A Right to Media? Lorie M. Graham - Columbia Law School

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462 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [41:429 environmental challenges requires participation of all concerned citizens and the need for access to information concerning the environment. 127 Further, Principle 10 guarantees the right of all community members to be appraised of information on “hazardous materials and activities in their communities and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes” and asserts that “[s]tates shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available.” 128 Finally, the ILO Convention 169 articulates a related but distinct right with respect to land and resources: the right of consultation. 129 There is little doubt that self-determination of indigenous peoples is directly tied to the control and environmental health of indigenous territories and resources. However, in order to ensure that they are able to participate in the decision-making processes relating to their lands, indigenous peoples must be able to access information and share communications through media. Rio Principle 10, General Recommendation No. 23, and ILO Convention 169— along with a host of other human rights instruments—underscore the need for information and communication pertaining to environmental issues to be shared between indigenous communities and states. Such free flow of information is necessary so that when it comes to environmental hazards or development activities that affect them, indigenous communities can participate in the decisionmaking process in an informed manner. Without unbiased information, there can be no prior and informed consent or effective consultation in matters relating to land, resources, or the environment. This is generally true with respect to the rights of prior and informed consent and consultation, two themes that are central to 127. U.N. Conference on Environment & Development, Rio de Janeiro, Braz., June 3–14, 1992, The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, princ. 10, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.151/26 (1992) [hereinafter Rio Declaration]. For more information on “prior informed consent” see Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Social Policy and Development, An Overview of the Principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Indigenous Peoples in International and Domestic Law and Practices, U.N. Doc. PFII/2004/WS.2/8 (Jan. 19, 2005). 128. Rio Declaration, supra note 127, princ. 10. 129. Indigenous Convention, supra note 39, art. 6.
2010] A RIGHT TO MEDIA? 463 UNDRIP. 130 These important rights cannot be completely realized 130. In relevant sections, UNDRIP states: Article 10 Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return. Article 11 . . . 2. States shall provide redress through effective mechanisms, which may include restitution, developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs. . . . Article 15 . . . 2. States shall take effective measures, in consultation and cooperation with the indigenous peoples concerned, to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination and to promote tolerance, understanding and good relations among indigenous peoples and all other segments of society. . . . Article 17 . . . 2. States shall in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples take specific measures to protect indigenous children from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, taking into account their special vulnerability and the importance of education for their empowerment. . . . Article 19 States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them. . . . Article 28 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to redress, by means that can include restitution or, when this is not possible, just, fair and equitable compensation, for the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have been confiscated, taken,
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