"Indigenous Peoples’ Rights at Risk: ICMM’s Position Statement Falls Short on Free, Prior, and Informed Consent" 3 september, 2024

AIPNEE and REP, along with other Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations and representatives, had engaged in the review of the Position Statement in good faith and submitted comments, including revisions in the text of the draft Position Statement itself, to the ICMM. That is despite our serious concerns that we consistently raised with the ICMM about lack of meaningful engagement and wider consultations with Indigenous Peoples and other stakeholders in a transparent and timebound manner for the review.[1] ...

Our foremost and gravest concern is that the Policy Statement fails to commit the ICMM members to respect the non-negotiable principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples for their mining and mining-related projects. FPIC is not merely a procedural requirement; it is a human rights norm grounded on the fundamental rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination and to their lands, territories and resources, among other rights, as guaranteed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and other international human rights law. 

The Position Statement deliberately avoids using the established terminology of FPIC, instead opting to use vague laguage. It merely states ICMM members’ intention to obtain agreement for impacts from their activities on Indigenous Peoples’ rights setting out equitable terms by which impacts may occur and be mitigated...

Thus, the Position Statement continues to infer that the FPIC of Indigenous Peoples can be overridden by a company for a project authorized by a State (as maintained in the Explanatory note). This not only violates Indigenous Peoples’ rights but also has far reaching consequences, including social unrest, environmental degradation, irreversible loss of cultural heritage, among others. History has shown that ignoring FPIC leads to long-lasting harm to Indigenous communities and exacerbates division among them, making it imperative that this principle be upheld without compromise...

We reiterate our demand that the ICMM, under the Position Statement, must commit its members to obtain FPIC of Indigenous Peoples affected by their mining and mining-related projects. ICMM members must not proceed with a project if FPIC of the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities have not been obtained...

We demand that ICMM and its members take immediate steps to revise the Position Statement, incorporating a full and unequivocal commitment to FPIC. This revision process must be conducted in a transparent, inclusive manner, with direct involvement from Indigenous Peoples, to demonstrate ICMM’s genuine commitment to upholding human rights. Anything less would be a failure of ICMM’s responsibility to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples.