The Indigenous Fellowship Programme (IFP) is a comprehensive human rights training programme that was established by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the context of the first International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (1995-2004).
The activities of the IFP are conducted in four different languages: English, French, Spanish, and Russian. The selected candidates are entitled to a return flight ticket, a monthly stipend to cover their basic needs in Geneva, including modest accommodation, food and transport, and basic health insurance for the duration of the training. The IFP is held annually, and fellows from the four language communities of the programme are trained together with simultaneous interpretation during four to five weeks in Geneva.
The date of the training programme usually coincides with the annual meeting of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (June/July), thus allowing the fellows to participate more actively in the Mechanism.
Main criteria:
- The candidate must be indigenous (non-indigenous persons will not be taken into consideration, even if they have close links with indigenous communities and/or organisations).
- Age and formal education should not be a limitation to participating in the programme.
- Candidates should agree to train other indigenous persons after returning to their respective communities/organisations.
- The candidate should have a good working knowledge of at least one of the languages in which the programme is conducted.









