UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples visits Denmark and Greenland

By IWGIA

March 11, 2020.- IWGIA welcomes the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, to Denmark and Greenland from 10-19 March.

“We look forward to Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz’s first official visit to Denmark and Greenland and continuing our work and engagement with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights throughout this visit,” Kathrin Wessendorf, IWGIA Interim Executive Director, said. “We are pleased that during her visit the Special Rapporteur will have the opportunity to look into the Greenlandic model for self-government, which is one of the best practices of state recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination.”

The UN Special Rapporteur will examine a diverse range of issues affecting Indigenous Peoples, including self-governance, the administration of justice, the situation of children and youth, housing, access to health services including mental health, and climate change and the right to development and natural resources.

Most of her visit, being held at the invitation of the governments of Denmark and Greenland, will be carried out in Greenland. The UN expert will also meet Greenlanders living in Denmark.

Ms. Tauli-Corpuz will meet with Danish and Greenlandic governments and officials, Greenlandic institutions, Indigenous organisations, civil society, academics and UN representatives. She will also visit communities to discuss their priorities and concerns.

She will be presenting her preliminary findings and recommendations on 19 March at a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen. Her full report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in September 2020.

Ms. Tauli-Corpuz is an Indigenous leader and activist from the Kankana-ey Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines and has been serving as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples since 2014. She is the former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2005-2010). As an Indigenous leader, she was actively engaged in the drafting and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007.

Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to examine and report on a country situation or a specific human rights issue. They serve in their personal capacity and are independent from any government. They are mandated to undertake two official country visits per year.