Victoria Tauli-Corpuz

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
Born	October 19, 1952 Besao, Mt. Province, Philippines
Nationality	Filipino

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is a Filipino development consultant. She is an international indigenous activist of Kankana-ey Igorot ethnicity. On 2nd of June, 2014, she took the responsibilities of the third UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As a UN special rapporteur, she investigated alleged violations of indigenous peoples rights. She also promoted the regulation of international standards focusing on the rights of indigenous peoples. She held her special rapporteur position until March 2020.

She is the indigenous and gender adviser to the Third World Network. She is a member of United Nations Development Programme Civil Society Organizations Advisory Committee. She is also a member of the World Future Council.

Tauli-Corpuz was the chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2005-2010). She was the rapporteur for the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations.

Early life and career

She completed her graduation from the Philippine Science High School in Diliman, Quezon City in 1969. She got her nursing degree at the UP College of Nursing, University of the Philippines Manila in 1976.

Activism

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz organized indigenous peoples on the community level to fight against the projects of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Her organised indigenous peoples stopped the Chico River Hydroelectric Dam project. It would have flooded the local villages and the logging operations of Cellophil Resources Corporation on the lands of their forefathers.

Awards and Honours

Tauli-Corpuz was the first recipient of the Gabriela Silang Award. It was given in 2009 by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

Tauli-Corpuz was included in a list of 10 important people associated with scientific developments in 2021. The list was made by the scientific journal Nature.