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ABSTRACT
Taking as a point of departure an evaluation conducted for the International Labour Organization’s Programme to Promote ILO Convention No. 169 (PRO 169) this article examines the strategic approaches of the ILO towards the promotion of indigenous peoples’ rights. Through technical assistance to a wide range of stakeholders, PRO 169 sought to work at various levels to increase awareness, build capacity, and support policy initiatives within individual countries and geographic regions. This article describes a Spanish-funded project within PRO 169 that had specific focus in Latin America and in Southern Africa. We examine the specific dynamics in each of these regions, and the impact of the programme on the ground. This project ended abruptly when the Spanish government was unable to renew funding, and the entire PRO 169 programme was folded into the restructuring of the ILO a few years later. We argue that the technical support for the promotion of indigenous peoples’ rights that the ILO has been providing is critical, and that it should receive core funding, and not be dependent upon external funding and vulnerable to economic and political vagaries.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Dr Jennifer Hays is an associate professor of Social Anthropology, in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Tromsø, Arctic University of Norway. She has been working with San communities in southern Africa for over two decades, both as a researcher and as a consultant for community-based education and development initiatives, and on indigenous peoples' rights projects in Botswana and Namibia. At the time of the research described in this article she was a member of the European Research Council project Scales of Governance: The United Nations, the States, and Indigenous Peoples: Self-Determination in a time of Globalisation (SOGIP).
Dr Jakob Kronik has 25 years of professional experience as a socio-technological planner working with natural resources, indigenous peoples’ bio-cultural knowledge and territorial management, environmental and social change and gender analysis in developing countries with bi- and multilateral organisations, governments, NGOs, CSOs and private stakeholders. He is currently the International Director of Forests of the World, and is leading programmes in six countries in Africa and Latin America with indigenous and local communities on rights-based, civil society and nature-based solutions to climate change and biodiversity crises.
Notes
1 Jakob Kronik and Jennifer Hays, Evaluación Externa e Independiente del programa global de apoyo de la OIT ‘Promoción y aplicación de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas’ [Promoting and Implementing the Rights of indigenous peoples – external and independent global evaluation for the ILO Programme PRO169], International Labour Organisation Department of Evaluation (2013), https://www.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/#b2iixln, and Jennifer Hays and Jakob Kronik, Promoting and Implementing the Rights of the San Peoples of the Republic of Namibia. Single-country evaluation for the AECID funded ILO Programme PRO169. International Labour Organisation Department of Evaluation (2013), https://www.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/#b2iixln.
2 The other was the Interregional Programme to Support Self-Reliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples through Cooperatives and Self-Help Organizations (INDISCO), also launched in 1993 with the objective of contributing to ‘the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of indigenous and tribal peoples through demonstrative pilot projects and dissemination of best practices for policy improvement’. (ILO 2003, 87)
3 International Labour Organization, ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, 1989 (No.169): A Manual. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2003, 83.
4 ILO, ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. See also Birgitte Feiring and others, United Nations and Indigenous Peoples in Developing Countries: An Evolving Partnership (Baguio City: Tebtebba and Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, 2014), 57.
5 http://pro169.org/; see also ILO, ILO Convention onIindigenous and Tribal Peoples; and Programme to Promote ILO Convention No. 169 (PRO 169), A Guide to ILO Convention No. 169, International Labour Standards Department (Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2009).
6 PRO 169, A Guide to ILO Convention No. 169, 5.
7 Ibid.
8 169, A Guide to ILO Convention No. 169; see also Leaflet 8 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuideIPleaflet8en.pdf
9 Brigitte Feiring and others, United Nations and Indigenous Peoples in Developing Countries: An Evolving Partnership (Baguio City: Tebtebba Foundation, 2014).
11 Dorte Verner and Jakob Kronik, ‘The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Crafting Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies to Climate Change in Latin America’, in Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Equity and Vulnerability in a Warming World, ed. Andrew Norton Robin Mearns (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2010).
12 Jakob Kronik and Jennifer Hays, ‘Limited Room for Manoeuvre: Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies’, in Development as Usual is not Enough, ed. Siri and Inderberg Eriksen, Tor Håkon (London: Routledge, 2015).
