Identifying Beneficiaries of the UN Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership (UNIPP): The Case for the Indigenes of Nigeria's Delta Region

Abstract

The UN launched the Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership (UNIPP), its first global inter-agency initiative, on 20 May 2011 to promote and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. The Initiative is a collaboration of several UN agencies. The Partnership was created in furtherance of the provisions of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and ILO Convention No. 169 that aim to promote indigenous peoples’ rights by the UN systems through mobilisation including financial cooperation and technical assistance. These include promoting indigenous peoples’ full participation in governance and policy processes at the local and national levels, including conflict prevention in regard to ancestral land and use of natural resources. The UNIPP proposes to achieve its primary objective by providing support to capacities of multiple actors, in particular governments and indigenous peoples and organisations, to establish effective dialogue processes, mechanisms and partnerships aimed at guaranteeing indigenous peoples’ rights. UNIPP’s operations at the country level comprise two complementary priority lines of support. The first is capacity development for the realisation of indigenous peoples’ rights in line with the UNDRIP and ILO Convention 169 in one or more of five key thematic areas of intervention. They