Authors: Dawn Chatty, Ariell Ahearn, Frederick Ole Ikayo, Elaine Porokwa, Seánna Howard
On 14 October 2024, an event was held at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Headquarters in New York to promote the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay’s report on the situation of Mobile Indigenous Peoples. The hybrid event was jointly organised by the UNDP, the University of Oxford, and the University of Arizona.
The occasion was particularly significant as this is the first UN report directly addressing the situation of Mobile Indigenous Peoples – including pastoralists, herders, hunter-gatherers, and sea nomads– offering crucial visibility and recognition for communities that have long faced marginalisation due to their mobility. The event began with a welcome and intervention from Dawn Chatty, Emerita Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration. Professor Chatty led efforts as early as 1998 to systematically study the disruption to Mobile Peoples’ lives and livelihoods which resulted from wildlife ‘fortress’ conservation and environmental protection projects. This led to the development of the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation (2002), which was set out by a group of social and natural scientists and representatives of Mobile Peoples in Jordan concerned by their invisibility in global capitalism. The Dana Declaration is a set of principles that was promulgated to contest the discrimination Mobile Peoples face, as well as their lack of rights, including access to natural resources. These principles recognize the importance of making mobile peoples visible, recognizing their human rights, including rights to mobility, their different knowledge systems, cultural identity, and rights to full participation in decision-making and rights to derive equitable benefits from local natural resources. In 2022, the Dana +20 Manifesto was prepared by rights holders themselves, who identified the continuing land fragmentation, exclusionary forms of development, forced sedentarization, evictions, and cultural loss as urgent issues that needed to be addressed. The Dana +20 Manifesto called on the UNPFII or the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to undertake a focused investigation and publish a report on the situation of Mobile Indigenous Peoples. and make specific recommendations on how their rights should be upheld.
Ariell Ahearn, Chair of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples, explained that the Standing Committee for the Dana Declaration responded to the Special Rapporteur’s call for inputs for the thematic report and organized two virtual consultations and an in-person side event at the UNPFII in April 2024 on behalf of the Special Rapporteur and his team. These consultation sessions provided a platform for Mobile Indigenous Peoples to dial in from their devices in the field to provide verbal inputs for the report. She then presented key points from the Dana+20 Manifesto, elaborating on how Mobile Indigenous Peoples are prevented from practicing the forms of mobility upon which their livelihoods and social systems are based. Across the world, Mobile Indigenous Peoples have been criminalized for practicing their traditional mobile ways of life and face discrimination from government institutions and the wider society. She emphasized that development organizations have poorly understood mobility, as concepts from sedentary tenure rights frameworks dominate discussions even on Mobile Peoples’ rights, due to a failure to comprehend the complex nature of flexible land use over extensive territories. She asserted that more effort is needed to meaningfully engage with the complexity of mobility practiced by Mobile Indigenous Peoples. Contemporary policies that focus on land tenure are insufficient if they do not guarantee the right to continued mobility. She also highlighted the need to meaningfully include Mobile Indigenous Peoples in decision-making and key events to enable them to speak for themselves on matters that pertain directly to them as it remains common for Mobile Indigenous Peoples to be excluded from key events organised by state governments, UN agencies and international development organisations.
Frederick Ole Ikayo and Elaine Porokwa, Maasai lawyers from Tanzania based at the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona, expanded upon the situation of Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania who are facing severe impacts following forced displacement from nationally declared protected areas and parks. Tanzania has taken strong affirmative steps to protect its natural resources. About 43.7% of Tanzania’s land is protected or conserved, and includes 800 protected areas and 7 World Heritage Sites. Frederick explained that while people globally recognize the name Serengeti National Park, few know the name Ramat, which means caretaker of all (animals and people. Ramat was what the Maasai people called the entire Serengeti and Ngorongoro ecosystem before its partition during the colonial period. In recent years, Tanzania has become an increasingly popular destination, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park are among those popular destinations for tourists. In 2021, the tourism sector generated USD 1.4 billion in revenues, and by July 2023, the tourist arrivals rose by 37.2%, reaching a record high of 1,658,045 visitors generating $2.99 billion USD. Tanzania’s government believes it can attract five million tourists by 2025, bringing in $6 billion in revenues. Tanzania’s style of biodiversity protection has contributed to an increase in tourism, but also has come with significant human cost as it relates to Indigenous peoples living within or near protected/conserved areas. The Maasai people, for example, have increasingly suffered from malnutrition and food insecurity due to prohibitions and evictions from their ancestorial homelands. Likewise, the government had threatened to deregister Maasai villages, ending access to social services. The prohibition of subsistence crop cultivation and the devastating impacts of the 2017 drought also reflect the challenges of climate change faced by the Maasai people, who have traditionally used mobility across their territory to mitigate environmental risks.
