Dear Friends,
Please receive our very
best wishes for the holidays and the New Year.
May 2010 bring you and yours peace and happiness,
good health and prosperity.
Avec nos meilleurs voeux.
Felices festividades.
祝您新年快乐！
Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
On December 1, 2009, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on business and human rights, John Ruggie, launched a global online forum,
www.srsgconsultation.org . The purpose of the forum is to gather input for the SRSG as he develops guiding principles to operationalize the U.N. "Protect, Respect, Remedy" framework, as requested by the Human Rights Council.
The forum is currently focused on
the corporate responsibility to respect human rights , the second pillar of the framework. The forum is divided into sections, each of which contains multiple topics with space for discussion and comment. One section focuses on indigenous peoples and poses the following questions for discussion:
· What guidance can be given to companies operating in areas where national law does not adequately protect the rights and interests of indigenous peoples?
· The standard for consultation advocated by some is FPIC. What guidance can be provided to companies as to how “consent” is defined and how it can be established?
· In addition to consultation, what should a company whose operations directly affect indigenous peoples do to respect their rights and interests?
· What positive examples can you cite of a company meeting its responsibility to respect human rights with regard to indigenous peoples?
These topics will remain in place through February 2010, although the SRSG may amend them in response to how the discussion proceeds.
This site was built specifically for the SRSG's mandate. Anybody can register to participate in the discussion and post comments. Recognizing that there are legitimate reasons why some cannot comment publicly, private correspondence can be
submitted to
moderator@srsgconsultation.org .
To date the SRSG has not had the resources to translate the forum into other languages; recommendations for high-quality
pro bono translation services that might be able to do so should be sent to admin@srsgconsultation.org .
The forum is not intended to be an introduction to business and human rights or to the SRSG’s mandate. For more detail and background on the mandate, including information about the extensive consultations and research that led to the U.N. "Protect, Respect, Remedy" framework, please visit the SRSG’s web portal, which is hosted by the independent Business & Human
Rights Resource Centre:
http://www.business humanrights.org/SpecialRepPortal/Home .
The 2010 Call for applications for the Trust Fund on Indigenous Issues relating to the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People is closed. Proposals was accepted between 1 August 2009 and 1 November 2009. The Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has received several hundred project proposals and are now precessing them.
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