I am delighted that on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples I am kicking off our new Africa and the Environment series by posting my recent presentation examining peoples’ cases before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The presentation was given at the recent 14th colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law in Oslo. It stoked some very interesting debate afterwards on how the Court is positioned to take a strong stance on the rights of peoples’ as protected under the African Charter, how the rights of peoples’ groups can be balanced against the use of natural resources for a whole country, and how protection must also allow for development. Moving forward, these types of questions will certainly occupy the minds of advocates, policy makers and the Court. I hope it provokes similar views and thoughts among our readers too.