Category Archives: Press releases

UN expert on Indigenous Peoples’ rights to visit Botswana

August 29, 2025

GENEVA (29 August 2025) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Albert K Barume, will conduct an official visit to Botswana from 1 to 12 September 2025. The expert will examine a diverse range of issues affecting Indigenous Peoples, including the right to lands, territories and resources, administration of justice, equality… Read More »

UNDRIP as an Instrument of Reconciliation: Dialogues with Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia

July 13, 2025

Being Invited as Special Rapporteur to attend human rights dialogues by Indigenous Peoples in Papua, Poco Leok, and Bogor, in Indonesia (3 to 11 July, 2025) revealed the need to engage Governments more on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as an instrument devised to reconcile States with their Indigenous… Read More »

Brazil must abandon “Marco Temporal” doctrine once and for all, says UN expert

June 11, 2025

GENEVA – A UN expert today expressed grave concern about Brazil’s continued use of the controversial “Marco Temporal” legal interpretation to revoke the legal foundation for indigenous land demarcation and annul the demarcation of indigenous territories in Santa Catarina. “This legislative move enforces the discredited ‘Marco Temporal’ doctrine, which restricts Indigenous land rights to territories… Read More »

Kenya: UN expert urges immediate halt to land demarcation violating Ogiek rights and African court judgments

June 5, 2025

GENEVA – A UN expert* today expressed grave concern over the ongoing land demarcation by the Government of Kenya in the Eastern Mau Complex, which threatens ancestral lands of the Ogiek Peoples and contravenes binding judgments of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR). “These actions risk causing irreparable harm to the Ogiek’s… Read More »

Youth justice systems across Australia in crisis: UN experts

May 19, 2025

GENEVA  – Two independent human rights experts on torture and indigenous peoples respectively* today sharply criticised state and territory youth justice systems in Australia, where disproportionately large numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to be jailed. “The various criminal legal systems operating in Australia appear to be in crisis nationwide,” said Alice Jill Edwards,… Read More »

UN experts call for urgent humanitarian relief and a political solution to protect civilians in DRC

February 6, 2025

GENEVA – UN experts* today expressed grave concern about urgent protection needs and dire living conditions of displaced civilians in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Intensified hostilities between the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group and the armed forces of the DRC, supported by allied militias and mercenary and related actors have displaced… Read More »

Special Rapporteur welcomes presidential clemency for indigenous leader Leonard Peltier

January 24, 2025

GENEVA – The Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Albert Kwokwo Barume, has commended the decision by outgoing United States President Joe Biden to issue an Executive Grant of Clemency for Indigenous leader Leonard Peltier, who has been imprisoned for nearly 50 years. The decision, signed on 19 January 2025, commutes the remainder of… Read More »