'Making Free Prior & Informed Consent a Reality' between Indigenous peoples & mining companies

'Making Free Prior & Informed Consent a Reality' between Indigenous peoples & mining companies: New Report http://ow.ly/kT8HL

[excerpt]

"... Last week London played host to Indigenous delegates from six continents, the UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples James Anaya and several mining industry representatives, all present for the launch of a new report concerning the Indigenous right to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).

Commissioned by Indigenous Peoples Links (PIPLinks) amongst others, the new study is part of a wider advocacy project that is being coordinated by UK based civil society organisations and Middlesex University School of Law. Its aim is to help make FPIC a reality in the mining industry. It is hoped the report will provide a framework for meaningful discussions between Indigenous peoples and mining companies.

The day before the launch Indigenous speakers from Canada, Norway, Australia and Colombia met with members of local NGOs to share their experiences with FPIC and mining. Their personal accounts relayed the commonality of the global fight being led by Indigenous peoples to turn back the tide of the extractive industries. At the heart of this battle is the provision of FPIC as an indivisible facet of the Indigenous right to self-determination.

Incomplete understandings of FPIC and its historical subversion at the hands of industry have meant that, whilst it exists on paper, FPIC is yet to be properly realized in practice. Every Indigenous delegate at the meet had their own story of how their right to FPIC had been co-opted...."

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