The Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Affairs Committee (SOCHUM) is one of the six specialized subcommittees of the United Nations General Assembly and is generally referred to as the Third Committee. It was established after the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Year after year, the General Assembly allocates to its Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Affairs Committee, agenda items relating to a range of social and humanitarian affairs, and human rights issues that affect people all over the world. An important part of the Committee’s work focuses on the examination of human rights questions, including reports of the special procedures of the newly established Human Rights Council. The Committee also discusses the advancement of women, the protection of children, indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the promotion of fundamental freedoms through the elimination of racism and racial discrimination, and the promotion of the right to self-determination. It also addresses important social development questions such as issues related to youth, aging, disabled persons, family, crime prevention, criminal justice, and drug control.
Historical background:
The promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous people has been a matter of great debate and concern in the last few decades. These are the groups of people that inhabited a land before colonization. The population of indigenous people worldwide
numbers between 300- 500 million, embodying 80% of the world’s cultural and biological diversity and occupying 20% of the world’s land surface. These groups are characterized by their distinct culture, traditions, language, and essentially their distinct sense of identity. Historically, we have seen these groups segregated and discriminated against by current governments. They live in social isolation, separate from the community that surrounds them. Some governments’ response to the conflict is characterized by ignoring and denying the very existence of these groups.
One such example is Bangladesh, where the government declared that ‘there are no indigenous people in Bangladesh’. This angered not only their own indigenous population but also other groups from across the world. It was seen as yet another move to deny the indigenous people rights and safeguards. The Indonesian government presents another such example, coming out in support of policies aimed at promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous people yet specifying that they did not apply to their country. After years of negotiations, the global community was able to come together and finally take a stand. In 2007, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. This was able to gain massive support and by 2010, it was supported by all United Nations member states. However, getting here was not easy. This declaration came as a result of years of debate between the oppressed and said oppressors and it was only the first step towards finding a solution. Over the years, this declaration has served as a comprehensive instrument, guiding states towards the formulation and implementation of laws to protect indigenous people. It has also pushed states to incorporate such clauses and efforts in their regional frameworks. Yet the primary problem still remains and governments have failed to develop acceptance and tolerance for these people.
Who are “indigenous people”?
There is no single universal definition of indigenous and tribal peoples. Convention No. 169 provides a set of objective and subjective criteria that may be used to identify these groups. By using the terms “indigenous” and “tribal” peoples and giving both groups the same set of rights, the Convention offers a practical and inclusive approach for identification that also recognizes self-identification as a fundamental criterion. For practical reasons, the present report uses the term “indigenous peoples”, as this is now commonly used at the international level to refer to these groups.
Indigenous peoples are among the first to face the direct consequences of climate change, owing to their dependence upon, and close relationship with the environment and its resources. Climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by vulnerable indigenous communities, including political and economic marginalization, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination, and unemployment.
Problem definition:
Climate change acts as a multiplier of existing vulnerabilities and exacerbates developmental challenges. The poor in developing countries bear the brunt of its consequences, even though they have contributed little to its causes.
Indigenous peoples, most of whom are in developing countries, are overrepresented among the poor and furthermore, whose rights, livelihoods, cultures, identities, and ways of life are already threatened by a range of social, economic, and environmental issues, face an additional layer of threat from climate change. Indigenous peoples share six characteristics that, in combination, are not present in any other group. Thus they are especially vulnerable to the direct impacts of climate change, to the impacts of environmental destruction that leads to climate change, and to mitigation and adaptation measures.
Poverty and Inequality
According to a recent World Bank study, climate change could push nearly 100 million people back into poverty by 2030, posing a grave threat to the progress made in poverty alleviation over the past few decades and to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. The impacts of climate change, such as those due to natural disasters, could increase inequality and contribute to a further “decoupling of economic
growth and poverty reduction”. 70–80 percent of the more than 370 million indigenous peoples worldwide are spread across Asia and the Pacific, a region particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The World Bank estimates that, in East Asia and the Pacific, nearly 13 million people could fall into extreme poverty by 2030 because of climate change, and the lower crop yields and higher food prices that result from it. Such figures are particularly worrying given that, in Asia, the World Bank estimates that, with some exceptions, development indicators for indigenous peoples are already worse than the population averages.
While there is some evidence of declining poverty rates in the emerging economies of Asia, notably in China, India, and Vietnam, indigenous peoples continue to experience a wider poverty gap than non-indigenous peoples and one that is constantly widening. In Latin America – a region that will also be severely affected by climate change – World Bank research shows the persistence of poverty rates for indigenous peoples over time.
