Indigenous People in Africa: Contestations, Empowerment and Group Rights

6. Advocacy for indigenous peoples’ rights in Africa

104 Africa Institute for South Africa 6 Advocacy for indigenous peoples’ rights in Africa Dynamics,methodsandmechanisms George Mukundi Wachira1 and Tuuli Karjala2 INTRODUCTION This chapter surveys some of the advocacy practices with which the authors are familiar that are employed by indigenous peoples in Africa to vindicate their human and peoples’ rights. The various interventions identified in the chapter – while contributing to the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights – are quite diverse and context specific. Accordingly they are not necessarily best practices but ongoing advocacy initiatives that could be replicated dependent on the issues at hand and circumstances. Additionally the examples cited in the chapter do not comprehensively represent the entire continent, and indeed are biased towards those practices in East, Central and southern Africa with which the authors are more familiar. However, they represent comparable practices that can be found across Africa among indigenous peoples’ efforts to promote and protect their rights through advocacy. The chapter begins by sketching out the limited scope of the application of the terms advocacy for the purposes of the chapter. This is an important exercise in order to avoid being enmeshed in controversial debates about what amounts to advocacy and distinctions, if any, with programming. Indeed, for pragmatic purposes and to get to the point with dispatch it is the authors’ considered view that advocacy is part of programming, and vice versa. After dispensing with the definitional issues, the chapter traces, albeit briefly, the background and history of indigenous peoples advocacy work in Africa. One of the key actors highlighted in that background is the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Working Group of Experts on the Situation of Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa, whose contribution is heralded continentally for furthering the indigenous peoples’ rights regime in Africa. The section also examines advocacy initiatives by members of civil society and indigenous peoples’ activists at the United Nations. The third section is a brief survey of progress made on the continent at domestic level relative to improving the situation of human rights of indigenous peoples in Africa. Such 105 Indigenous People in Africa: Contestations, Empowerment and Group Rights Advocacy for indigenous peoples’ rights in Africa | George Mukundi Wachira and Tuuli Karjala progress is measured in terms of legislative and policy developments as well as institutional arrangements for the protection and promotion of indigenous peoples’ rights by states. The fourth section examines past and ongoing advocacy initiatives by civil society and indigenous peoples’ activists in Africa. The chapter identifies initiatives that have contributed to the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights in Africa. Some of these initiatives are in the realm of land, natural resources and property rights; gender equality; culture and language rights; access to justice; media; and capacity building and training. ADVOCACY ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS IN AFRICA There is no global consensus on the definition of the term ‘advocacy’. In fact, as Reid argues, ‘there is no agreement on which activities constitute advocacy, and no one source gives a full account of the many kinds of activities and strategies that groups use to leverage influence in the policy process’.3 However, various authors have attempted to define the scope of advocacy. Hopkins, for instance, defines the term narrowly as ‘the act of pleading against a cause, as well as supporting or recommending a position’. Hopkins’s definition is similar to that of lobbying, as he further describes advocacy as ‘addressing legislators with a view of influencing their votes’.4 Other authors, such as Reid, take a much broader approach than Hopkins, defining ‘advocacy’ to include organisational building and programme work advocacy and ‘action’ advocacy.5 Whereas the ‘organisational building and programme work advocacy’ includes activities such as the building of political resources, organisational policymaking and internal education activities,6 ‘action advocacy’ is an umbrella term for a wider range of activities. These include legislative advocacy such as lobbying; grassroots advocacy; public education; electoral advocacy; legal advocacy such as litigation; administrative advocacy; corporate advocacy; media advocacy and international advocacy.7 Hammer, Rooney and Warren equally identify with that broad definition of advocacy, stating that it includes not only ‘speaking on behalf of others’, but also ‘advocacy based on insights gained from research’ and which aims to ‘mobilise community of knowledge’.8 Reid has also examined the raison d’être of advocacy activities. According to Reid, nonpro fit organisations are ‘intermediaries between citizens and institutions of government and...