Victoria Tauli-Corpuz was appointed as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples by the Human Rights Council in 2014.
In the fulfilment of her mandate, she conducts fact-finding missions and reports on the human rights situation in specific countries, addresses cases of alleged violations of the rights of indigenous peoples through communications with Governments and others, promotes good practices to implement international standards concerning the rights of indigenous peoples and conducts thematic studies on topics of special importance to the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.
She is an indigenous leader from the Kankana-ey Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines. As an indigenous activist, she has worked for over three decades on building movement among indigenous peoples and as an advocate for women’s rights.
Ms. Tauli-Corpuz is the former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2005-2010) has served as the chairperson-rapporteur of the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations. As an indigenous leader, she was actively engaged in drafting and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. She has founded and managed various NGOs involved in social awareness raising, climate change and the advancement of indigenous peoples’ and women’s rights and she is a member of United Nations Development Programme Civil Society Organizations Advisory Committee.
In her capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz has provided expert testimony before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and policy advice to inter alia the World Bank and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).