The IUCN WCEL Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Law Specialist Group focuses on deepening awareness, providing analysis, and offering recommendations for conservation that takes into account indigenous peoples’ distinct human rights as it relates to their environment, lands, territories, and natural resources.
Photo: WCEL
Specialist Group Chair :
Kanyinke Sena
Goals of the Specialist Group
- Deepening awareness of indigenous peoples' environmental and human rights
- Contributing to the development and implementation of improved conservation policies based on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- Linking existing IUCN commitments and mandates to ensure concrete recommendations for a rights-based approach with specific emphasis on indigenous peoples' rights within conservation.
- Providing new analysis on indigenous rights and environmental law, especially related to local experiences and thematic issues
- Responding to evolving “flashpoints” concerning indigenous peoples and conservation
Kanyinke Sena
Dr Sena is a certified mediator and the director of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee, a network of 135 indigenous peoples organizations in 22 countries in Africa. He also serves as a member of the African Commission Working Group on Indigenous Populations. Previously, he served at the Chair Person of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, an advisory body to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). He holds a doctorate degree in law in indigenous peoples law and policy from the University of Arizona, USA and is a lecturer in law at the faculty of law, Egerton university, Kenya.
