FAO published the VGGTs in Karbi, an indigenous language, today. In the framework of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit, the FAO Land and Tenure Unit and FAO India coordinated efforts with indigenous organizations to translate the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests into different indigenous languages.

These Guidelines promote responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests, with respect to all forms of tenure: public, private, communal, indigenous, customary, and informal.  Section nine of the VGGT calls upon the states to recognize and protect the legitimate tenure rights of indigenous peoples and to consider adapting their policies and legal and organizational frameworks to indigenous peoples’ tenure systems.

The Guidelines serve as a reference and set out principles and internationally accepted standards for practices for the responsible governance of tenure. They provide a framework that states can use when developing their own strategies, policies, legislation, programmes and activities. They allow governments, civil society, the private sector and citizens to judge whether their proposed actions and the actions of others constitute acceptable practices.

The VGGT guidelines are currently available in 13 languages including Nepali, Miskito, Hindi, Albanian, Indonesian, Laothian and Amharic. Today FAO is launched the VGGTs translation in Karbi indigenous language. Karbi is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by more than 500,000 Karbi people of Northeastern India. The VGGTs are also being translated into other indigenous languages in celebration of the proclamation of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032, following the successful International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019.

During Session 17th of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2018, the UNPFII recommended that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation to create a technical working group on the collective rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources, in order to provide technical outputs and publications informing indigenous peoples and the Forum.

FAO with the help of indigenous organization is translating the VGGTs and other technical documents into various indigenous languages.

The VGGT guidelines in Karbi are available here.