The integration of International Environmental Law principles within Indigenous Peoples' Rights in the Jurisprudence of the Inter American Court of Human Rights

Abstract

The principal objective of the thesis is to shed some light on how international environmental law principles have been elaborated and integrated into cases relating to the rights of indigenous peoples, inter alia, in relation to their property and land rights, with an emphasis on a few recent cases stemming from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR or the Court). As the analysis of the recent IACtHR decisions shows, the Court has, in several instances, integrated and further developed some of the most important principles of environmental law with property rights, which are guaranteed by the American Convention on Human Rights (American Convention) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention no. 169. The analysis shows the strong interplay between international environmental law and human rights, in general, and indigenous peoples rights, more specifically. The jurisprudence of the IACtHR, which recognizes legal standing to indigenous peoples, appears as an important contributor to the extension of the scope of indigenous property rights and the safeguards that they entail such as participation, prior informed consent (as a general principle of international law) and environmental impact assessment (even in the absence of transboundary harm). Indigenous peoples’ property rights, unlike other rights, prove to be a strongly judiciable ground for addressing environmental aspects of human rights and enforcing environmental principles. Incidentally, it contributes to the enforcement of the sustainable development principle.