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This spot outlines the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a UN committee made up of sixteen people that advises the UN on issues such as economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. At these meetings important issues facing Indigenous People are discussed and, if pre-registered, people outside the committee can attend and even present on specific issues.

This spot outlines the importance of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. It is a forum made up of sixteen members that meets yearly to write reports and recommendations to advise states and UN agencies on important issues facing Indigenous Peoples. The forum focuses on general issues that are common to Indigenous Peoples such as health, violence against women and food sovereignty.

This spot outlines the recommendations made by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issue in 2013 on the importance of drawing attention to Indigenous issues in the media through journalism and other modes of communication. The UNPFII is a UN body responsible for bringing international attention to specific issues related to Indigenous Peoples’ health, human rights, economic and social development, environment, education and culture by making recommendations to UN member states and agencies.

This spot talks about Victoria Tauli Corpuz, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous whose role is to investigate the situation of Indigenous Peoples around the world and promote their rights. It highlights the importance of Indigenous People getting in touch with her to bring specific issues to her awareness.

This spot talks about the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or EMRIP, which is a UN body dedicated to studying and reporting on issues affecting Indigenous Peoples around the world. The studies that the EMRIP produces go in depth on issues affecting Indigenous Peoples across the world, such as a recent study it carried out on access to justice.

This spot outlines the ways in which Indigenous Peoples can use the three main UN mechanisms that are dedicated to Indigenous Peoples rights, the Special Rapporteur, the Expert Mechanism of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, to help their causes locally. Indigenous Peoples can use official recommendations and reports from these mechanisms for support at meetings with governments officials and also to spread the word about what is happening through the media.

Indigenous Rights Radio Producer Shaldon Ferris interviews Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, about the Dakota Access Pipeline. Vicky describes the central tensions underlying the current conflict, and details the opportunities for recourse available to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe through both local and international governing bodies.

Credits:
Interview with Vicky Tauli-Corpuz
Production by Shaldon Ferris

Music:
"Danum", by Salidumayy DKK

IRR Producer Shaldon Ferris reports on the official statement by Vicky Tauli-Copruz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, concerning the threat of the Dakota Access Pipeline to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Vicky Tauli-Corpuz discusses the challenges faced by Indigenous peoples in protecting their claim to ancestral lands in the face of government-sanctioned landgrabbing in the name of conservation.

Music: Melodies of Nepal, by classical Instrumental band Sur Sudha

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, discusses with IRR Producer Shaldon Ferris the high rate of imprisonment of Australian Aboriginal individuals that she observed in her official visit to Australia. Disproportionate criminalization of Aboriginal people is evidence of systemic, structural inequality in Australia.

MUSIC

Song: "YAWLICHALLAY" by Luis Cisneros. Used with permission.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, says she has found an inadequate process of consultation with Indigenous communities on the part of the national government during her visit to Honduras, where she was recently invited for a working visit to comment on a draft of a law regulating Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Indigenous Hondurans do not feel that they were adequately consulted on the content of the law. Further, the law does not meet widely accepted international standards of F.P.I.C.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, visited several states in Mexico to report on progress made in areas of Indigenous rights since her predecessor's trip to the country in 2003. Though the Mexican government has not fulfilled the majority of recommendations made by the former UNSR, Tauli-Corpuz notes the empowerment of autonomous municipalities since 2003 as an improvement over previous years.

This year's theme for conversations at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was "Indigenous Peoples Collective Rights to Lands and Resources". Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Igorot Kankanaey, Philippines), UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues, says that the theme connects to many important conversations happening now in the world, including the threat that extractive industries pose to resources located on Indigenous-owned territories.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, conducted an official visit to Guatemala, a country where 61 to 65% of population identify as Indigenous. Shaldon Ferris interviewed her about her visit.

MUSIC
"Whispers" by Ziibiwan. Used with permission.
Indigenous Rights Radio Intro track features "Burn your Village to the Ground" by @a-tribe-called-red. Used with permission.

A short update on current events from around the world on the topic of Indigenous Rights.

PRODUCTION
Shaldon Ferris (KhoiSan)