Who are indigenous people and discuss their rights under International Law.

Since anthropology emerged as a scientific discipline in the nineteenth century, indigenous and tribal people have been its major focus. Many anthropologists have spent their professional lives working with indigenous and tribal people whose traditions, language or ways of life differ from those of people from politically dominant ethnic groups.

According to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues there are more than 370 million indigenous people spread across 90 different countries worldwide. Most of the indigenous people live in remote areas of the world. Out of 370 million indigenous people, about 70% live in Asia. They occupy only 20% of the world’s land but consist of and nurture about 80% of the world’s cultural and biological diversity. In the world, there are over 5,000 ethnic cultures of indigenous peoples ranging from the forest people of the Amazon to the tribal people of India, from the Inuit of the Arctic to the Aborigines of Australia. Indigenous people are characterised by the distinctiveness of their unique traditions. They have their own social, cultural, economic and political institutions that are distinct from those of the dominant and larger societies in which they live.

Some examples of indigenous peoples are

• · the Lakota in the USA,
• · the Mayas in Guatemala,
• · the Aymaras in Bolivia,
• · the Inuit and Aleutians of the circumpolar region,
• · the Saami of northern Europe,
• · the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia and
• · the Maori of New Zealand.

Some of the indigenous peoples in Asia are:

• · hill tribes of Thailand,
• · scheduled Tribes of India,
• · numerically small people of the North Siberia,
• · national minorities of China,
• · cultural minorities of Philippines,
• · isolated and alien people of Indonesia,
• · aboriginal tribes of Taiwan,
• · aborigines of Malaysia, and
• · natives of Borneo.

According to Colchester (1995), most of these groups now claim to be ‘indigenous’, for the term is less prejudicial than the aforementioned labels and it links them all in a common struggle.

These and most other indigenous peoples have retained their distinct characteristics which are different from those of other segments of the national populations. Spread across the world, they are the descendants - according to a common definition - of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.

Indigenous peoples often have much in common with other neglected segments of societies. Like them, they

• · lack political representation and participation,
• · are economically marginalised and poor,
• · lack access to social services and
• · face discrimination

Despite their cultural differences, diverse indigenous people share similar problems related to the protection of their rights. They strive for recognition of their identities, their ways of life and their right to traditional lands, territories and natural resources. Contrary to other ethnic minorities, that struggle to protect their rights on individual level, indigenous people have always stressed the need to recognise their collective rights.

Despite some positive developments, the rights of indigenous peoples as a whole have traditionally been ignored. As a global reality, efforts of indigenous peoples to have their rights recognised or further developed are relevant in both developing and developed countries. Indigenous peoples suffered from historic injustices due to colonisation and dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, preventing them from exercising their right to development that meets their own needs and interests. In general, indigenous people are disproportionately represented, even among the poorest of the poor, in both industrialised and developing countries (Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, 2001).

The rights of indigenous peoples are recognised through various international declarations or conventions such as:

• · The 1989 International Labour Organisation Convention No. 169 concerning the indigenous and tribal people in independent countries,
• · The 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, and
• · The 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), adopted in September 2007 by the General Assembly, is the most comprehensive and advanced of international instruments dealing with indigenous peoples’ individual and collective rights. It is the latest addition to a growing body of international human rights law. UNDRIP is comprehensive in the sense that it covers the full range of civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights under international law. The Declaration not only elaborates on these rights but also imposes obligations on states and international organisations and inter-governmental bodies as well.

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