A Stock-Taking of FPIC Standards in International Environmental Law

Abstract

With its roots in the international human rights law, free prior and informed consent (FPIC) is now integrated within the environmental law regime. The cross-fertilisation of FPIC standards from human rights laws to environmental laws is evident in the substantive as well as procedural elements of FPIC. This chapter examines the scope and the application of standards evolved within the Biodiversity and the Climate Change regime with particular reference to the challenges brought forward by REDD+ and benefit-sharing activities. The chapter argues that the infusion of FPIC into environmental law brings the flavor of human rights law into environmental regime and there is an obligation on the states to implement FPIC standards in environmental law. It outlines the FPIC related standards within the biodiversity and climate change regime and illustrates how detailed safeguards agreed at the international level play an important part in ensuring that FPIC contributes to, rather than undermines, environmental protection.