Activities of Francisco ASSIS related to 2017/2206(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Violation of rights of indigenous peoples in the world (debate) PT
Violation of rights of indigenous peoples in the world (debate) PT
Reports (1)
REPORT on violation of the rights of indigenous peoples in the world, including land grabbing PDF (667 KB) DOC (101 KB)
Amendments (37)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 25 a (new)
Citation 25 a (new)
- having regard to the human rights provisions included in the Cotonou Agreement,
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas indigenous peoples around the world live in harmony with their ecosystems, nourishing deep bonds with all living organisms on their lands; whereas their traditional knowledge and practices are of great importance for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; whereas indigenous peoples are particularly vulnerable to the pernicious effects of climate change due to their close dependence on highly exposed ecosystems;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas indigenous peoples’ communal rights arise by virtue of a traditional occupation of their territories and the sense of belonging connecting them to said territories does not coincide with the concept of ownership as commonly conceived in western societies;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas some States do not recognise the legitimacy of indigenous people’s representatives or their ability to pronounce themselves on matters relevant to their lives; whereas the governments of some countries lack the will, the political capacity or the resources to protect traditional lands and indigenous people’s rights and those of people working in rural areas; whereas in many cases the governmental authorities themselves are responsible for issuing land titles to foreign investors and for authorising agribusiness expansion, development, industrialization and infrastructure projects without prior community consultation and consent, and often against their duty to secure protected areas;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G b (new)
Recital G b (new)
Gb. whereas remote indigenous communities or those living in voluntary isolation lack the capacity, for that very reason, to advocate for their own rights, therefore being especially unprotected against the violation of those rights;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas nowadays there is a trend towards the militariszation of some reserves and protected areas, which sometimes overlap with the lands of indigenous and local communities, causing serious human rights violations, including “shoot on site” practices, in addition to hindering the access of these communities to their livelihoods and sacred places;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas civil conflicts in some countries are related to land rights and are the cause of forced displacements of indigenous and local communities, thus opening the door to land grabbing and landholding concentration;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
Hb. whereas poorly regulated tourism can have a negative cultural and ecological impact on these communities and in some cases it is the instigator factor for land grabbing;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas in some countries large numbers of indigenous populations migrated to major urban centres, where feelings of detachment and loss of cultural values ensue; whereas the inadequacy of their traditional knowledge and practices to urban contexts and to contemporary job market dynamics expose them to poverty and to new forms of exclusion and discrimination;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas non-binding corporate social responsibility and voluntary regulation schemes have proved insufficient to protect indigenous and local communities from the violation of their human rights, to prevent land grabbing and to ensure effective corporate accountability; whereas the lack of control and accountability mechanisms constitutes a major impediment to effective and adequate remedy;
Amendment 65 #
K. whereas a great number of EU- based investors and companies are involved in hundreds of land acquisition operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which sometimes leads to violations of the rights of indigenous and local communities; whereas in many cases, given the multiple foreign ramifications of those actors, it can prove difficult to trace their roots directly to the EU and its Member Statesthe European Union may be implicated in human rights violations related to land grabbing in different ways, such as through EU-based private companies, through EU-based finance companies that finance land-grab directly or indirectly, through Public- Private Partnerships with the use of public funds or political interventions that facilitate land acquisition by private companies, through EU-based development Finance Institutions and through EU policies and international agreements, including trade and investment agreements; whereas in many cases, given the multiple foreign ramifications of those actors, it can prove difficult to trace their roots directly to the EU and its Member States, and even where those roots can be traced there remain significant legal and practical barriers to accessing justice and accountability via the courts of the EU and its Member States, including as a result of jurisdictional limitations in respect of cases concerning immovable property (including land and natural resources), severe constraints on the value of the remedy available and legal aid availability, and the difficulties of demonstrating parent-company liability;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas most lands in developing countries are inhabited, thus exposing the investments and reputation of companies to tenure risks and significantly increasing their operating costs when land transfers occur in a context of conflict, without the prior consent of indigenous and local communities and in contempt for their rights;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on all States, including the EU and its Member States, to follow all the necessary steps to effectively comply with the provisions contained in ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and recalls that all ratifying States are obliged to develop coordinated and systematic action to protect indigenous peoples’ rights;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Recognises some achievements in the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples and an increasing awareness by civil society regarding their situation and recognises the EU’s contribution in this regard; warns, however, of a still very timid presence of this issue in EU policies, such as in the negotiation of trade and cooperation agreements;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the EU and its Member States to create conditions for the fulfilment of the objectives set out in the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and to encourage its international partners to adopt and implement it fully;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on all states, including the EU and its Member States, to legally recognise the traditional lands of indigenous people; rights of indigenous peoples to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on all states, including the EU and the Member States, to include indigenous peoples and rural communities in their strategies for tackling climate change, including the unintended human rights implications of climate-related land and natural resource policy and finance, such as the forced eviction or exclusion of indigenous peoples from their traditional lands on grounds of forest carbon or water security conservation;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on all states, including the European Union and its Member States, to recognise indigenous peoples as equal partners in all deliberations on issues that could affect them, and to create conditions so that their arguments and