Indigenous rights are the human, civil, and legal rights that respond to the specific conditions of indigenous peoples (also known as tribal peoples, native peoples, aboriginal peoples or First Nations), who have historically suffered from unjust practices including genocide, enslavement, forced relocation, physical attacks, exploitation, eviction, discrimination, marginalization, and forced cultural and social assimilation. Indigenous peoples are most commonly defined as those with “a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors 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.”(3,4) The rights of indigenous communities therefore include the right to self-determination, right to their land and resources, preservation of their social and cultural integrity by retaining the diversity of traditional knowledge, language, spiritual traditions, medicine and customs, and also their inclusion in local and international decision-making processes. While these and other related rights have been recognized in international treaties such as the International Labor Organization’s Convention n◦169 (1989) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), the everyday reality of the estimated 370 million indigenous peoples in more than 90 countries(1) is often radically different. This is alarming also in the context of the climate crisis, as research shows that traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples enables long-term sustainable land use and balanced ecosystem management.(1-3,9) The traditional indigenous territories are home to more than 80% of the planet’s biodiversity, they are rich in natural resources and the forests managed by indigenous communities contain over 20% of global carbon stored above ground.(1) Yet, many of those who defend their land from invasion by multinational corporations, extraction projects and other modes of exploitation, now more than ever face harassment, physical violence and murder.(6,10,11) Due to their direct dependence on local natural resources, indigenous communities are among those most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming and climate change.(1-11)
INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
