The Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples prepared a report on Recognition, reparation and reconciliation under its mandate in resolution 33/25 (2b).

The Expert Mechanism presented a draft of this report for discussion at its next session from 15-19 July 2019 and a final version was presented to the Human Rights Council at its forty-second session (September 2019).

Summary

In the report, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples examines good practices and lessons learned regarding efforts to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, focusing on recognition, reparation and reconciliation initiatives undertaken since the adoption of the Declaration in 2007.

The report provides an overview of the concepts of recognition, reparation and reconciliation, anchoring them in the Declaration and other international human rights instruments. It then provides a series of examples from throughout the indigenous sociocultural regions to illustrate the central nature of recognition, reparation and reconciliation for the implementation of the Declaration, and the role it plays as an instrument of reconciliation. The examples are drawn from treaty body jurisprudence, regional courts and national level cases and initiatives. At the end of the report, the Expert Mechanism offers conclusions and recommendations, with a view to assisting indigenous peoples and States to better address the long-term effects of colonization, discrimination and the dispossession of their lands, territories and resources.