WEDO endorsed the proposal to include an Indigenous Peoples Policy for the Green Climate Fund. The submission on the Indigenous Peoples Policy to the Green Climate Fund is responding to the Call for inputs to the GCF Indigenous Peoples’ Policy. The submission was signed by 105 indigenous peoples’ and support organizations and it has been sent to the GCF Secretariat on April 1st as well as acknowledged by the Secretariat on April 3rd.
Indigenous peoples are among the most vulnerable to climate change and to the consequences of imprudent climate actions, including specific adverse impacts on indigenous women. Meanwhile, Indigenous peoples play key roles in and offer invaluable contributions to, climate change adaptation and mitigation through their traditional knowledge and sustainable resource management systems and practices, which are critical in achieving the goals of the Green Climate Fund.
The submission proposed that, to ensure the objectives of the Cancun Agreement and the Paris Agreement on respecting indigenous people’s human rights and to engage indigenous peoples in climate change policies and actions, the Indigenous Peoples Policy of the Green Climate Fund should:
- to support and promote the positive contributions of indigenous peoples to climate change mitigation and adaptation;
- to enable the critical role of indigenous peoples in assisting the Fund to achieve its transformational goals, with regard to more effective, sustainable and equitable climate change results, outcomes and impacts;
- to avoid and mitigate possible adverse impacts of the Fund’s activities on indigenous peoples’ rights, interests and well-being;
- to ensure the respect of the rights of indigenous peoples in the whole spectrum of the Fund’s activities and initiatives, in full alignment with applicable international obligations and standards such as ILO Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP);
- to recognize and respect in all activities financed by the Green Climate Fund, indigenous peoples’ rights to collectively own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired;
- to recognize and effectively apply the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), in accordance with relevant international laws and standards, and international best practice principles; and
- to promote and ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples at all levels of the Fund’s activities and initiatives.
To read the full submission here.
