International Investment and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Roundtable on International Investment and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

On May 12, 2016, CCSI and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples co-hosted a workshop on indigenous peoples and investment. The workshop brought together indigenous representatives, legal practitioners, academics, and other stakeholders to discuss how international investment and trade frameworks, and the international human rights law regime can be reformed to strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples to ownership and use of their lands, territories, and resources, as well as their related self-determination and cultural rights. The workshop took place in New York during the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and in the lead-up to the Special Rapporteur’s second thematic report on international investment and the rights of indigenous peoples.

On November 16, 2016, CCSI published this outcome document, which synthesizes discussions that took place during the workshop.

Submission on Human Rights Defenders

CCSI has begun to analyze how international investment agreements and investor-state dispute settlement can impact the rights of human rights defenders. In March 2018, CCSI submitted input to the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, on “criminalization and attacks against indigenous peoples defending their rights: proposals for actions to prevent and protect.” In this submission, CCSI analyzes the possibility that the international investment law regime may in a causal way exacerbate the repression and criminalization of human rights defenders in the context of investment projects.