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Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee-IPACC

Cape Town, South Africa
Joined June 2019

IPACC works with Indigenous People (IP) from 6 regions in Africa, and its core work is to promote IP human right & gender equality etc. And IPACC's mission is to empower IP to gain recognition.



Presence in: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa
Focus: Community / Customary Land Rights, Environmental Justice, Right to Information, Women's Rights

The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC) is a network of 135 indigenous peoples’ organisations in 21 African countries. This makes it the largest indigenous peoples’ network in the world. IPACC was legally founded in 1997 when a draft constitution was adopted by the founding members in Geneva, Switzerland during the UN Working Group on Indigenous Peoples.

It is a network composed of indigenous peoples’ organisations. Every three years, member organisations elect an eighteen-person Executive Committee representing six geographic and cultural regions in Africa including a regional representative of indigenous women.

Any legitimate organisation run by African Indigenous peoples for the promotion of Indigenous peoples’ rights and welfare is welcome to apply for membership. Applicants must provide the constitution of their organisation.

IPACC is accredited with the UN Economic and Social Council, the UN Environment Programme, the Global Environment Facility, UNESCO, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. IPACC has observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. IPACC is a member organisation of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

IPACC’s Secretariat is located in Cape Town, South Africa. A legally constituted Trust oversees IPACC’s financial integrity and auditing procedures. The Trust became an independent body under South African law in 2002. IPACC Trust is registered as a NPO and NGO under South African law.

In 2015, IPACC established a new advisory body in the network: the Council of Elders. This is a three person body composed of distinguished indigenous elders chosen by the member organisations to provide guidance and institutional memory for the network. The current Council of Elders are Hassan Id Belkassm (Morocco), Zephyrin Kalimba (Rwanda) and Jeniffer Koinante (Kenya).