The approach to UNDRIP within the African Regional Human Rights System

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn May 2017, as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples prepared to celebrate a decade since its formal adoption, the issue of indigenous peoples' rights in Africa fell to be considered for the first time by the continent’s highest human rights body, the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights, in the Ogiek case against Kenya. The Court's ruling followed – and to some extent, drew upon – the African Union's 2010 adoption of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights' landmark ruling against Kenya in the Endorois case. The first cases to recognise indigenous peoples' rights over and in connection with their ancestral land, both rulings have been widely recognised as significant developments in the advancement of indigenous peoples' rights in Africa. Despite the fact that Kenya is not a signatory to the Declaration, the Court and the Commission specifically drew inspiration from the concept of indigenous peoples as set out within it. This paper will explore the approaches of these two African human rights bodies to the Declaration, providing authoritative analysis from the lead lawyer litigating Africa's foremost indigenous peoples' rights case and drawing on her extensive experience working with the Endorois to seek implementation of their successful ruling, a decade after the Declaration's adoption.