“Indigenous Peoples” as an International Legal Concept
Files
Description
The fact that indigenous peoples has become an appealing term which many groups (or individuals speaking for them) choose to apply to themselves is largely a result of the currency given to the category by the international activities of nonstate and interstate organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine definitional aspects of the use of “indigenous peoples” and related categories in contemporary international legal and institutional practice. It addresses the international-law aspects of a subject that recurs throughout this volume, that of the meaning of indigenous peoples. As the discussion of international practice will indicate, the term has two rather different functions in international legal materials. One function is to delimit the precise scope of international instruments, especially when an instrument proclaims rights of indigenous peoples or duties of states in relation to indigenous peoples. A second function is to indicate in broad terms the groups with whom a general and diffuse body of practice (such as that of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations when it engages annually in a “review of developments”) is principally concerned. The paper is organized as follows. The first section, by way of orientation, briefly outlines international activity concerning indigenous peoples. Subsequent sections examine the classifications used by the major international institutions concerned with such groups and consider the problems of definition faced by the UN Working Group in preparing a draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Based on international practice, a list of essential requirements and other indicia will be suggested. The conclusion summarizes the findings of the paper, and makes the point that much of the international law bearing upon claims by indigenous peoples does not depend directly on use of the category “indigenous peoples.”
Source Publication
Indigenous Peoples of Asia
Source Editors/Authors
R. H. Barnes, Andrew Gray, Benedict Kingsbury
Publication Date
1995
Recommended Citation
Kingsbury, Benedict, "“Indigenous Peoples” as an International Legal Concept" (1995). Faculty Chapters. 1007.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1007
