• Address: Mercantile Building, 63 Hout Street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa

NATURAL JUSTICE

NATURAL JUSTICE: LAWYERS FOR COMMUNITIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

2013

Member since

Working towards these commitments

Respect, protect and strengthen the land rights of women and men living in poverty, ensuring that no one is deprived of the use and control of the land on which their well-being and human dignity depend, including through eviction, expulsion or exclusion, and with compulsory changes to tenure undertaken only in line with international law and standards on human rights.
1

Secure Tenure Rights

Recognize and protect the diverse tenure and production systems upon which people’s livelihoods depend, including the communal and customary tenure systems of smallholders, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, fisher folks, and holders of overlapping, shifting and periodic rights to land and other natural resources, even when these are not recognized by law, and whilst also acknowledging that the well-being of resource-users may be affected by changes beyond the boundaries of the land to which they have tenure rights.
3

Diverse Tenure Systems

Respect and protect the inherent land and territorial rights of indigenous peoples, as set out in ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including by recognizing that respect for indigenous knowledge and cultures contributes to sustainable and equitable development and proper management of the environment".
5

Secure territorial rights for Indigenous Peoples

Enable the role of local land users in territorial and ecosystem management, recognizing that sustainable development and the stewardship of ecosystems are best achieved through participatory decision-making and management at the territorial-level, empowering local land users and their communities with the authority, means and incentives to carry out this responsibility.
6

Locally-managed ecosystems

Mission

To facilitate the full and effective participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities in the development and implementation of laws and policies that relate to the conservation and customary uses of biodiversity and the protection of associated cultural heritage.
Natural Justice envisions the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity through self-determination of Indigenous peoples and local communities.

Objectives

Natural Justice objectives are various and diverse. They include to support the development and use of innovative legal empowerment tools and methodologies for communities, with particular emphasis on bio-cultural community protocols(www.community-protocols.org), to empower community interactions with external actors (including through facilitated dialogues and negotiations), to provide legal training of NGOs, CSOs, and CBOs, strategic litigation, constructive technical advice for and engagement with select government agencies and companies, strategic engagement in international, regional, and national law- and policy-making processes pertaining to the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities.

Constituencies

Nature Justice's constituencies include indigenous people and local communities and their organizations at the local level.

  • Address: Mercantile Building, 63 Hout Street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa