Agenda

General Assembly

Rights of Indigenous Peoples

By
Philippe Hug

It is estimated that there are about 300 million indigenous peoples scattered around the world today. Indigenous peoples are the Indians of the America’s, the Aborigines of Australia, the Maori of New Zealand, the Mayans of Guatemala, and the Sami of northern Europe to name a few. The world has obtained invaluable knowledge and goods from indigenous peoples, such as food, medicine, and language. In recent history the well-being and lives of indigenous peoples have been threatened. Today there is a move to restore indigenous peoples way of life through the influences of the international community. There is an international effort to restore indigenous peoples’ rights, customs and ways of life. The United Nations has been at the forefront of this crusade. 

Indigenous peoples are defined by some as people or nations that have a “historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories and consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form a present non-dominant sector of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.” This definition is accepted by the United Nations and many countries. However, some Asian countries are uncomfortable with a definition and maintain that they do not have any indigenous peoples on their land.

The issues that are of importance to indigenous peoples are different from most issues brought forth by members of the international community. The ideas of American Indians suggest that most indigenous people do not think as westerners do. Robert Clinton explains the importance of collective rights within the Indian culture: 

Native peoples see humans as inherently social beings. As social beings, people never exist isolated from others in some mythic, disorganized state of nature. Rather human beings are born into closely linked and political relations. One’s clan, kinship and family identities are part of one’s personal identity and one’s rights and responsibilities exist only within the framework of such families, social, and tribal networks. No individual person or family could own land as personal property. The entire tribe could claim land as its territory for its use, but the land was nonetheless communal. Other Indians believed that the earth was their mother and, therefore, could not visualize the idea of selling the land. . . These ideas resulted in an incredible respect for Mother Nature and the serious conflicts with the idea of personal property held by the Europeans.

Native Americans do not live a life similar to the ones lives by most Americans. Their views toward nature and society are completely different than those of the American population.

Indigenous people are often referred to as indigenous peoples. This point although minor is noteworthy. Many nations view indigenous people as a group, not as individuals. Brazil, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and others opposed the pluralization of people, because they do not want to acknowledge the idea of collective as opposed to individual human rights. While nations such as Fiji and South America “called for the plural version in keeping their views on collective rights.” As a result, most publications will use peoples instead of people.

What has occurred in the past is inexcusable, yet we must not look to the past, but rather insure that we help indigenous peoples today and insure a brighter tomorrow. In 1996 Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated: “the international community can do more, however, than apologize for the wrongs of the past.” Because of the march of colonialism throughout the world most indigenous peoples have seen their traditions disappear, their land stolen, and their lifestyles uprooted. Following, are a few facts about life as an indigenous person today: most of India’s tribal people live below the poverty line; the life expectancy of indigenous peoples in northern Russia is 18 years less than the national average; and the unemployment among Australia’s Aborigines is five times the national average. Indigenous peoples of the world are at a disadvantage, and can be looked at as a group that is being discriminated against. Laws exist against racial discrimination, yet ironically they do not reach and shield indigenous peoples, even in the United States.

The decade between 1995 and 2004 has been formally declared as “The International Decade of the World’s Indigenous peoples,” in order to “promote concrete action in vital areas such as human rights, protection of the environment, and access to health and education.” We have come far since the early 1990’s where there were only a few NGO’s who haphazardly preoccupied themselves with the issue of indigenous peoples. On July 31st 2000, the United Nations Economic and Social Council adopted a consensus resolution to create a permanent forum for indigenous peoples and their issues. This resolution has been in the making since the Vienna Conference on Human Rights in 1993.

Earlier drafts were a stepping stone for the advancement of indigenous issues. Articles 23 and 25 of one such draft explains that “indigenous peoples have the right to own, develop, control and use the lands” they live on. Furthermore, indigenous peoples also have the right to “maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual and material relationship with the lands.....they originally owned or occupied, and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard.” It is because of drafts such as this that we now have the forum for indigenous peoples. This new forum is a massive compilation of years of research and negotiations with individual nations on the issues regarding indigenous peoples.

The creation of a forum for indigenous issues is extremely important due to the historical fact that indigenous peoples have “struggled to make their concerns heard by governments, the United Nations, and other intergovernmental bodies. Their circumstances and needs went largely unnoticed by the international community.” As with any group, indigenous peoples are raising issues such as land and resources, human rights, internal colonization, self-government, the environment, self-development, discrimination, health, education, language, cultural survival, intellectual property rights, and social and economic conditions. In other words indigenous peoples want to maintain their beautiful and distinctive cultures. Some major problems have arisen from the concerns of indigenous peoples such as proper education of children, use of language, and use of medicine. Many more questions are being asked of and from indigenous peoples today. Now these questions have a forum within the international community through the United Nations.

Questions for further consideration:

1) Do indigenous peoples have the right to impose their education and language upon their children when they will be at a disadvantage compared to the other children of that country? 
2) How much control can the government of a country have over indigenous peoples and how much freedom can indigenous peoples have? For example can an indigenous person kill another human being and be immune from prosecution because of his/her status as indigenous? 
3) When does cultural heritage infringe some basic humanitarian guidelines? If an indigenous culture demands that children be reprimanded by being physically beaten or gravely burned, when does heritage become a violation of a person’s basic human rights? 
4) How can the international community ensure protection of indigenous rights without inhibiting the right to development for society as a whole? 
5) Should an official definition of indigenous peoples be adopted?