13 It must be emphasised that indigenous peoples are not necessarily in principle against extractive industries; there are many cases of their active engagement in mining or other extractive activities, or willingness to negotiate ways in which they can take place, while securing their long-term social, cultural and environmental conditions to sustained livelihoods; in fact research suggests that in situations where the conditions to peoples livelihoods are not endangered, people are more likely to welcome extraction of resources (Arellano–Yanguas 2012).
14 Peter Dauvergne and Kate J. Neville, ‘Forests, Food, and Fuel in the Tropics: The Uneven Social and Ecological Consequences of the Emerging Political Economy of Biofuels’, Journal of Peasant Studies 37, no. 4 (2010).
15 Denise Humphreys-Bebbington, ‘State-Indigenous Tensions Over Hydrocarbon Expansion in the Bolivian Chaco’, in Social Conflict, Economic Development and Extractive Industry, ed. Andrew Bebbington (New York: Routledge, 2012).
16 Kronik and Hays, Limited Room for Manoeuvre, these circumstances are also outlined in numerous global reports; see, for example, the reports by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples 2011, 2013 and 2018: https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/ipeoples/srindigenouspeoples/pages/annualreports.aspx, and the 2013 report from the Rights and Resources Initiative: https://theredddesk.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdf/2013/doc_5915.pdf (last accessed November 2018).
17 Sarah Frost, ‘Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua’, Loyola Los Angeles International & Comparative Law Review 36 (2001).
18 See Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname (2007) http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_172_ing.pdf
19 See Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku v. Ecuador. Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Merits and reparations. Judgment of 27 June 2012. Series C No. 245.http://www.corteidh.or.cr/casos.cfm?idCaso=388&CFID=1119251&CFTOKEN=67312752
20 Burning platform is a term commonly used in change management literature to indicate that a situation has evolved to such a state that actors will be more willing to engage, and seek new solutions (Kotter 1996). Burning platforms are crises that can be either natural or engineered to force change.
21 Ley No. 28, Estatuto de Autonomía de las Regiones de la Costa Atlántica de Nicaragua. La Gaceta No. 238 del 30 de octubre de 1987.
22 Ley No. 445, Ley del Régimen de Propiedad Comunal de los Pueblos Indígenas y Comunidades Étnicas de las Regiones Autonomas de la Costa Atlántica y de los Ríos, Bocay, Coco, Indio y Maiz.
23 This information came from interviews with the Coordinadora Nacional De Pueblos Indigenas De Panamá (COONAPIP), and Forests of the World advisor H. López; Kronik and Hays, Evaluación Externa e Independiente del programa global de apoyo de la OIT ‘Promoción y aplicación de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas’ [Promoting and Implementing the Rights of indigenous peoples – external and independent global evaluation for the ILO Programme PRO169].
24 Law no. 37, of 2 August 2016: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=102800
26 ILO 99th Session, Geneva 2010 Committee on the Application of Standards at the Conference Extracts from the record of proceedings, 67–70) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---normes/documents/publication/wcms_145220.pdf
27 Ibid.
28 See Larsen 2016 for further discussion on this committee and its recommendations.
29 See, for example, the ILO Report III (1A) – Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (ILO 2010) and the 2012 report in which
‘ … The Committee recalls that the Conference Committee, at its 2010 session, welcomed the adoption by the Congress of the Republic of the Act concerning prior consultation and expressed its confidence that the Act would be promulgated by the President in the very near future. However, the Committee noted at its last meeting that the President had not promulgated the Act … In this regard, the Committee notes with satisfaction the adoption by the Congress of the Republic on 23 August 2011 of the Act regulating the right of indigenous and original peoples to prior consultation as recognized by ILO Convention No. 169, which was promulgated by the President of the Nation on 7 September 2011. Under section 1, the new Act must be interpreted in conformity with the Convention. Noting that the aforementioned Act requires the adoption of implementing regulations within a period of 180 days, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that any regulations adopted take full account of the provisions of the Convention’. (ILO 2012, 995)
30 Interview with Brigitte Feiring, the Chief Technical Adviser of the PRO169 program during the intitialisation of the Spanish project; see also Gilbert this volume.
31 Jennifer Hays, ‘Defining the Terms of Indigenous Peoples Rights in Namibia: The Role of the International Labor Organization’, in Scales of Governance and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, ed. Jennifer Hays and Irene Bellier (New York: Routledge, 2019).
