United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
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| “I am Tomorrow”: Photo by S. Patrice Colletti, SDS 2015 |
Over the past several years, readers of this blog have become a lot more familiar with the realities and issues faced by the Indigenous people of this continent.
These are not, of course, the only people referred to as Indigenous. In fact, the United Nations has had a Working Group on Indigenous Peoples since the 1980s. It has focused on the rights of over 476 million peoples living in 90 countries, Indigenous people have homelands on all continents (except Antarctica). Many still come under the authority of central governments that control their lands, resources, laws, etc.
August 9 is United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This year’s theme is Leaving No One Behind: Indigenous Peoples and the Call for a New Social Contract.
What is a social contract? Why is it particularly pertinent in today’s COVID 19 reality? What implications are there for Indigenous Peoples in the USA? Check out this short, informative article from the UN website for more: https://www.un.org/en/observances/indigenous-day
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is the centerpiece of the United Nations work focusing on Indigenous Peoples. Here’s a good overview put together by the Indian Law Resource Center, focusing on the US implimentation of the principles of the Declaration. https://indianlaw.org/undrip/home. It also has a link if you want to actually see the document to check out what it says about the human rights of Indigenous Peoples. (Or, you can just click here.)