opinions can be respectfully heard in the regional and global discussion forums;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls on all States, including the EU and its Member States, to create conditions for the effective presence of representatives and leaders of indigenous peoples in civil society and public space, and for a more visible participation in the political system and indecision-making processes in matters that are relevant to them, including in constitutional reforms;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Urges the EU and its Member States to redouble their efforts in order to ensure the physical integrity and the legal assistance of indigenous, environmental and land rights defenders, namely through the reinforcement of the EIDHR Emergency Fund targeted at indigenous peoples’ rights defenders at risk and of other relevant programmes; requests the EU to instruct and capacitate its delegations in relevant countries to increase monitoring and support of those defenders and report the violations of their human rights in a more systematic and forceful manner;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on all states, including the EU and its Member States, to ensure that their environmental conservation policies fully respect the rights of indigenous peoples and rural communities so that whenthe compliance with these rights is always present both at the time of creation or expansion of protected areas are cnd in related or extended, compliance withion to pre-existing protected areas whose creation have previously evicted, excluded or otherwise disproportionately curtailed these rights has already been establishedof indigenous peoples and rural communities;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Calls on the EU and its Member States for their human rights agendas to give greater emphasis to the issue of land grabbing;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Welcomes the International Criminal Court’s 2016 announcement that land grabbing and environmental destruction may henceforth bringprecipitate charges of crimes against humanity;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Calls on the EU and its Member States to incite their partner States who are involved in post-conflict peace building which involve land rights to draw up measures to enable the return of dislocated indigenous and local communities to their traditional territories, as a crucial factor in achieving sustainable peace and social stabilization;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on all states, especially the EU and its Member States, to adopt and give their support to the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests of the Committee on World Food Security and to sign fForest lLaw eEnforcement, gGovernance and tTrade vVoluntary pPartnership aAgreements with as many relevant countries as possible, as a form of excluding illegal wood from the markets of the EU and in that way contribute to the fight against deforestation and the illegal cutting of trees that is behind numerous violations of the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Calls on the EU to guarantee an effective redress to indigenous and local communities victims of human rights abuses and violations resulting from the involvement of agents directly or indirectly linked to the EU in the context of land grabbing and industrialization and infrastructure projects, or resulting from development projects and investments launched and financed by the EU, including restitution and compensation, the possibility of return and the guarantee of non-recurrence;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Calls on the EU to ensure that the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights are fully integrated into the national programmes of Member States and are incorporated in the practices and operations of transnational corporations and business enterprises with European ties;
Amendment 152 #
15a. Calls on the EU to ensure that all violations of the rights of indigenous peoples by European companies are duly sanctioned, and encourages the EU to withdraw any form of institutional or financial support to any undertakings and enterprises involved in violations of human rights;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the EU to set up a grievance mechanism, enforceable using the judicial architecture of the EU and its Member States, whereby indigenous and local communities can lodge complaints regarding violations and abuses of their rights resulting from EU-based business activities or EU development or investment projects, regardless of the country where the violations and abuses occurred, in order to ensure that the victims have effective access to justice, as well as to technical and legal assistance; calls on the EU and the Member States to engage in the negotiations to adopt a legally binding international human rights instrument for transnational corporations and other companies;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Calls on the EU to devise clear rules of conduct and regulatory frameworks for extraterritorial action by companies and investors that fall within its jurisdiction, in order to ensure that they respect the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and that they can be properly held accountable and sanctioned when their activities result in the violations of those rights;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Invites the EU and its Member States to integrate the issue of the rights of indigenous peoples and land grabbing in the EU’s implementation process with regard to the Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Calls on the EU and its Member States to support the efforts of indigenous peoples and local communities to develop their own business models and land management;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Call on the European Commission to develop legislative proposals (and interim practice guidelines) setting out the precise human rights due diligence and other procedural duties to be observed by the EU and its Member States in order to achieve a rights-based approach to development cooperation, including obligations to ensure that prior and independent human rights impact assessments are conducted in relation to EU-funded and Member State-funded development projects that may have an impact on indigenous peoples and other highly land-connected communities;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Calls on the EU to establish the obligation to carry out prior and independent impact assessment studies prior to the conclusion of trade and cooperation agreements and to the implementation of development projects, in order to measure and prevent their deleterious effects on the rights of indigenous and local communities;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Calls on the EU to increase the degree of ambition and endowment of its programmes of support to indigenous peoples and to multiply and strengthen the projects under the EIDHR and the DCI aimed at empowering them and the organizations that defend their rights, as well as the participation of the EU in the international forums where matters relevant to their lives are discussed;
Amendment 219 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Exhorts the EU to deepen, expand and strengthen the objectives, priorities and actions concerning indigenous peoples contained in the Strategic Framework and Action Plan for Democracy and Human Rights, and asks for the mandate of the Special Representative on Human Rights to be modulated and empowered to give greater visibility to issues of indigenous peoples rights and their advocates;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 b (new)
Paragraph 24 b (new)
24b. Calls on the EU and its Member States to engage in dialogue and cooperate with the indigenous peoples and local communities in the Arctic in order to guarantee that their positions and their rights are respected within the framework of EU development policies likely to affect that region;