This article examines the criteria of both organs of the Inter-American Human Rights System when deciding on urgent measures in favor of Indigenous peoples, with a special focus on their territorial rights. The article highlights the negative impacts of the Inter-American Commission abandonment of a well-established practice of requesting states to suspend decisions that could cause irreparable harm to Indigenous territorial rights. It also discusses possible ways to improve the protection of these rights, consisting of (1) reinstating the urgent measures mechanism in exceptional circumstances, and (2) prioritizing the processing of contentious cases based on allegations of significant and irreparable harm to Indigenous and tribal lands.
This article, written by DPLF’s Daniel Cerqueira, was originally published in the book “Impact within the Human Rights Framework”, available here.
