Professor James Anaya (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) has written an opinion article for Al Jazeera entitled “Is natural resource development a blessing, a ‘quick-fix,’ or a curse?” Drawing on his experiences as a UN investigator, he argues that the resource curse is alive and well in the global south, with profits from natural resource extraction failing to reach the people and communities who bear the brunt of its environmental and social impacts, and that the heart of the problem often lies in lack of recognition of the rights of the Indigenous peoples and local communities living on the land.
Referencing the community land and resource rights conference currently taking place in Interlaken, he calls on the new UN Sustainable Development Goals to include recognition of land rights, including rights based on traditional use and occupancy, in order to address deep-rooted problems of contested ownership. For more information, please read the Al Jazeera article and download Anaya’s thematic report on extractive industries and Indigenous peoples, which was recently submitted to the Human Rights Council.
