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Forest Peoples Programme

FPP

Mission Forest Peoples Programme supports the rights of peoples who live in forests and depend on them for their livelihoods. We work to create political space for forest peoples to secure their rights, control their lands and decide their own futures. Strategic Approaches •Supporting and advancing the exercise of self-determination by indigenous and forest peoples by strengthening community governance, mobilisation and representation, and the creation and use of political spaces where indigenous and forest peoples' voices can be heard. •Ensuring access to justice by developing and using accountability and redress mechanisms in both public and private institutions that are directly accessible to indigenous and forest peoples and their communities. •Partnered advocacy towards legal and policy reform and the development of best practice and standards consistent with indigenous and forest peoples' rights in international law. •Networking, sharing information and building (...)

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Robert Biedroń (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Nov 2024 · Impact of deforestation on indigenous peoples

Response to Sustainable corporate governance

23 May 2022

Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), welcomes the publication of the European Commission’s proposal of a directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDD). This legislative initiative is a crucial step in the European Union’s effort to tackle environmental and human rights violations affecting indigenous and forest peoples linked to corporate activities. It is also a necessary element for accomplishing the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, the European Green Deal and the EU’s commitments on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Indigenous and forest peoples, civil society organisations and others have long called for effective laws and policies on global value chains to protect the most vulnerable rightsholders, including indigenous peoples and local communities, from corporate abuses. FPP welcomes the European Commission’s efforts to respond to these calls. The proposal’s holistic approach to environmental and human rights due diligence has the potential to bring positive impacts for indigenous and forest peoples worldwide, by putting concrete obligations on companies to address adverse impacts in their value chains and providing rightsholders with avenues to seek justice for violations, including ongoing violations, they face. However, this potential is undermined by major gaps in the proposal that threaten the effectiveness of the directive and the achievement of its goals. The EU must not pass on this opportunity to tackle the widespread and systemic persecution of indigenous and forest peoples worldwide, and must, at the very least, develop a directive meeting the ambitions of the 2021 European Parliament recommendations on corporate due diligence and corporate accountability. In order to provide constructive input and propose ways to improve the proposals potential to tackle the issues identified in last year’s European Parliament’s report on human rights and democracy in the world, FPP shares its comments and recommendations on the proposal. Please see the attached document as feedback.
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Meeting with Marc Tarabella (Member of the European Parliament)

23 Nov 2021 · régulation sur la déforestation et les droits humains

Meeting with Jorge Pinto Antunes (Cabinet of Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski) and WWF European Policy Programme and

9 Nov 2021 · Forestry

Response to Sustainable corporate governance

8 Oct 2020

Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) welcomes the commitment of the European Commission to propose legislation on mandatory corporate human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD). This legal initiative is critical and urgently needed to catalyse transformation along investment and value chains, accomplish the sustainable development goals and fulfil human rights obligations. FPP would like to raise a few key points in relation to the proposed Inception Impact Assessment. In terms of context, we would like to emphasize the role of the Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative as a key tool to step up action towards a global system of effective corporate respect for human rights, including particularly corporate recognition and respect for the human rights of the most vulnerable rights-holders such as indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs). This initiative will contribute to the accomplishment of the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, the EU’s commitments on the implementation of the UNGPs and existing EU policies on human rights, sustainable trade and good tenure governance. Any new legal framework must ensure accountability for negative human rights and environmental harms resulting from a company’s operations, investments and value chains. As well as addressing potential adverse impacts, it is essential that due diligence requirements also address existing and past human rights harms, with particular attention for unresolved community grievances linked to EU commodity supply chains and investments. The current EU legal framework is ill equipped to hold EU companies legally accountable and to ensure access to justice for victims of corporate activities. When attempting to access justice in the EU, third country claimants face a myriad of barriers which almost always result in a denial of justice. These problems are extensively described in the EC’s Study on Due Diligence Requirements through the Supply Chain. The effectiveness of a new legal framework to secure a transition towards sustainable and ethical supply chains will depend on robust enforcement mechanisms and access to remedy for those whose rights have been abused by corporate activities. FPP recommends that the preliminary assessment pay particular attention to the repercussions/benefits on the rights of IPLCs, including customary land rights and FPIC, as well as the full spectrum of human rights, of: 1. Putting in place HREDD requirements on all business enterprises, including financial institutions, regardless of size, type, structure, ownership or sector of operation; 2. Establishing HREDD requirements on companies, including financial institutions, that are either domiciled in the EU, operate in the EU or are otherwise connected to the EU market; 3. Setting up a system of administrative, civil and criminal liability for failure to comply with due diligence requirements as well as for abuses to human rights or environmental harm that are a result of inadequate HREDD or could have been prevented if adequate HREDD measures had been in place; 4. Giving the public and, in particular, affected or potentially affected rights-holders, the ability to initiate, input into and participate in public enforcement mechanisms through rules concerning access to information, third party complaints and consultation. 5. Incorporating additional measures beyond due diligence requirements necessary to guarantee effective access to judicial remedy such as rules on evidence and burden of proof, standing, jurisdiction, applicable law, statutes of limitation and legal aid. 6. Incorporating verification and enforcement frameworks, including provisions for independent validation of due diligence compliance by corporate actors along their entire supply chains and investment portfolios.
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