l FPIC and beyond: safeguards for power-equalising research that protects biodiversity, rights and culture 53
been difficult without an international
complaints mechanism. The newly
adopted Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (CESCR) may offer real
opportunities to do that. The entry into
force of the Optional Protocol greatly
improves access to justice for victims of
violations of the right to food and other
rights by allowing individuals or groups to
bring a complaint directly to the CESCR
(Ziegler et al., 2011).
However, history everywhere shows
that these human rights will need to be
claimed through the agency and social
mobilisation of local communities and
wider coalitions of citizens. In many cases,
legal redress will not be enough: safeguards
based on more radical expressions of deep
democracy, self-determination, self-organisation, direct action and people’s
sovereignty will be needed for equity, social
justice and environmental sustainability.
Developing such safeguards is a vitally
important new conceptual and methodological frontier for power-equalising
research that truly works for the well-being
of people and the Earth.
CONTACT DETAILS
Dr Michel Pimbert
Principal Researcher
Agroecology and Food Sovereignty Team
Natural Resources Group
International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED)
80-86 Gray's Inn Road
London
WC1X 8NH
UK
Email: michel.pimbert@iied.org
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indigenous biocultural territories: the experience of the Potato Park.
ANDES and IIED. Presented at COP 9 of the Convention on Biological
Diversity, May 2008, Bonn.
Colchester, M. and M.F. Ferrari (2007) Making FPIC – free, prior and
informed consent – work: challenges and prospects for indigenous
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www.forestpeoples.org/topics/civil-political-rights/publication/2010/
making-fpic-free-prior-and-informed-consent-work-chal
Community Media Trust, P.V. Satheesh and M.P. Pimbert (2008)
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http://pubs.iied.org/14565IIED.html
Cook, T. (2012) ‘Where participatory approaches meet pragmatism in
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Forum: Qualitative Social Research 13:1. Online:
http://tinyurl.com/cook-2012. Full URL: www.qualitativeresearch.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1783/3304
Denzin, N.K., Y.S. Lincoln and L.T. Smith (2008) Handbook of critical and
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ETC (2011) Who will control the green economy? New report on
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