Community Protocols: Articulating Stewardship, Asserting Rights and Affirming Responsibilities Photo from a paper on Community Protocols by Hally Jonas of Natural Justice F or countless generations, Indigenous peoples and traditional communities have had customary laws and protocols to regulate their own internal conduct and their relations with other communities and outsiders. In today’s globalized world, however, customary laws and protocols are often ignored or undermined by more powerful claims to land and natural resources, particularly by large-scale, resourceintensive industries such as monoculture plantations, logging, mining, and infrastructure projects. Indigenous peoples and communities are usually the least involved in decisions that affect them, but they suffer the most from human rights violations and environmental destruction. Given these imbalances, they are increasingly working to protect themselves and their lands and resources and to drive development on their own terms. Some are doing so by clarifying and enforcing their own customary laws and protocols. What are Community Protocols? Community protocols articulate communitydetermined values, procedures, and priorities. Lok Niti 111