Dr Cathal Doyle is LLM Programme Leader and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law Middlesex University, London (UK) where he was previously a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow. He is a founding member of the European Network on Indigenous Peoples (ENIP), a member of the boards of the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), and a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Dr Doyle specialises in the rights of indigenous peoples under international and national law, and the interface with business and human rights and sustainable development. He has published six books, numerous book chapters, reports and articles on these topics, and his work has been cited by UN and OECD expert bodies in their reports and guidance to State and corporate actors in relation to indigenous peoples’ rights. His current research centres on the intersection of indigenous peoples and minorities rights with large scale development activities, in particular it addresses the activities of the extractive industry in the Americas and Asia and the evolving concept of free prior and informed consent and indigenous peoples’ right to self-determined sustainable development. This includes a focus on human rights impact assessments, access to remedy in the context of development projects and the implementation of reparation decisions. His research also extends to the individual rights of members of indigenous and minority communities, such as the rights of indigenous children with disabilities.
Dr Doyle has worked as a consultant/advisor for successive UN Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and a number of NGOs involved in supporting indigenous peoples. He also collaborates regularly with a range of human rights NGOs, UN bodies, indigenous peoples' organizations and networks in Asia and Latin America, and academic institutions. This includes assisting indigenous peoples’ organizations and NGOs to develop related project proposals and seek funding from international development agencies and corporate actors, to implement research projects and deliver training, to engage with national and international grievance mechanisms and to pursue the implementation of decisions of international and regional mechanisms.
Dr Doyle previously worked for a over decade as a Management Consultant with Accenture, a global consulting company, managing projects addressing business process reengineering, information technology, knowledge management and exchange, operations management, service delivery and strategy for major clients in Europe, the US and Latin America. This work spanned financial, retail, manufacturing and government sectors, with clients including Airbus, national taxation authorities, Carrefour, KBC, Adecco, Daimler-Chrysler and the World Bank/IFC.
Spanish, French, Irish
Dr Doyle is LLM Programme leader for the School of Law and is module leader for the following LLM and MA modules: Sustainable Development and Human Rights, Minority Rights and Indigenous Peoples under International Law, International Human Rights Law, and Business and Human Rights.
In addition, Dr Doyle has designed and delivered modules on Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics to Masters of International Business students and lectured on English Legal Systems and Human Rights Law to LLB students. Dr Doyle has delivered guest lectures addressing indigenous peoples in a number of universities in countries including the Czech Republic, Ireland, France, the United States, the Philippines and Tanzania.
He has also designed and delivered training for civil society organizations, indigenous peoples organizations, international organizations and governmental bodies.
Publications addressing indigenous peoples’ rights under international law, including their right to give or withhold their free prior and informed consent to activities impacting on their way of life and lands, territories and resources:
Publications addressing indigenous peoples' experience with the extractive industry sector and related guidance of international bodies:
Publications addressing indigenous peoples’ access to remedy and reparations in specific cases involving corporate related violations of their rights:
Doyle, Cathal (2020) The Philippines Indigenous Peoples Rights Act and ILO Convention 169 on tribal and indigenous peoples: exploring synergies for rights realisation. The International Journal of Human Rights , 24 (2-3). pp. 170-190. ISSN 1364-2987
Doyle, Cathal (2019) Consultation and free prior and informed consent in Peru: indigenous peoples’ experiences of resistance, participation and autonomy. In: The Prior Consultation of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America. Tomaselli, Alexandra and Wright, Claire , eds. Routledge. (Accepted/In press)
Doyle, Cathal and Whitmore, Andrew and Tugendhat, Helen , eds. (2019) Free prior informed consent protocols as instruments of autonomy: laying foundations for rights based engagement. Infoe, ENIP, Köln. ISBN 9783000636998
Doyle, Cathal (2019) The evolving duty to consult and obtain free prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples for extractive projects in the United States and Canada. In: Human Rights in the Extractive Industries: Transparency, Participation, Resistance. Feichtner, Isabel and Krajewski, Markus, and Roesch, Ricarda , eds. Springer. ISBN 9783030113810 (Accepted/In press)
Doyle, Cathal (2019) Indigenous peoples’ rights: human rights impact assessments an enabler for free prior and informed consent? In: Research Handbook on Impact Assessment. Götzmann, Nora , ed. Research Handbook on Impact Assessment series . Edward Elgar Publishing. (Accepted/In press)
Academic research funding:
Awarded the Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship from 2016 to 2019 corresponding to approximately £100,000 over three years.
External research project funding:
Between 2012 and 2021 developed successful project proposals in conjunction with the European Network on Indigenous Peoples (ENIP) NGO partners and national and regional indigenous peoples organizations and networks. This resulted in over £200,000 being raised from international organizations, government development agencies, NGOs and Trusts/Foundations to implement the following projects in conjunction with indigenous peoples:
Dr Doyle has also been involved in a range of knowledge transfer activities with indigenous peoples and their organizations and networks in Asia and Latin America and with global multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative and the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance. He has also provided expert input into OECD, UN, International Finance Corporation standard setting processes and has collaborated with UN bodies in the production of thematic reports and fact finding missions.
