Elective

• Indigenous peoples are also referred to as natives, aborigines, tribes, autochthons, pueblos originarios (original people), and many other labels that are meaningful at the national or regional levels, such as Indians, First Nations, and Adivasis
• Indigenous peoples received little attention in the human rights discourse before the late twentieth century
• It was not until well after World War II, when human rights had become an important ingredient of international relations and democratic governance, that indigenous peoples began to organize and lobby for their rights at the domestic and international levels, so that governments and multilateral organizations started to take notice
• Indigenous peoples


  • They were held to belong to some bygone era that had been replaced in modern times by the ubiquitous nation-state, where universal individual human rights are said to prevail
  • They were frequently victims of massacres, arbitrary resettlement, and various forms of servitude, slavery, or forced labor
  • The restitution and protection of their homelands are a persistent claim
  • Their survival and cultural identities are closely linked to the concept of Mother Earth
  • They are highly vulnerable to global warming, climate change, world pollution, and rapid transformations of land use
• Definition of 'indigenous'


  • One of the stumbling blocks to reaching an international consensus on the special character and scope of the human rights of indigenous peoples
  • States adopt different definitions in terms of their particular contexts and circumstances
  • There are widespread differences among indigenous peoples worldwide
• Principles for defining indigenous peoples


  • Priority in time with respect to the occupation and use of a specific territory
  • The voluntary perpetuation of cultural distinctiveness
  • Self-identification as well as recognition by other groups or by state authorities as a distinct collectivity
  • An experience of subjugation, marginalization, dispossession, exclusion, or discrimination
• There are many thousands of identifiable indigenous peoples in the world, mainly in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, whose populations range from the millions in some cases to several dozen families verging on extinction in other parts
• An informed estimate is around 400 million indigenous persons worldwide, divided into many thousands of distinct peoples and communities
• Membership in indigenous communities


  It implies not only rights and obligations of the individual vis-á-vis his or her group but may also have legal implications involving relations to the state
• State policies towards indigenous peoples


  • Exclusion and contempt
  • Expulsion, physical elimination, or subordination
  • Special legislation to set indigenous populations apart
  • Assimilation
  • Multiculturalism
• Assimilation


  • The most widespread and common policy of national states with regard to indigenous populations
  • It denied indigenous peoples their own collective identity by dismantling their social institutions and cultural values in order to incorporate them into an acceptable subordinate position in the dominant society and the expanding capitalist economy
• Multiculturalism


  A shift in the major orientation of government policies towards indigenous peoples, recognizing their distinct identities and rights
• Assimilation


  Process where religious conversion (mainly to Christianity) and formal schooling became crucial elements to strengthen the national identity of emerging states as part of nation building
• Indian children who were forced into Canada's 'residential schools' to be educated by the federal government suffered sustained culture loss, an issue that became a subject of national controversy and remedial measures in later years
• Some post-colonial governments of Africa and Asia undertook to 'modernize' and 'integrate' all ethnic minority populations, including those identified as indigenous
• Indigenismo


  Latin America's official policy of government programs for the development and assimilation of Indian communities, proposed to integrate the American continents' indigenous populations into the national mainstream
• Multiculturalism


  Shift in the major orientation of government policies toward indigenous peoples during the 1980s, challenging the earlier idea of assimilation from a human rights perspective
• Indigenous peoples emerged as new social and political actors in the 1980s, and their rights were incorporated progressively into national and international legal regimes
• Formal interest by the UN in the human rights of indigenous peoples


  1. Economic and Social Council decided to establish a Working Group on Indigenous Populations in the Commission on Human Rights

  2. Annual sessions were the occasion for several hundred representatives of indigenous organizations to meet, exchange information, get to know the UN system, and practice indigenous diplomacy

  3. Adoption by the Human Rights Council and General Assembly of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, an expert group including indigenous representatives, was formed in 2003 within the UN secretariat to deal with the human rights of indigenous peoples among other areas
• The Human Rights Council created the mandate of special rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people in 2001
• UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples


  Complements earlier texts like Convention 107 and Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization, and refers to individual rights of indigenous persons and group rights of indigenous communities and peoples
• The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples did not create any new rights; it built on earlier well-established universal human rights instruments and related these to the specific circumstances and needs of indigenous peoples
• Right to self-determination


  Recognized in the Declaration, allowing indigenous peoples internal autonomy or self-government and the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct institutions
• The controversial Article 26 states that indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories, and resources that they have traditionally owned, occupied, or otherwise used or acquired
• Indigenous peoples' relationship with land


  • Inherent in their self-conception, vested in the local community, tribe, or indigenous nation
  • Land may be divided into individual/family plots but much is restricted for community use only
• Governments often promote the transfer of communally held indigenous lands to other landholders, a process that began during the colonial period and intensified during postcolonial times
• Indigenous communities assertively opposing concentration of their ancestral lands in private hands


  • Mapuche communities in southern Chile
  • Aboriginal communities in Canada and New Zealand
• Indigenous communities maintain historical and spiritual links with their homelands, which is often misunderstood and ignored in existing land-related legislation
• When indigenous territories are rich in resources coveted by outside interests, local communities tend to suffer considerable pressures that frequently lead to serious social conflicts
• Large-scale development projects inevitably affect the conditions of living of indigenous peoples, often in devastating ways, due to environmental degradation, pollution, involuntary displacements and resettlement
• Indigenous peoples argue that major development projects that do not take into account their fundamental interests entail violations of their basic human rights
• Major development projects


  Often entail serious physical and mental health hazards for indigenous peoples
• Major development projects that do not take into account indigenous peoples' fundamental interests


  Entail violations of their basic human rights
• The World Commission on Dams found that indigenous and tribal peoples suffered disproportionately from the negative impacts of large dams while often being excluded from sharing in the benefits
• Evictions or involuntary displacements of indigenous communities are a common feature and have been disapproved by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
• In the late twentieth century, the situation began to change as multilateral agencies, national governments, and the private sector took a new interest in indigenous concerns
• The International Labour Organization's Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognized the right of indigenous peoples to decide their own priorities for the process of development
• The World Bank adopted Operational Policy 4.10, aiming to protect the interests of indigenous peoples in development projects
• Indigenous peoples have raised their human rights concerns with respect to development projects time and again at international conferences and continue to lobby major international agencies and private corporations