Indigenous People

There are approximately 370 million indigenous people spanning 70 countries, worldwide. Historically we have been dispossessed of our lands, or in the center of conflict for access to valuable resources because of where we live, or, in yet other cases, struggling to live the way we would like. Indeed, indigenous people are amongst the most disadvantaged people in the world.

The United Nations officially acknowledged indigenous people in 1982, when the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, a special forum of human rights experts, was established in Geneva for representatives of indigenous organizations and Governments to exchange views on a wide range of issues.

The main areas of concern to indigenous people are reflected in the United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP)

Marginalization and exclusion from the mainstream political, economic and social spheres prompted indigenous people to lobby and have their concerns included in documents of recent United Nations Conferences, including the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1-12 June 1992, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), the World Conference on Human Rights (14-25 June 1993, Vienna, Austria), the International Conference on Population and Development (5-13 September 1994, Cairo, Egypt), the World Summit for Social Development (6-12 March 1995, Copenhagen, Denmark) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (4-15 September 1995, Beijing, China).

At all of these global meetings, issues of importance to indigenous people around the world were discussed. In all of the final documents adopted at the Conferences, Governments were requested to implement recommendations relating to indigenous people and to adopt national legislation to protect and promote our rights. Educational and awareness-raising programmes were also stressed.