Indigenous Peoples' Right to Land and Natural Resources When Companies Act In Their Traditional Territory: An Enquire of International Human Rights Systems with a Focus on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Regional System of Human R

Sammanfattning: This thesis approaches how International Human Rights Law is addressing the protection of indigenous peoples’ right to land when States give concessions for companies to act inside indigenous traditional territory. Cases of harmful conducts committed by companies in indigenous territory are continuously happening around the world. Regional systems of human rights protection, through their state-centric lines, are not capable of holding companies accountable. Their institutions therefore still have to act through the structure of State responsibility and depend on domestic legislations and expect that States will comply with their decisions. At the same time, although international standards on business and human rights have been developed, there is still no binding legal document on the subject. There are only voluntary principles that bring accountability to companies, which are not enough for effective litigation in human rights courts. The regional Courts, though, have appropriated those voluntary principles to point towards a need for regulation of business practices. The regional bodies of human rights protection, become therefore, the interpreters that have handled the issue. This study then seeks to understand how the Inter-American and African regional systems of human rights protection are addressing corporate activity and whether they are capable to provide protection and safeguards to indigenous peoples’ right to land and natural resources.