The Draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: What is it? What Does it Mean?

Abstract

The draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, now before the UN Commission on Human Rights, is a far-reaching and innovative document that has resulted from more than 10 years of debate, lobbying and drafting by indigenous representatives, human rights experts and members of the UN Sub-Commission's Working Group on Indigenous Populations. The level and nature of indigenous participation in this elaboration of human rights standards has been unprecedented. The draft Declaration sets forth basic human rights that flow from long-established principles of international law and widely accepted concepts of human rights. The detailed provisions of the draft Declaration would reach out to protect indigenous communities as well as indigenous individuals from the discrimination, the deprivations and the abuses that they so often endure. The author praises the draft for its thoroughness and adherence to principle. The article summarizes and analyses the provisions of the draft Declaration and calls for others to provide futher commentary and analysis.