GLAMIS GOLD LTD. VS.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The case is particularly significant because the Tribunal in this

international investment arbitration made the unprecedented decision
of allowing an indigenous community to submit an amicus, thus
increasing the overall participation and transparency of the Tribunal.
This expanded the concept of potential third party interveners beyond
civil society organizations. Moreover the Glamis decision sets a higher
bar than past NAFTA tribunals have required for establishing violation of
the fair and equitable treatment requirement under NAFTA. NATFAs
pro-government framework goes beyond U.S. law to maximize the
ability to protect indigenous peoples rights, irrespective of the
associated costs to the investor.

AMPARO NO. 631/2012 (INDEPENDENCIA AQUEDUCT)

The decision by the First Court of the Supreme Court of Justice is very
important for the right to territory, right to water and right to
consultation with indigenous peoples and communities according to
their habits and customs, because for the first time in Mexico
Inter-American standards regarding the indigenous communities right
to consultation were acknowledged by the Court.

CASE OF THE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY XKMOK KSEK V.

PARAGUAY
 This case confirmed the claim of an indigenous community which has
been fighting for its land rights for over two decades, joining the claims
of other indigenous communities in Paraguay, who have also been
expelled from their territory. The decision issued by a regional court
provides legal tools for communities and human rights defenders
fighting for respect for the human rights of indigenous communities in
Paraguay. This case strengthens the Inter-American Courts position
regarding the existence of a right to property, under certain
circumstances, regardless of whether there is an official title. Following
the lines of its own case law, the Court established a relationship
between land and survival of a community when the land is used with
economic, cultural, social and religious purposes. The Court also
recognized a relationship between the right to life and the rights to
water, education, and food, among others.

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT: MPUMALANGA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

AND ANOTHER V. HOERSKOOL ERMELO AND ANOTHER

This was the first Constitutional Court decision to provide structural

relief for a violation of a socio-economic-cultural right, as well as the first
to examine the intersection between the setting of language instruction
policy and its impact on the right to access education. The case
highlights the tensions implicated when democratic principles of local
self-governance and cultural preservation are balanced against broader
transformational goals regarding past injustices related to the Apartheid
system and the right to education.

THE PROSECUTOR V. AHMAD AL FAQI AL MAHDI

This decision is of particular significance since it constitutes the first
international prosecution exclusively focused on the war crime of
destroying cultural heritage. The ruling has been celebrated as a critical
step towards ending impunity for the deliberate destruction of cultural
heritage, a practice that has increased in frequency and is often a
deliberate strategy to promote persecution and cultural cleansing. ICC
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has said that the charges brought in this
case are about the destruction of irreplaceable historic monuments,
and...a callous assault on the dignity and identity of entire populations,
and their religious and historical roots. What is at stake is not just walls
and stones. The case is especially important from a human rights
perspective given that the intentional destruction of cultural heritage is
simultaneously a war crime and also a violation of human rights,
particularly cultural rights. Criminal prosecutions are one way to hold
perpetrators of such violations accountable.