Indigenous Peoples Rights

The international community now recognizes that special measures are required to protect the rights of the Indigenous peoples.

~United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues website[1]

Indigenous Peoples today number more than 370 million individuals and live in more than 90 different countries on every continent.[2] Despite their vast geographic and cultural differences, Indigenous Peoples share a common experience: they are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of people in the world today. On September 13, 2007, after years of negotiations in which hundreds of Indigenous nations and organizations participated, the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). This document defines and protects rights of particular importance to indigenous peoples such as the right to self-determination, the right to development, and collective rights such as recognition of their distinctive cultures, and traditional lands, resources, and knowledge.

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Related Topics:

• Cultural Rights
• Discrimination
• Environment
• Racism