UNITED NATIONS – Leaders of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples who are attending an international meeting here this week say they want governments to stop oil and gas corporations from further extraction on their lands. “Much of the world’s untapped oil, gas and mineral wealth lies beneath indigenous lands,” said Victoria Tauli-Corpus, chairperson of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a 16-member body established by the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 2000. Tauli-Corpus and other leaders have consistently argued that private corporations have no right to operate on territories that belong to aboriginal communities, many of whom consider their ancient lands as sacred and which thus cannot be used for private gain.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=9267
See also:
UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues considers private sector impacts –
Statement by UN Special Representative John Ruggie
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/110284