32 These include the Ovahimba, Ovatue, Ovatjimba, and Ovazemba, and some Nama and Damara groups (see Hays 2019).
33 Ute Dieckmann and others, Scraping the Pot: San in Namibia Two Decades after Independence (Windhoek, Namibia: Land, Environment and Development Project of the Legal Assistance Centre and Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, 2014). See also James Suzman ‘Regional Assessment of the Status of the San in Southern Africa’. Series of 5 reports (Windhoek: Legal Assistance Centre, 2012).
34 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Addendum: The Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Namibia (25 June 2013), https://www.refworld.org/docid/522db4014.html
35 Ibid., 13.
36 Barume, personal communication, 2012.
37 Hays, Defining the Terms of Indigenous Peoples Rights in Namibia.
38 PRO 169, A Guide to ILO Convention No. 169.
40 In March 2015, the Division for San Development was renamed the Division for Marginalized Communities and moved to the Office of the Vice President.
41 see Hays, 2019, for a description of the use and implications of the terms indigenous and marginalized in Namibia.
42 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Namibia (2011).
43 Feiring and others, United Nations and Indigenous Peoples in Developing Countries, 57.
44 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Namibia (2016).
45 Hays, Defining the Terms of Indigenous PeoplesRrights in Namibia.
46 Sandrine Kott and Joëlle Droux, Globalizing Social Rights: The International Labour Organization and Beyond, International Labour Organization (ILO) Century Series, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 7.
47 See also Gilbert, this volume.
48 The Central African Republic ratified the Convention in 2010.
49 PRO 169, A Guide to ILO Convention No. 169, 161.
50 Hays and Kronik, Promoting and Implementing the Rights of the San Peoples of the Republic of Namibia, 25.
51 Ibid.
52 Director of the ILO Century Project 2009–2011.
53 Emmanuel Reynaud, ‘Preface’, in Globalizing Social Rights: The International Labour Organization and Beyond, ed. Sandrine Kott and Joëlle Droux (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), ix.
54 Interview with Petrus Doeseb, November 2012.
55 Feiring and others, United Nations and Indigenous Peoples in Developing Countries.
56 For example, the 2010 ILO Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations describes several problematic situations in ratifying countries, including ‘serious problems in relation to consultation, participation and oil exploitation’ especially for the Sarayacu community in Ecuador (767); a ‘state of emergency’ in Guatemala when a mining project was implemented by force despite rejection of the proposal by Sacatepequez community in Guatemala (768) and ‘persistent problems in applying the Convention in a number of areas’ in Peru (781), among other concerns. https://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/P/09661/09661(2010-99-1A).pdf
57 From Kronik and Hays Promoting and Implementing the Rights of indigenous peoples.
58 This department is responsible for promoting equality and respect for diversity in the world of work http://www.ilo.org/gender/lang--en/index.htm
59 Senior Specialist on Equality and Non-Discrimination at the ILOs Department on Gender Equality and Diversity.
60 see Jakob Kronik, ‘The Bedu of the Syrian Rangeland’, in Syria Rural Development in a Changing Climate. Increasing Resilience of Income, Well-Being, and Vulnerable Communities, ed. Dorte Verner (unpublished due to the conflict, 2011); Jakob Kronik and Viviane Clement, ‘Socioeconomic Effects of Climate Change in Central and Southern Tunisia’, in Adaptation to a Changing Climate in the Arab Countries: A Case forAadaptation Governance and Leadership in Building Climate Resilience, ed. Dorte Verner (Washington, DC: The World Bank); Jakob Kronik, ‘The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Crafting Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies to Climate Change in Latin America’, in Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Equity and Vulnerability in a Warming World, ed. Andrew Norton Robin Mearns, 145–72, (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2010).
61 The ILO worked with indigenous peoples in the Philippines through the Interregional Programme to Support Self-reliance of Indigenous and Tribal Communities through Cooperatives and other Self-help Organizations (INDISCO), a cooperative development programme to support application of the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 189). https://www.ilo.org/manila/projects/WCMS_125280/lang--en/index.htm
62 Interview 2018.
63 ILO, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights for Inclusive and Sustainable Development, 1.
64 Ibid., 6.