Notes On Indigenous Peoples

Resource Description

LEGAL STUDIES NOTES: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

NATURE OF THE LAW AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Define ‘indigenous peoples.’ There is no one single definition of the term ‘indigenous peoples.’ A definition only becomes important when a government links funding to a minority group. They practice unique traditions, retaining social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of dominant societies.
The Cobo Report (1982) found some countries use self-identification or self- eclaration as a means of deciding who could officially be classified as an ‘indigenous person.’ The diversity of indigenous peoples means there is no official definition of the term adopted by any UN-system body. An understanding of this term is based on: