Free , Prior And Informed Consent Research Articles

Iman Peoples Water Sovereignty: Extractive Industries in Central Queensland

The coal seam gas (CSG) industry has rapidly expanded in the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) over the past two decades, significantly impacting groundwater ecosystems and Indigenous communities that rely on these water sources for cultural, spiritual, and practical purposes. This article examines the intersection of Water Sovereignty, extractive industries, and key issues such as Social License to Operate (SLO), Indigenous Peoples' rights, informed consent, and the legal doctrine of Aqua Nullius. Through an Indigenous perspective, this research illuminates the multifaceted dimensions of water governance and the complexities that arise from the interactions between Indigenous stakeholders, industries, and regulatory frameworks. Through interviews with Elders of the Iman Peoples in central Queensland, the research highlights how current SLO frameworks neglect Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and fail to uphold ethical standards necessary for protecting Indigenous cultural continuity. Water security is a primary concern, with Traditional Owners emphasizing the need to safeguard surface and groundwater for future generations. This research informs policy at local and national levels while contributing to global discussions on Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, and cultural heritage protection. It calls for integrating Indigenous knowledge and rights into water governance, promoting respect, equity, and sustainability in managing natural resources.

The global implementation of UNDRIP: a thematic review

ABSTRACT Following almost 25 years of work, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007. UNDRIP has been widely recognised as an authoritative statement of human rights norms concerning Indigenous peoples around the world. However, meaningful implementation of UNDRIP has been slow. To better understand the pace and challenges facing implementation, we identify and analyze four key recurring themes that emerge from the growing literature on this topic. This includes (1) Indigenous self-determination versus state autonomy as a driver of potential conflict; (2) the meaning of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) in the context of UNDRIP; (3) the nexus between land, culture, and self-determination; and (4) Western/Global North influence over non-Western/Global South state implementation of UNDRIP. We examine several specific examples from across the globe to reveal the continuities and discontinuities across these four themes. The article concludes by offering ideas on how the limits of the present study and wider literature on UNDRIP might be rectified. That is, by incorporating a greater number of Indigenous perspectives on UNDRIP and adding more studies of governance and implementation challenges encountered in countries located in the Global South.

Could Justice40 reproduce injustices in the critical mineral sector?

The United States is reprioritizing domestic extraction and processing of critical minerals, with billions of dollars of investments. Because of their uses in low-carbon technologies, the mining and processing of these resources falls under the scope of the Justice40 Initiative, the Biden administration’s flagship environmental justice policy. Justice40 prioritizes green investments to benefit communities deemed disadvantaged, including all recognized Tribes. This can lead to the siting of “green” mineral projects in disadvantaged communities (DACs), which is problematic if such projects are unwelcome or reproduce environmental injustices. These unintended consequences are our focus. We analyze how DACs are defined and operationalized, before examining whether and under what conditions critical mineral projects could be considered beneficial for local communities. We suggest three ways to better align Justice40’s spirit with its (currently problematic) application to critical minerals and other controversial projects – (1) centering free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) and the transparency and power restructuring needed to achieve it; (2) incentivizing community ownership to strengthen economic benefits and democratize decision making; and (3) bringing currently-exempted critical mineral activities within the purview of Justice40, particularly for the Department of Defense.

Free, Prior, and Informed Consent Principles as Indigenous Peoples’ Right: Soft Law or Hard Law?

Ensuring conformity between national laws and international law principles is crucial for states, particularly concerning the adoption of the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) principle to safeguard the natural resource rights of Indigenous Peoples. Numerous development initiatives proceed without indigenous consent, resulting in significant harm. Policies impacting indigenous communities should be established through prior consultation and their explicit endorsement to align with local wisdom and values. This paper explores the imperative to reevaluate the FPIC principle within legal frameworks. Using both conceptual and statutory analyses, it assesses whether FPIC constitutes a binding obligation with legal ramifications that necessitate incorporation into national law (hard law) or remains a non-binding guideline (soft law). The State’s role in implementing this principle to shield indigenous groups from detrimental development projects affecting their natural resources and cultures is scrutinized. The foundational ethos of FPIC is rooted in defending Indigenous Peoples’ entitlements to natural resources. Lastly, legislative recommendations are offered to define FPIC as a legal norm, ensuring legal certainty and guiding judicial decisions in upholding these rights

Development-Induced Displacements and Livelihood Options — A Case of the Chingwizi Community in Mwenezi Rural District

