A/HRC/EMRIP/2019/2 contemporary nation State. The legacy of colonization, whether imperial or settler based, 4 sometimes turns indigenous peoples into “migrants” by drawing international borders through their homeland. Moreover, the social, economic and cultural impacts of colonization which have displaced indigenous lifeways with industrialization and globalization, including among many other things development projects that threaten their homes and livelihoods, often impel indigenous peoples to move internally as well as across international borders. In short, indigenous peoples on the move, internally and internationally, suffering displacement, discrimination, violence and even death, including in their own countries, are experiencing the consequences of colonization in myriad ways that are little understood in migration law and politics. These consequences continue to be reflected in the challenges to indigenous peoples’ presence, movement and mobility in their territories. 6. The current context of migration involving a global pushback against human rights, political instability, weak democracies and military use of power puts indigenous migrants in a particularly vulnerable situation. The negative impact of authoritarian populism on migration, as well as sovereignty and national security narratives, as a pretext against migration and migrants, facilitates and sometimes even promotes an anti-indigenous rhetoric, even in States hitherto sympathetic. A rights-based approach to migration and its positive impact of enriching societies is not part of that rhetoric.5 Nor is an understanding of land and kinship, movement and relationship, based on indigenous views of the world. II. Legal framework 7. Indigenous peoples enjoy all generally applicable legal rights, including the rights guaranteed by various laws and instruments on the situation of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. In addition, the particular situation of indigenous peoples must be understood through the Declaration, supported by the United Nations and regional human rights treaties. The provisions of the Declaration contextualize human rights as they relate to the historical, cultural and social circumstances of indigenous peoples, highlighting the collective nature of those rights and imposing obligations on States (see A/HRC/9/9, para. 86 and A/HRC/39/62). All Declaration rights are relevant in the migration context, yet implementation of those rights has been uneven to date. 8. Article 7 of the Declaration provides that “indigenous individuals have the rights to life, physical and mental integrity, liberty and security of person” and “indigenous peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence, including forcibly removing children of the group to another group.” Those article 7 rights apply in several categories relating to the present study, namely threats to the life and security of indigenous peoples in their home countries; whether they are safe during travel and passage; and their wellbeing in receiving countries, which would include treatment by border patrol and immigration officials. 9. Article 7 is particularly significant given the recent expansive interpretation by the Human Rights Committee of the right to life, as contained in article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee considered that States have a duty to address not only the general conditions that may give rise to a direct threat to life (such as threats and killings of indigenous human rights defenders and refoulement of aliens) but also conditions that may prevent individuals from enjoying their right to life in dignity. Such conditions include degradation of the environment caused by pollution and climate change, deprivation of land, territories and resources of indigenous peoples, access to food, water, health care and shelter and other issues, which have a direct effect on the lives of 4 5 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623520601056240. See Carlos Yescas, Indigenous Routes: A Framework for Understanding Indigenous Migration (International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2008). 3