribal peoples in independent countries whose mentation of any policies and regulations social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish that affect them them from other sections of the national communi- • Governments should set up data collection ty, and whose status is regulated wholly or partially mechanisms to review the impact of drug by their own customs or traditions or by special laws policies and in particular drug law enforce- or regulations’. ment strategies on indigenous groups, In practical terms, this means that in addition to the and review any harmful drug law, policy or universal human rights recognised in international practice conventions (see Policy principle 2), indigenous peo- • The historical, cultural and traditional ple enjoy specific rights that protect their identity, character and potential benefits of plants culture, traditions, habitat, language and access to controlled at the national and international ancestral lands. These rights are enshrined in the 2007 50 level should be recognised UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which notably recognises indigenous peoples’ right • Where the use of psychoactive substances to self-determination and autonomy; to maintain, is part of people’s traditional and religious protect and develop cultural manifestations of the practices, the right to cultivate, trade and past, present and future, as well as their cultural use such plants for these purposes should heritage, traditional knowledge and manifestations be allowed and protected of their science, technology and culture (articles 11 and 31); to maintain their traditional medicines and • Aerial fumigation campaigns should be healing practices (article 24); to participate in deci- immediately stopped as they cause sig- sion making in matters that would affect their rights nificant harm on the health of farmers (article 18); and to the conservation and protection of and indigenous communities, and on the the environment and the productive capacity of their environment. Any crop reduction or alter- lands or territories and resources (article 29). native development programme should be undertaken in full collaboration and part- For generations, people worldwide have used psy- nership with affected communities, and choactive plants such as coca, cannabis, opium, kra- take specific care to protect the rights of tom (Mitragyna speciosa), khat (Catha edulis), peyote indigenous people, including access to and (Lophophora williamsii), chamico (Datura ferox), San use of their lands and natural resources in Pedro (Echinopsis pachanoi), Salvia Divinorum and a way that is respectful of their culture and ayahuasca or yahé (Banisteriopsis caapi), among traditions. many others, for traditional, cultural and religious purposes. In the Andean region and Amazon basin, 134 IDPC Drug Policy Guide Credit: Caroline S. Conzelman Caroline Credit: Morning mist in a Yungas coca field outside of Coroico, Bolivia for example, the coca leaf has a wide application in spread damage to the health, habitat and traditions social, religious, spiritual and medical areas for indig- of coca-growing indigenous communities52 – and enous people, and is also used by the general pop- only serve to remove vulnerable communities’ only ulation. Similarly in India, cannabis and opium have means of subsistence in a context of market-driven been bound to faith and mysticism in Hindu and crop prices, where many licit crop alternatives are Islamic traditions for centuries, and are enshrined in not profitable enough to ensure survival, hence ex- countless cultural practices. In Jamaica, cannabis has acerbating their poverty.53 played a central part in the religious ceremonies of In some countries, violent clashes have erupted be- the Rastafarian community (see Box 1). Other plants, tween armed groups fighting for control of the drug such as khat in Eastern Africa and kratom in South trade and between those armed groups and drug East Asia, have also been used for traditional and so- law enforcement agencies, placing local affected cial purposes for centuries. Some of these substances communities in the crossfire. Forced eradication have also been employed medicinally, especially campaigns have exacerbated the harms caused by for the treatment of rheumatism, migraine, malaria, armed conflict, impacting particularly on indige- cholera and other gastrointestinal complaints, to nous groups. For instance, Plan Colombia launched reduce pain from opioid withdrawal symptoms, and in 1999 has not only had disastrous consequences to facilitate births and surgery.51 These plants can on the lives, health, environment and economy of also provide food grain, oil seed or fibre for manu- indigenous people and farmers, but has also put facturing products. them in the crossfire between government forces, However, and despite the significant advances in in- insurgent groups and paramilitaries fighting to con- ternational human rights law to protect traditional trol the territory. The plan did not achieve an overall and medicinal practices of indigenous populations, reduction in cocaine production in Colombia, but those involved in the cultivation and use of plants has led instead to a serious humanitarian crisis, con- destined for the illicit drug market have been crim- tributing heavily to the displacement of 3.6 to 5.2 inalised, marginalised and discriminated against by million people54 and increased levels of poverty and harsh drug laws and policies. insecurity. Colombia’s constitutional court estimat- ed that at least 27 indigenous groups were at risk of Regions where crops destined for the illicit drug disappearing as a result of armed conflict.55 market thrive are usually characterised by extreme poverty, state abandonment, limited infrastruc- In locations where alternative development pro- ture, restricted access to basic services, and often grammes have been implemented, no local knowl- conflicts. Instead of addressing these underlying edge, know-how or cultural traditions have been issues, governments have tended to focus on forced contemplated or considered, and indigenous groups crop eradication campaigns. In the Andean region, have been excluded from these programmes. Fur- for instance, these campaigns have caused wide- thermore, land grabbing processes and macroeco- IDPC Drug Policy Guide 135 nomic ‘development’ projects such as monoculture, The 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Sub- hydroelectric dams, open mining and petrol and gas stances does not control any plant, but does impose exploitation in ancestral territories affect indigenous controls on several of the active ingredients of some people’s access to medicinal plants which are often plants. This is the case for mescaline, contained in grown within the native biodiversity of their terri- peyote and the San Pedro cactus; for psilocybin tory56 – jeopardising indigenous people’s access to and psilocin, responsible for the stimulating effect health, cultural and spiritual practices. It is essential of khat; for DMT, the psychedelic compound in aya- that these programmes are developed in collabora- huasca; and for THC, the psychoactive constituent tion with affected populations after a careful assess- of cannabis, among others.58 This level of control ment of the local cultivation possibilities and market creates confusion for substances such as khat, pe- access, and with full respect for the rights and tradi- yote or ayahuasca, since some of their psychoactive tions of indigenous people (see Chapter 4.2). compounds are internationally controlled, but the plants themselves remain outside the remit of the Legislative/policy issues conventions. As for cannabis, the plant species itself (cannabis and cannabis resin) is included in Sched- involved ule I of the 1961 Convention, but THC is scheduled in the 1971 Convention – also leading to inconsist- The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs has encies for drug control. classified three psychoactive plants – cannabis, coca and opium poppy – as subject to controls that Article 32, para. 4 of the 1971 Convention states limit their production, distribution, trade and use that: ‘A State on whose territory there are plants to medical and scientific purposes. The premise growing wild which contain psychotropic substanc- behind this policy is that it would be impossible es from among those in Schedule I and which are to achieve a significant reduction in the illicit pro- traditionally used by certain small, clearly deter- duction of internationally controlled substances so mined groups in magical or religious rites, may, at long as large-scale local consumption of raw mate- the time of signature, ratification or accession, make rials for

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