Using primary data of 100 households and literature review, this study examined the socio-economic opportunities or lack of them as well as vulnerabilities encountered by the Chingwizi Community in Mwenezi Rural District in Masvingo Province. The study argues that the Chingwizi people are rational, resourceful and strategic actors. It further contents that the relocated households were plunged into deeper socio-economic problems as the climatic and infrastructural conditions in the new area are harsher than where they were coming from. Primary data was collected from key informants through interviews, informal conversations and observation. Key informants included government officials from the ministries of local government, agriculture and land resettlement, community leadership (both traditional and elected), development workers from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the resettled farmers of Chingwizi in general. Literature review involved discussing empirical findings by other scholars on development-induced displacements (DIDs) in other parts of the world and Zimbabwe in particular. Findings from the study indicate that the state failed to fulfill its promises to the relocated households and that the principles of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), fair and comprehensive compensation (FCC) as well as inclusive socio-economic development and profit-sharing (ISDP) were ignored by the state in the process of relocating households from Chivi and Masvingo rural areas. In light of the foregoing the study recommends the need to engage those communities affected by development projects so that sustainable options are arrived at.

Indigenous Peoples in French Guiana: will France ever recognize their right to self-determination, land, territory, biodiversity and Free, Prior and Informed Consent?

French Guiana, located in South America, hosts over 10,000 Indigenous Peoples, principally the Kali’na Tileuyu, Lokono and Pahikweneh, Wayãpi, Teko and Wayana people. Despite making up around 4% of the total population, Indigenous Peoples in French Guiana continue to face systematic challenges in being able to fully enjoy their human rights and rights as Indigenous Peoples. As an overseas territory of France, French Guiana falls under the governance of France and is fully integrated as an overseas department, separate from other overseas territories such as New Caledonia. This full integration has classified Indigenous Peoples as French People, making it not only difficult to get estimates of the actual number of Indigenous Peoples in French Guiana as the French Constitution prohibits ethnic statistics, but also prevent the ability of Indigenous Peoples to obtain their right to self-determination and control over their own land as provided in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Therefore, this paper will discuss the violations of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples committed by France that hinders their attainment to their fundamental freedoms and basic human rights. To do so, this paper will firstly begin by discussing the implementation of the UNDRIP in French Guiana in reference to several articles. In explaining the various articles, it will demonstrate how the French government’s recent actions continue to lead to the destruction of Indigenous territories and threaten their survival. Moreover, this paper will focus on articles 3, 10, 25, 29 which pertain to the right to self-determination, the right to land and territories, and the right to protect biodiversity. These rights alongside the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) should allow Indigenous Peoples to exercise control over decisions that essentially affect not only their way of life but also their existence, particularly considering the history of Indigenous Peoples that have frequently been the “first victims of development activities.”

A Comparison of the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) Guidelines and the “Implementation of Governance, Forest Landscapes, and Livelihoods” Project in Lao PDR: The FPIC Team Composition and the Implementation Process

Free, prior, and informed consent, or FPIC, is a crucial component of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) projects. This study addresses a significant research gap regarding FPIC in the context of REDD+ projects, with a focus on the Implementation of Governance, Forest Landscapes, and Livelihoods (I-GFLL) project in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). This research aimed to evaluate the FPIC’s components and implementation. We employed a literature review of the FPIC implementation reports from 242 targeted villages involved in the I-GFLL project and face-to-face interviews with 12 key informants. The research found positive aspects, such as female team membership, boosting ethnic women’s participation; the exclusion of forestry officials to foster an open dialogue; and respect for project rejections, displaying adherence to the FPIC principles. However, some challenging aspects were also highlighted, such as the exclusion of civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) and the loss of their expertise; limited team knowledge of forestry/climate change, hindering communication; short consultation durations; and an incomplete understanding of technical terms due to the project’s novelty, raising concerns. The study emphasizes the importance of crafting FPIC teams that promote communication, respect community rights, and, ultimately, ensure successful project implementation.

Gender Equality in Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia (Challenges and Efforts Towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals)

