The Applicability of the International Legal Concept of “Indigenous Peoples” in Asia
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Description
Over a very short period, the few decades since the early 1970s, “indigenous peoples” has been transformed from a prosaic description without much significance in international law and politics into a concept with considerable power as a basis for group mobilization, international standard-setting, transnational networks, and programmatic activity of intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Following the pattern of group mobilization established in states dominated by European settlement—in the Americas, Australasia, and the Nordic countries—groups based in different Asian states have more recently begun to participate in international institutions and gatherings of “indigenous peoples,” and transnational networks have been formed in Asia under the rubric “indigenous peoples.” The concept of “indigenous peoples,” or its local cognates, has become an important unifying connection in transnational activist networks, linking groups that were hitherto marginal and politically unorganized to transnational sources of ideas, information, support, legitimacy, and money. International institutions increasingly apply to parts of Asia policies, programs, and specific rules concerning “indigenous peoples.” The World Bank, for example, first adopted a policy on tribal peoples arising out of the dismal experience of projects in Latin America, but as a global organization seeks to apply its current policy on indigenous peoples to some of its projects in Asia; the relevant World Bank policies have also provided an influential model for the Asian Development Bank. The international activity has begun to shape national practice in many states, influencing political discourse, government policy, and some judicial and legislative action. The attitudes of governments in Asia to application to their states of the concept of “indigenous peoples” differ considerably, but strong opposition has been expressed by the governments of China, India, Bangladesh, Burma, and (for the most part) Indonesia. The political salience of debates about the concept of “indigenous peoples,” and much of the legal controversy, has been heightened by conflicts over land, forests, mineral resources, fishing rights, and other valuable natural resources. These conflicts arise in the context of rapid economic change, often precipitated by government-supported “development” projects. If “indigenous peoples” are deemed in international practice to have particular entitlements to land, territory, and resources, based on historical connections, customary practices, and the interdependence of land and culture, the question whether a particular group is an “indigenous people” may take on great political and legal importance. Even where governments do not accept that any of the groups in their states are “indigenous peoples,” international agencies, multinational corporations, and the governments of foreign states may continue to press a particular case on the basis that relevant international standards apply. This chapter will address the important practical problem of whether and how the concept of “indigenous peoples,” formed and shaped in areas of the world dominated by the history and effects of European settlement, might or should be adapted and made applicable in Asia and elsewhere. Both elements of the term—“indigenous” and “peoples”—are contentious, but the discussion here will focus mainly on indigeneity. A caveat must be entered about the scope and generality of this chapter. It focuses on issues arising in Asia, loosely encompassing, without particular distinction, east, southeast, and south Asia. This region is so diverse as to issues pertaining to “indigenous peoples” that generalizations must be treated with the utmost caution.4 There are overlapping themes, as well as considerable variation, between Asia and Africa with respect to these issues and the question of the relevance or irrelevance of the concept of “indigenous peoples” in Africa is of great importance. Although to a lesser extent than Asian groups, representatives of a small number of African groups have become involved in the international indigenous peoples movement, and governments of a few African states have expressed concerns similar to those of Asian governments considered in this chapter. For clarity, specific issues concerning the concept of “indigenous peoples” in Africa are not considered in this chapter.
Source Publication
The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights
Source Editors/Authors
Joanne R. Bauer, Daniel A. Bell
Publication Date
1999
Recommended Citation
Kingsbury, Benedict, "The Applicability of the International Legal Concept of “Indigenous Peoples” in Asia" (1999). Faculty Chapters. 1003.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1003
