That said, according to the Inter-American Court and the Committee on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Government of Suriname has committed to develop a
protocol reflecting the principle of FPIC. 15
The Inter-American Court has determined that Maroon tribes in Suriname have rights in
relation to traditionally occupied and used lands and resources equivalent to indigenous
peoples in the Americas. Through its rulings, the Court has made clear that FPIC is one
safeguard which can contribute to respect for the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples.
According to the Court, human rights safeguards include:
•
•
•
•
good faith consultations with indigenous and tribal peoples with respect to projects
that may affect their human rights and their FPIC for projects that significantly
impact their traditional territories
environmental and social assessments that consider indigenous and tribal peoples’
human rights
mitigation measures to avoid or minimize adverse impacts on the exercise of those
rights
compensation, restoration and benefit-sharing for loss of and impact upon
indigenous and tribal peoples’ land and resource rights.
Measures to mitigate power imbalances and address the marginalized positions of
indigenous and tribal peoples that exist in many jurisdictions are essential for these
safeguards to be meaningful.
The duty under international law to respect, protect, and fulfill indigenous and tribal
peoples’ rights, including by implementing the FPIC safeguard, is one that resides with the
state. Businesses have a parallel responsibility to respect human rights, including the rights
of indigenous and tribal peoples. In order to respect human rights in accordance with their
human rights responsibilities and policy commitments, companies must employ due
diligence, independently to what the state does or does not do, to ensure that their actions
do not cause or in any way contribute to the infringement of indigenous and tribal peoples’
human rights, including rights over lands and resources. See UN Guiding Principles on
Business and Human Rights, discussed in Annex 1. Without in any way undermining the
state’s own responsibility to safeguard indigenous and tribal peoples’ rights, due diligence
will ordinarily entail companies endeavoring to engage in their own consultations with
indigenous and tribal peoples to ensure respect for their rights and FPIC.
15
Kaliña and Lokono Peoples v. Suriname, paras. 204, 210; Committee on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination, “Concluding observations on the combined thirteenth to fifteenth
periodic reports of Suriname,” September 25, 2015, para. 25, available at: https://documents-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/217/81/PDF/G1521781.pdf?OpenElement.
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