Objective: Gender equality is an important issue that the government frequently overlooks. Gender equality does not imply that women must be equal to men, but rather that women have the same rights, responsibilities, and opportunities as men in various fields. The facts show that Indigenous Women, as marginalized people, continue to face various injustices and discrimination in various parts of the world, including Indonesia. This paper attempted to analyze various problems and efforts to achieve gender equality for indigenous women in Indonesia in accordance with the principles agreed upon by Indonesia in the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. Method: This study is a type of descriptive qualitative research in which various qualitative data obtained from the study literature were examined and then described descriptively in order to reach a conclusion. Result: The results of the study concluded that gender equality, particularly for indigenous women in Indonesia, had not been properly implemented because the division of inheritance, position, and political rights of indigenous women in various regions of Indonesia had not shown justice. Indonesia also still has some unresolved tasks until now, for example, the policy of strengthening international principles to protect indigenous peoples and indigenous women such as the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the Ratification of the Bill on Indigenous Peoples which is expected to accommodate indigenous women's rights in Indonesia. Conclusion: Based on the discussion above, it can be concluded that gender equality has not been properly implemented in Indonesia, particularly for indigenous women, because research findings show that the division of inheritance, position and political rights of indigenous women in various regions of Indonesia has not received justice. Indonesia also has several responsibilities that have yet to be completed, such as policies to strengthen international principles to protect indigenous peoples and indigenous women.

Restoration of Indigenous People’s Rights in Natural Resources Management

The position of Indigenous communities remains uncertain due to the biased recognition they receive. In other words, the recognition provided by the central or regional government is unsatisfactory as it is influenced by political and economic interests, as seen in the case of the Cek Bocek Reen Sury Indigenous Community, which has yet to obtain legal certainty. Therefore, the restoration of Indigenous rights, particularly in the management of natural resources that have been heavily sacrificed, requires improvements in recognition, participation, and natural resource management. This research employs a normative juridical method with a legislative and case study approach. Primary legal materials consist of various legislations, while secondary legal materials include books and scholarly journals specifically addressing the Cek Bocek Reen Sury Indigenous Community. The findings of this study indicate that the government plays a crucial role in resolving issues of bias towards Indigenous Law Communities, which can be initiated through the enactment of a Law on the Recognition of Indigenous Law Communities. Consequently, other derivative concepts such as Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) can soon be realized, thereby reducing mining conflicts

Recognition on whose terms? Indigenous justice struggles in the EU-Honduran FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement

Building on decolonial environmental justice (EJ) and indigenous resurgence theories, this article explores how indigenous organisations in Honduras have used the EU-Honduras Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to pursue state recognition of procedural, self-determination and self-governance rights. Specifically, the article discusses indigenous engagements with the FLEGT VPA multi-stakeholder dialogues, the development of the VPA text and legality matrix and the FAO-EU-FLEGT donor funds as catalysers for the development of a – highly contentious – Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) bill, the development of FAO-EU-FLEGT-funded FPIC protocols, and the push for land titling and the formal recognition of indigenous governance institutions and practices. Applying decolonial environmental justice (DEJ) and indigenous resurgence insights, the article asks “on whose terms” recognition was obtained. It concludes that, while the VPA increased access to policymakers for longstanding indigenous agendas, it also reinscribed the colonial political hierarchy by ignoring, diluting and reinterpreting indigenous proposals in favour of state sovereignty over indigenous lands and people. The research was based on a combination of literature review, interviews and written communications with indigenous representatives and document analysis.

Equitable land-use policy? Indigenous peoples’ resistance to mining-induced deforestation

India's centralized mining of sub-soil minerals is rapidly changing the forested landscapes. This empirical research examines two interrelated questions: how do Indigenous Peoples perceive centralized mining affecting their traditional forest rights, and what are some of the community-led initiatives to address mining governance and forest policy? Two aspects of the rights-based approach on the extreme continuum – Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and social movements – are used for analyzing three ethnographic case studies each from India’s top three mining states, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Odisha. The forested landscapes are inhabited by a million ethnically diverse Indigenous Peoples also known as Scheduled Tribes or Adivasis, often devoid of formal recognition. The Oraon, Pando, Paudi Bhuniya, and Munda Indigenous communities face the consequences of mining-induced deforestation on their livelihoods and are excluded from land-use decisions before and after extractions. The findings compare diverse forms of social movements seeking decentralized mining and community-based forest governance. Key recommendations from the Indigenous communities for inclusive forest and land-use policy are illuminated in the conclusion.

Analysing the effectiveness of the roundtable on sustainable palm oil's Free, Prior and Informed Consent policy to respect customary land rights

AbstractThis article assesses the effectiveness of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil's (RSPO) Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) policy in respecting customary land rights in Indonesia using a policy implementation framework. The questions addressed are what is the practice of FPIC by oil palm companies? What is the performance of the companies in implementing the FPIC? Data from companies' documents and a survey of oil palm companies in West and Central Kalimantan show that while RSPO members are practicing the FPIC policy, their FPIC performance is inadequate, because of the absence of external monitoring of land acquisition and company reliance on inadequate Indonesian environmental law.