Erosion of Nature-Based Livelihood
The majority of indigenous peoples live in rural areas and depend on lands and natural resources for their livelihoods, employment, and subsistence. They play an important role in the rural economy and are engaged in a range of traditional occupations such as agriculture, pastoralism, fishing, handicraft production, and hunting and gathering.
Globally, around 70 million indigenous people are dependent on forests for their livelihoods. Deforestation not only threatens their subsistence but contributes to around 10–12 percent of global carbon emissions.
Due to the lacking recognition of their rights to land, indigenous peoples face land alienation or restrictions to their access to natural resources or territories that they have traditionally occupied. This is mainly because of pressures for natural resource extraction and environmental degradation, and policies regarding environmental conservation that do not take into consideration indigenous peoples’ needs. Moreover, for many indigenous women and men, traditional occupations no longer meet their livelihood needs, while their access to other forms of income generation is impeded by lack of training and skills, weak market linkages, discrimination in the formal and informal economy, limited access to credit, land insecurity, and low incentives for investment. These situations, along with inadequate access to social protection, mean that indigenous women and men increasingly face severe livelihood insecurity and impoverishment in several parts of the world.
Residence in Geographical Areas Exposed to Climate Change
The geographical regions and ecosystems that indigenous peoples tend to inhabit, such as polar regions, humid tropical forests, high mountains, small islands, coastal regions, and arid and semi-arid lands, are especially prone to the effects of climate change. The impacts on poor communities dependent on ecosystem-based livelihoods may be considerable, depleting their subsistence production and removing one of their safety nets. Agriculture, for example, on which many indigenous peoples depend for food security and for meeting their subsistence needs, is one of the sectors most sensitive to climate change. Loss of ecosystems and changing weather patterns also have severe implications for indigenous peoples’ cultures and ways of life, given that a number of such communities share a complex cultural relationship with their surroundings. For instance, in the Arctic, a study by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has noted that indigenous populations are uniquely vulnerable to climate change because of their close relationship with and dependence on the land, sea, and natural resources for their cultural, social, economic and physical well-being.
Migration and Forced Displacement
Migration may be an adaptation strategy, forced upon people by the impacts of climate change; it can also render indigenous women and men more vulnerable to discrimination, loss of identity, exploitation, and other social, economic, and environmental risks in their destination areas, compared to other groups in society, including the poor. Failure to recognize their traditional skills, poor training, and disregard for their cultures and ways of life are among the barriers that they face in securing decent work after the migration. A recent ILO study measuring minimum wage compliance in ten developing economies found evidence that workers from indigenous communities are exposed to greater compliance gaps than other workers, with women within these groups facing compounded disadvantages. Indigenous women and men also tend to have higher rates of unemployment in urban areas. Excessive workplace heat and resulting high body temperatures and dehydration cause heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and, in some instances, even death. Excessive heat also has implications on productivity, economic output, pay, and family income, as workers’ natural reaction is to slow down in their work or limit working hours.
The study suggests that under such circumstances, the loss of labor productivity will be the greatest in the Asia-Pacific region and that this will not only affect workers but also have broader economic consequences. These findings are particularly significant where indigenous peoples are concerned, given that most of them are located in the Asia-Pacific region, vulnerable to social and economic risk factors, increasingly dependent on the informal economy, and concentrated in work settings exposed to excessive heat.
Gender Inequality
Indigenous women and girls play a vital role in traditional and non-traditional livelihoods, unpaid care work, and ensuring food security. With increasing insecurity regarding their livelihoods, however, many are seeking out employment in the informal economy and participating in activities ranging from agricultural wage work in rural areas to domestic work in urban areas. Furthermore, many indigenous women bear the burden of income generation, traditional activities, and household-related work simultaneously. While they make tremendous contributions to the social, economic, and cultural life of communities and society at large, indigenous women often face discrimination from both within and outside their communities. As a result, they are vulnerable to social and economic exclusion, exploitation, marginalization, and gender-based violence.
