After all these years of political subjugation, economic exploitation and cultural assimilation, indigenous nations around the world have something to celebrate about. They are now legally recognized as a peoples. It took members of the United Nations more than 20 years, after intensive negotiations and political confrontation with indigenous nations before finally arriving at a position where it has now voted in favor of adopting the Declaration of Indigenous Peoples Rights. This declaration was upheld in the midst of stiff opposition from countries, traditionally long perceived as leading advocates of human rights, who voted against the declaration.
The struggle for indigenous rights has indeed exposed the contradictions of liberal democracy; and it simply demonstrates that governments such as the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia simply do not care enough to recognize indigenous nations as people with equal rights. This has occurred inspite of the historical reality that all these countries are traditionally inhabited by indigenous nations, who now form part of an undignified minority. In light of the historical and political questions that indigenous nations pose to government and countries it is not surprising that 11 countries including Russia and Colombia chose to abstain. The arrogance of power has always opposed inclusive rights.
The fear of the indigenous movement in the hearts of such powerful countries clearly manifest the unanswered questions around state legitimacy and the unwillingness of the powers that be to recognize that indigenous nations have the right to self-determination, even to the extent of bypassing the rationale of state territorial integrity in cases when indigenous concerns and rights are not represented by the state. It is this fear of the perceived ‘other’ that governments have forcefully prevented indigenous nations from defining the course of their own future and freely contributing to the development of human kind on the values of a shared humanity. The instance that Australia had for a long time until the mid 1990s defined the aborigines as ‘flora and fauna’ is an example of how governments relate to indigenous nations.
The adoption of the declaration however does not naturally imply that their status and plight of the indigenous peoples will suddenly become improve overnight, or that their rights will implemented by member states of the United Nations. The United Nations General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa stated that “the importance of this document for indigenous peoples and, more broadly, for the human rights agenda, cannot be underestimated. By adopting the declaration, we are also taking another major step forward towards the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.” But she warned that “even with this progress, indigenous peoples still face marginalization, extreme poverty and other human rights violations.”
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the Philippine chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues puts the declaration into perspective when she says that the declaration is a legal document which “sets the minimum international standards for the protection and promotion of the rights” of indigenous peoples. Indeed indigenous nations are can no longer just be excluded as a ‘population’ but must be recognized as a ‘peoples’ with equal rights which must enable them to reconcile and heal with their burdens of history and empower them to resolve their political acrimony with governments; so that they may contribute in moving forward, together with the rest of the world on the path of human rights, development and freedom for all.
While the 370 million indigenous people around the world have something to celebrate about, a political victory in light of centuries of politicide has opened a small window of opportunity for them to actively ensure that the declaration of indigenous people rights are implemented in ways that indigenous nations can freely determine the course of their own future in ways that are consistent with shared democratic values of dignity and equality.
