CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Acera, Jayn Amor |
|---|---|
| Title | Rights Deferred: Tracing the Gaps in the Philippines?? Indigenous Peoples Rights Act??s Compliance with Global Human Rights Norms |
| Summary | Despite adopting a national legal framework through the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997, the Philippines, home to over 11 million indigenous peoples, continues to face persistent human rights violations and unfulfilled obligations toward its indigenous communities. Furthermore, despite ongoing advocacy from the United Nations and international labor rights organizations, the Philippines has yet to ratify ILO Convention No. 169, also known as the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention. This paper examines the extent to which the Philippines has fulfilled its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), both of which the country has ratified, in relation to the rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is through systematic analysis of vertical and horizontal adoption mechanisms and examining international, national and local legal instruments. This paper argues that persistent human rights violations on the rights of the indigenous peoples can be attributed to government priorities and actions that do not include or consider the interests of indigenous peoples in alignment with international legal standards. The Supreme Court of the Philippines´ rulings on the jurisdiction and competence of the NICP, the principal government agency to provide oversight to indigenous peoples´ interests, have weakened the NICP´s capacity to protect indigenous rights against private companies violating the indigenous peoples land rights, encroachment of resources within ancestral domains, and the principle of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). This paper provides recommendations to improve the institutional inadequacies of the Philippines to fulfill its state obligation to the indigenous peoples by strengthening the NICP´s efficacy, aligning government priorities and economic agenda to the interests of indigenous peoples, especially on matters that concerns their futures, and improve implementation of horizontal adoptions of indigenous people’s code in the local legislative units of governance. Key words: Indigenous peoples, land rights, self-determination, participation, education, health, ancestral domains, Philippines |
| Supervisor | Lukas, Karin |
| Department | Legal Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/acera_jayn-amor.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University