Lack of Recognition, Rights, and Inclusion in Public Policies
It is important to examine the issue of indigenous peoples and climate change from a human rights perspective, given that, at the international level, the rights of indigenous peoples have been recognized and the links between climate change and human rights have been clearly established. In this context, it is necessary to look both at substantive rights, such as rights to lands, territories, and natural resources, and enabling rights, such as rights to access to timely information, to consultation, participation, and remedy
The explicit recognition of indigenous or tribal peoples, and of their rights, remains absent from the legal, policy, and institutional frameworks of many countries, and also from their practice. There are exceptions, however; various countries have ratified Convention No. 169, while in Bangladesh and India, special legal provisions have been adopted for the protection of certain tribal groups. Even in those countries, while some progress has been made towards securing the rights of the people concerned, implementation remains a major issue. In other countries, the absence of recognition of indigenous peoples has had severe repercussions for the protection of their rights which, in turn, is crucial for tackling structural problems. It is all too often the case that, at the international and national levels, meaningful participation by indigenous peoples in shaping climate action is limited. Their exclusion from the development and implementation of public policies aimed at mitigating, and adapting to, climate change can have serious negative impacts on the enjoyment of their rights, on their interests, and on their well-being. For instance, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has stressed that, if the REDD processes are not carefully designed and implemented through a rights-based approach, “they risk violating their [indigenous peoples’] rights and can increase their socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities”. This suggests that, while moving forward, it is crucial to employ a rights-based approach that ensures the meaningful participation of indigenous peoples at all levels of decision-making, and provides for strong mechanisms to secure their access to remedies.
Past Actions:
The issue of the threat to indigenous people due to Climate change dates back to the existence of the League of Nations. In Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, the members accepted the duty of promoting the well-being and development of the indigenous population. The League used the term “indigenous” to distinguish between colonial powers and people living under colonial domination. When the United Nations was founded in 1945, the Charter of the United Nations included a “Declaration Regarding
Non-Self-Governing Territories” which called upon member states to protect the culture of people living in these territories and help them develop self-governance. In the wake of rising concerns about human rights following World War II, The United Nations (UN) became more involved in protecting the rights of minority groups affected by climate change. The earliest UN involvement in the protection of indigenous peoples dates back
to 1957 when the ILO adopted Convention No. 107, “The Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention”. The convention categorized indigenous rights to property, employment, education, and health and supported the integration of aboriginal groups into the dominant population rather than allowing them to flourish in their own heritage. Its heavy emphasis on assimilationist goals created the very conditions of impoverishment that the convention intended to prevent. Despite its shortcoming, ILO Convention No. 107 was a significant first attempt to secure indigenous rights. In 1988, the convention was revised and renamed the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (No. 169). Unlike the previous one, the updated convention refers to Indigenous Populations as Peoples and acknowledges ethnic and cultural diversity. After decades of drafting, the UN officially adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. The declaration is a visionary step towards addressing the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It sets out a framework for states to build and reconcile their relationships with aboriginal groups while ensuring that the past is not repeated. The declaration recognizes the dire need to respect and promote the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples, which derive from their political, economic, and social configuration, and from their cultures, spiritual custom, philosophies, and their rights to their territories and resources. Although the declaration passed with a majority of 144 countries, Australia, Canada, the United States, and New Zealand – all countries containing a vast population of indigenous people – voted against it, proving that there are still many parts of the world that are reluctant to accept Indigenous Peoples as members of their respective societies.
Countries Opposing the Declaration:
Numerous African countries attempted to alter the Declaration, joining a group of powerful countries that opposed the Declaration with large indigenous populations, including Canada, the US, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, and Colombia. The countries that voted against the Declaration said that they could not support it due to concerns over provisions that addressed issues of self-determination, land, and language rights. It is also important to mention that many of the countries that initially did not support the declaration have since reversed their position.
Countries Supporting the Declaration:
A large variety of countries supported the declaration along with Peru, Argentina, Sweden, Brazil, India, and Indonesia among others, who noted the importance of extending human rights to all individuals, regardless of ethnicity, culture, or language. In particular, many countries with large indigenous populations noted that the General Assembly Adopts the Declaration on Rights of indigenous peoples.
Response to Climate Change:
Research and international collaboration are essential to combat climate change. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is dedicated to assessing the impact of humans on the climate and proposes possible solutions, whereas global agreements and treaties such as the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the Montreal Protocol establish joint pacts and seek a common framework for acting against climate change.
The Conference of the Parties meets annually to discuss actions member states could take to decarbonize the economy and help developing countries. The Paris Agreement, signed at the end of 2015, represented a turning point in climate negotiations since it was the first time all countries agreed to establish measures to slow down global warming. Yet one of the clearest examples of successful international collaboration in favor of the environment is the Montreal Protocol. It came into force in 1989, serving to eradicate the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) for refrigeration. Due to this agreement, the hole in the ozone layer has been reduced by more than four million square kilometers over the past 15 years.