Igorot woman activist is new UN Special Rapporteur for indigenous peoples

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

BAGUIO CITY The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) confirmed early this week the appointment of an Igorot activist as Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.

Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz, a member of the Kankanaey tribe of Besao, Mountain Province, was appointed by the president of the UN Human Rights Council to the post, which she is set to occupy the first week of June this year.

After their organizational meeting, HRC President Ambassador Baudelaine Ndong Ella (Gabon) announced his decision on Tuesday, May 8, at the UN office in Geneva, Switzerland to appoint Tauli-Corpuz and 18 others as members of the UN Special Procedures.

The special procedures are independent human rights experts with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. It is a central element of the United Nations human rights machinery and covers all human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political, and social.

These posts (were) recently left vacant by previous mandate holders, added Ndong Ella in a media release at the UN website.

Among the mandates of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples are to promote good practices, including new laws, government programs, and constructive agreements between indigenous peoples and states, to implement international standards concerning the rights of indigenous peoples.

The rapporteur also reports on the overall human rights situations of indigenous peoples in selected countries and addresses specific cases of alleged violations of the rights of indigenous peoples through communications with Governments and others.

In 2001, the predecessor of the HRC then known as Commission on Human Rights decided to appoint in 2001 a Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, as part of the system of thematic Special Procedures, which was then renewed in 2004 and in 2007.

Tauli-Corpuz will take over the post to be left vacant by outgoing Special Rapporteur on indigenous rights Prof. James Anaya, an American Indian.

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Igorot woman activist is new UN Special Rapporteur for indigenous peoples