Intervention of India at the 18th session of the Expert Mechanism on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (14-18 July 2025) delivered by Mr. Mohammed Hussain K.S., Counsellor and Legal Adviser, Permanent Mission of India, Geneva, 14 July 2025

Mr. Chair,

1. Indian delegation congratulates you on your election as Chair of the 18th session of the EMRIP.
2. We take note of the Draft Study and the Report prepared by the EMRIP.
3. We appreciate the report highlighting India’s efforts to leverage Artificial Intelligence towards fostering inclusion. Government of India’s ‘Digital India’ initiative aims to empower every citizen and bridge the digital divide, particularly for marginalised and vulnerable sections of society. Similarly, India AI Mission seeks to build a comprehensive ecosystem that fosters AI innovation by democratizing computing access, enhancing data quality, developing AI capabilities, ensuring socially impactful AI projects, and promoting ethical AI, thereby driving responsible and inclusive growth of India's AI ecosystem.

Mr. Chair,

4. However, the Indian delegation is constrained to place on record that the draft study and report do not accurately reflect India’s position on indigenous peoples and the functioning of its constitutional and legal mechanisms. We urge that the correct position be duly reflected.
5. India is a strong supporter of the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples, and had supported the adoption of UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples in 2007, on the basis that the Declaration did not define what constituted “indigenous peoples” and it was our understanding that the issue of indigenous rights pertained to peoples in independent countries who were regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which had inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belonged, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present State boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retained some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions.
6. India regards the entire population of India at the time of our independence, and their successors, to be indigenous.

Mr. Chair,

7. As regards the land rights, India has several constitutional and legal provisions in place to safeguard the ownership rights—both collective and individual—of members of tribal communities over the lands traditionally occupied by them. The Governor of a State with Scheduled Areas is empowered to prohibit or restrict the transfer of land from tribals and to regulate the allotment of land to members of Scheduled Tribes. Furthermore, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, prohibits the eviction of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes or other traditional forest dwellers from the forest land under their occupation until the recognition process is completed.
8. As a general principle, the sale of land through coercion is illegal and can be challenged and declared null and void by the appropriate court. Additionally, the transfer of land from a tribal person to a non-tribal, except through due process, is prohibited under the laws applicable in Scheduled Areas as per the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.
9. Furthermore, our land records digitization process is inclusive and transparent, ensuring the protection of the rights of the tribal population.

Thank you.