Elaine Porokwa further elaborated on the impacts of forced resettlement on Maasai women with a unique tie to their land, which has made it harder to leave their home and relocate. Loss of livelihood, spiritual loss, and cultural loss have all been impacted by the insecurity of land access and displacement. Likewise, the lack of basic social services in this area to foster these relocations have led to higher illiteracy rates due to long commutes to schools, insufficient educational materials, and a lack of teachers. The illiteracy limits their access to vital information, including voter registration, particularly because of language barriers. This situation has limited women’s access to important information and restricted participation in decision-making processes. Maasai houses have been burnt down due to the forced resettlements, and with no support, many have resorted to begging and sleeping on the streets. This has made them vulnerable victims of violence such as from men who are drunk and sexual violations. Loss of livelihoods and homes have had particularly severe impacts on vulnerable women, including a lack of access to maternal care, increasing rates of child marriage and gender-based violence. Furthermore, women are often subject to gender-based violence by personnel from public and private security forces. Some human rights defenders resisting extractive activities have been subjected to physical and sexual abuse both during arrests and in detention. Women environmental defenders also experience intimidation, verbal and media abuse such as attacks for breaking gender norms, labeling them as bad mothers and wives. Fredrick concluded by highlighting the Maasai people’s struggle to obtain distributive, procedural and recognitional justice and expressed hope that the Special Rapporteur’s report would further shed light on these ongoing injustices confronted by Mobile Indigenous Peoples.
Natasha Maru presented a summary of the written input provided by the International Land Coalition (consisting of 294 member organizations) in response to the call for input/questionnaire issued by the Special Rapporteur in preparation of the report. She highlighted that pastoralists use over 40% of the Earth’s surface; thus, securing rights to land, territory and mobility are crucial. Yet, many countries continue to have policies embedded in frameworks that do not support pastoralist land rationalities including the logics of reciprocity and fuzzy or overlapping mobile ways of using the land. The spatial and temporal flexibility of pastoralists makes legislating difficult. Customary systems are often in conflict with statutory legal systems. The ILC attested to the difficulties that mobile pastoralists continue to face including land loss from agriculture, extractive industries, and climate solutions such as renewable energy projects. The loss of land and barriers to access have direct implications for food systems, where animal-sourced foods offer affordable nutrition at the margins. The continued undermining of food sovereignty in favor of industrial agriculture undermines pastoralist rights. The non-recognition of pastoralist mobility has resulted in the entrenchment of inequality and marginalization; here the recognition of diverse tenure systems beyond private property and ownership frameworks is essential.
Seánna Howard of the University of Arizona’s International Human Rights Advocacy Workshop summarized the process of obtaining input and writing the thematic report. Once the Special Rapporteur identified the topic, a call for input, including a questionnaire, was issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Of the written inputs received 7 were from states, 1 from the UNDP, 17 from academia, and 28 from Indigenous Peoples and NGOs. Oral information was presented at virtual consultations and a side event during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Patterns identified in the oral and written submissions became central themes. States and UN agencies were encouraged to contribute information for the Special Rapporteur’s reports and provide examples of good practices to inspire other States. The significance of these reports was stressed as they are presented at the General Assembly and debated on the floor of the UN through an interactive dialogue. The conclusions and recommendations are authoritative statements of independent human rights experts that can contribute to the development of international norms and standards.
Finally, the Special Rapporteur outlined the reasons for choosing to write his annual thematic report to the General Assembly on Mobile Indigenous Peoples. He explained that while travelling around the world with Indigenous Peoples, he met with many Mobile Indigenous Peoples and came to understand the beauty of mobile cultures but also the challenges they face. He highlighted the difficulties that Mobile People encounter while crossing borders, which was revealed through an experience related to him by a Tuareg elder visiting Geneva. The Tuareg elder explained that he used to travel across all of the desert lands in Northern Africa. That year, one of the border patrols stopped him and asked for a permit to cross the border, eventually accusing him of trespassing across 2-3 borders illegally, arresting him and putting him in jail. The Tuareg elder said that the “border crossed me illegally” because they had never asked him if he wanted the border in his territory. The Special Rapporteur also explained that Mobile Indigenous Peoples did not want to be classified as minorities but as Mobile Indigenous Peoples. In addition to discrimination, they face racism and racial discrimination. Some States say that Mobile Indigenous Peoples are minority groups and deny their Indigenous identity. In this sense, the recognition of Mobile Indigenous Peoples is an existential issue due to the risk of cultural extinction from the pressure to assimilate and social and political discrimination. Likewise, the terra nullius idea of “empty lands” is still alive in many places, making the recognition and visibility for Mobile Indigenous Peoples even more critical.
Following the intervention by the Special Rapporteur, the floor was open for questions and discussion. Professor Allison Hahn from City University, New York raised questions about ensuring participation for Mobile Indigenous Peoples through digital platforms, including online and hybrid meetings. They noted that digital participation was the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic but has perhaps become less prevalent today. The Special Rapporteur highlighted the need for stable internet to ensure access to participate in online or hybrid meetings. The discussion expanded further to the issue of transborder mobility, and several good practices were noted such as international travel permits to enable mobile pastoralists to move from one country to another. Costa Rica has taken steps to recognize cross-border Mobile Indigenous Peoples and include them. Terrence Hay-Edie of the UNDP also noted the UNDP’s Africa Borderlands Centre (ABC) in Nairobi (https://www.undp.org/africa/africa-borderlands-centre). The event ended with a discussion on more general issues related to overcoming sedentary models of development, which tend to incentivize mobile peoples to settle in order to access services such as health care, schooling or other social services.
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