Repoliticising indigenous participation: FPIC protocols in Canada and Brazil

ABSTRACT Global activism led to the emergence of new international standards concerning state obligations to consult Indigenous peoples and, under certain circumstances, obtain their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) when extractive projects impact their rights and traditional territories. However, a growing literature shows that the implementation of Indigenous peoples’ participatory rights remains uneven and inconsistent at best. This paper focuses on Indigenous peoples’ agency in operationalising their rights. We do so by focusing on an increasingly common yet overlooked Indigenous strategy: the development of community-based consultation and consent protocols. What role do unilateral Indigenous protocols play in shaping how participatory norms are implemented? How can protocols contribute to shaping Indigenous peoples’ relations with state and industry actors? We present the result of a systematic comparative analysis of thirty-five consultation and consent protocols adopted by Indigenous nations and communities in Canada and Brazil between 2005 and 2020. While they vary in their structure and content, protocols in both countries converge in their use of both programmatic and performative languages to recast participatory processes as spaces to assert Indigenous peoples’ status and legitimacy as self-determining polities. In doing so, protocols re-politicise and re-appropriate participatory processes and put forward an alternative interpretation of their participatory rights that challenges how state authorities and industry actors tend to operationalise consultation and FPIC standards.

Consultation and Displacement in Large-Scale Agriculture Investment: Evidence from Oromia Region’s Shashamane Rural District

The Shashamane rural district was selected as a target area and corridor of large-scale agriculture investment (LSAI) to produce surplus agricultural products and ensure local development by the state and private (domestic and foreign) investors. Shalo–Melega private LSAI projects started operation in 2008 in the Shashamane rural district. This farm project comprises a crop production site, construction of a road, a crop storage facility, and developing irrigation in a total of about 24,710.51 acres of land along the central Rift Valley basin, for long-term leases. Little attention has been paid to how land ownership has changed and transaction transparency; how the community has been consulted; whether free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) has been provided; and how local people have been displaced. This study sought to investigate the consultation process, land transaction transparency, the use of FPIC, and local community dis-placement as a result of LSAI in the Shashamane rural district. The study adopted multi-method qualitative and quantitative data collection tools including primary data, collected from a directly impacted population of 134 households, using systematic random sampling techniques; key and in-depth informant interviews; focus group discussions (FGD); and field visits. Through the use of qualitative and qualitative research paradigms, a systematic analysis was conducted. The result of the study shows that 86.6% of respondents (both interested and affected) expressed that both government and the proponents were not taking in account their concerns during the consultation processes. Lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) reduces local people’s sense of recognition and status. Moreover, LSAI displaced the rural people from their area of settlement and farmland, triggered a shortage of communal grazing and forest resources. Additionally, nonequivalent and unsatisfactory mitigation and compensation methods highly triggers the negative impacts. As a result of manipulation and therapy used during the consultation process, we assert that the local community had less decision-making authority and that the risk to the farm was thereby increased. The government, investors, and local communities are three actors whose respective roles need to be strengthened and transparent. It is crucial to strengthen the implementation of customary land tenure rights to benefit local and indigenous people and civil society organizations (CSOs).

The violence of disavowing Indigenous governance: exposing the colonial politics of "development" and FPIC in the Caribbean

After decades of community mobilizing and a protracted legal battle, Maya villages in southern Belize won a watershed Indigenous land rights victory in the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2015. Since then, the state has criminalized environmental defenders, violated communal land rights, and is argued by Maya activists and alcaldes (village leaders) to be operating in discriminatory bad faith. Accordingly, this Grassroots article casts critical light on a recent flashpoint conflict between the Government of Belize and Maya of Toledo District related to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). The article is directly informed by both the grounded knowledge of an autonomous movement engaged in frontline resistance, and participatory research that is rooted in a politics and spirit of "accompliceship." The structural analysis we offer from an explicitly anticolonial standpoint is instructive about the historical-imperial processes, social forces, and economic logics that underpin conventional approaches to both "development" and the state's duty to consult local communities. Ultimately, the article reveals the forms of political conflict and environmental degradation that continue to emerge globally at the conjuncture of capitalist development, (postcolonial) state power, and struggles for Indigenous self-determination.er, and struggles for Indigenous self-determination.

