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Addressee: HRC
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The Permanent Forum recommends that relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council collaborate with each other and with other human rights bodies to address the situation of indigenous human rights defenders through monitoring, mediation, analysis and the provision of concrete recommendations for the effective protection of indigenous human rights defenders.
Responses
On 18 April 2018, at the 17th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, emphasized the widespread intimidation of indigenous peoples, and reprisals taken against them and those who defend them by co-operating with the United Nations. In the 2018 annual report of the Secretary-General to the Human Rights Council entitled, “Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights” (A/HRC/39/41), several new cases of reprisals against indigenous peoples and those who defend them were reported from Honduras, India, the Philippines, Russia and Thailand. These cases continue to be monitored by the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and if there are further developments they will be included in Annex II of the 2019 report.
A particularly disturbing trend is that serious allegations of intimidation and reprisals against indigenous peoples and those who defend them continue to be reported to the Assistant Secretary General that are not included in the Secretary-General’s annual report, especially where the risk to the security and well-being of the individuals concerned, or their family members, was deemed too high. The Assistant Secretary-General continues to make efforts to engage with indigenous participants and members of civil society working on indigenous issues at headquarters and in the field to ensure that indigenous peoples’ right to cooperate with the UN is ensured.
In the report on the twenty-fourth annual meeting of special rapporteurs/representatives, independent experts and chairs of working groups of the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the special procedures mandate holders noted various measures taken to respond to intimidation and reprisals, which were observed to have become increasingly severe in nature. They also stressed the need for a trends analysis and comprehensive assessment, and for strengthened coordination with other parts of the United Nations system, including the Assistant Secretary-General (see A/HRC/37/37, paras. 66–67). To ensure the visibility and accessibility of the work on intimidation and reprisals and the activities of the United Nations human rights mechanisms, the website launched in June 2017 is being translated into the six official languages and informational materials, including an animated video and a one-page document for civil society on how to submit information, are available online.
Final Report of UNPFII Session 17 (2018)
Area of Work
