Dec 22, 2010

UNPO Issue Paper: Development of Natural Resources in Minority Regions


UNPO publishes a special issue paper, intended to provide background to UNPO’s activities at the 3rd Session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues, held on the 14th and 15th of December at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

The theme of the 3rd Session of the Forum was “Minorities and Effective Participation in Economic Life.” UNPO led a delegation of over 20 representatives of 11 minority groups to attend the Forum and participate in its discussions. Issues regarding ownership and control of natural resource extraction are prevalent for many UNPO Members, and have a particularly strong impact on the economic situation of these groups.

 

The information contained in this publication provided background to a side conference at the Forum, jointly hosted by UNPO and Minority Rights Group International. The conference focused on minority rights in the development of natural resources, and featured advocates, experts and minority representatives as panelists. Additionally, UNPO’s Lisa Thomas delivered an intervention at the Forum which addressed the failure of the draft recommendations to adequately address the issue of natural resource development. Many UNPO Member interventions at the Forum also touched upon natural resources as a major issue related to their economic situation.

 

The issues highlighted by this report remain extremely pressing for minority groups around the world. Below is an excerpt from the publication’s introduction:

 

Natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce. Population growth, expanded agricultural settlement, increasing trade, investment and economic activity all place pressure on limited resources (Tyler 1999). Many minority populations occupy territories far from the centers of political and economic power, which are often the first places to be exploited for their resources given their lack of political power to oppose such actions. As resources become increasingly scarce, governments have rushed with increasing urgency to discover and exploit resources found in such peripheral lands under their control. Decisions to exploit these resources are often taken without meaningful consultation of the local population, and subsequent projects are often accompanied by abuse and destruction. While these communities bear the economic and social costs of resource development projects, they rarely share in the profits from such ventures. Minority communities often strongly oppose natural resource development projects on the grounds of the economic devastation that can result. However, these groups face a myriad of obstacles when trying to meaningfully participate in the management of natural resources found in their home communities.


The first section of this paper provides an overview of the situation facing many minority populations in regions with valuable natural resources. This section focuses particularly on the rights of minorities that are violated by parties attempting to exploit these resources, as well as the economic harm that results. The following section analyzes the many barriers facing minority populations in attempting to avoid the harm described above. The third section of this paper describes and analyzes a frequently promoted solution to many of the problems described in the preceding section: the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Finally, this paper details the experiences of several UNPO Member groups dealing with the effects of natural resource exploitation.

 

The full report can be downloaded here.