“We are not allowed to speak”: Some thoughts about a consultation process around lithium mining in Northern Argentina

In October 2021, the government of Catamarca, a province located in Northern Argentina, announced the beginning of a consultation process to debate about a lithium mining project located in the Salar del Hombre Muerto. According to several laws and international treaties passed by Argentina, before any program, project or law that affect Indigenous peoples, their territories and resources, a Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) consultation has to be held. In Argentina, the provinces are in charge of controlling all mining activities and carrying out consultation processes. However, in many cases the provinces have not upheld this right to consultation and local communities have regularly protested. Therefore, consultation processes often take place in conflictive scenarios. The aim of this Viewpoint is to illustrate, through an ethnographic approach, how concretely a consultation process around lithium mining was carried out in Catamarca. Our findings show that the fairness of this particular consultation process was compromised by limits imposed on access to transparent information and by barriers imposed to local participation. We conclude that in order to to move towards a fair energy transition it is imperative to address the vulnerability of local communities, to guarantee greater transparency of information about lithium projects, and to hold FPIC according to the spirit and the letter of international conventions.

Land, race, and (slow) violence: Indigenous resistance to racial capitalism and the coloniality of development in the Caribbean

This article, which has been informed by sustained engagement with an autonomous social movement and long-term participatory action research, offers a critical structural analysis of the Maya land struggle in Toledo District, Belize. We contend that state-sanctioned violations of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) reveal both the coloniality and misanthropic skepticism inherent in conventional ‘development’ agendas and the Westminster-modelled liberal state. More specifically, by drawing from revolutionary theories of race and decolonisation and placing the concepts of racial capitalism and slow violence into an integrated anticolonial frame, we explain how economic development projects and government sponsored FPIC violations are aiding and abetting land dispossession, ecosystem damage, heritage destruction, the criminalisation of environmental defenders, and disavowals of Indigenous governance. Ultimately, the piece illustrates how extractivist-driven refusals of good faith consultation with Indigenous communities in the Caribbean exacerbate environmental degradation, undermine Indigenous self-determination, and constitute contemporary manifestations of colonial power, racial-capitalist exploitation, and structural (slow) violence.

Indigenous Peoples and International Law in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The adoption and ratification of new conventions and treaties under international law designed to protect both Indigenous peoples and the rights of nature have resulted in successful rulings by local, federal, and regional courts in favor of Indigenous groups engaged in class-action suits against their governments. In 2012 and 2019, respectively, the Sarayaku Kichwa and the Huaorani and Cofán peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon won cases against the Ecuadorian government for its lack of consultation on planned oil exploration. Such cases upholding the correct application of the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) under international treaties are rare; more often, Western judicial systems and environmental impact assessments have been used to serve corporate interests, as exemplified by the Aguinda v. Texaco case initiated in 1993 and the planned operations of Andes Petroleum in Orellana province 2019–2020, respectively. Indigenous and non-Western epistemologies tend to be incompatible with state-driven liberal secular capitalism—hence Indigenous efforts to prevent land seizures and the expansion of the extractive frontier into Indigenous territories in the Amazon rainforest have been undermined by the imperatives of modernization/developmentalism. These same forces have stimulated demand for gold, the legal and illegal mining of which, along the Napo river, have caused the contamination of the waters of the Amazon, threatening the health of Indigenous and non-indigenous riverine communities.

FPIC, international law, social space, and indigenous territories in FPIC during extractive projects in Latin America. A romantic or tragic story?

The development and implementation of the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) can be understood both as a “romantic” and “tragic” story, using a sharp reflection made by Susan Marks (2012) regarding Human Rights. Following this idea, this essay intends to analyse the main developments of FPIC international human rights in the last three decades (the successful story) and the clear and strong limitations of its use in Latin America (the tragic side to it).Despite the fact that the romantic narrative tells us about a progressive recognition and protection of indigenous rights in international law, especially with instruments such as the ILO Convention 169 (ILO-C169) and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), these advances have been and are currently deactivated. Through the revision of postcolonial literature and an analysis of relevant research in Latin America, this essay explains how the supposed progress is clearly limited by imbalances in the history of international law itself and in the territorial governance system that is configured in large-scale extractive projects, where FPIC is applied or not. In this manner, despite apparently overcoming colonial times against indigenous peoples, the permanent structure of neo-colonization of indigenous territory prevails for an ever-growing global market.

Free, Prior and Informed Consent in Kenyan Law and Policy After Endorois and Ogiek

AbstractThis article examines the Kenyan legal and policy framework as well as jurisprudence on the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) occasioned by the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) in Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group (on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council) v Republic of Kenya (Endorois) and the judgment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) in the case of African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v Republic of Kenya (Ogiek). The main objective of this article is to examine the development and level of operationalization of the principle of FPIC in Kenyan domestic law and policy using the Endorois and Ogiek standard. It examines how the Kenyan domestic legal system has responded to these regional and international developments on FPIC and its operationalization.