A/HRC/60/29 Understanding the contemporary meaning of the term “Indigenous Peoples” 1. (a) General understanding 23. States’ recognition of Indigenous Peoples as rights holders under international law should be based on an understanding of the term “Indigenous Peoples” as a human rights claim for redress for a particular form of racial discrimination and human rights violations. 24. The right of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination, as peoples, was violated through conquest, colonization or the establishment of present State boundaries, leading to ancestral land dispossession, destruction of cultural identities and even extermination. These violations resulted in the formation of numerous settler States, and they are still committed in various forms in all regions of the world. Despite this history of violations, Indigenous Peoples retain their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, and are determined to maintain and develop them.25 25. Consequently, the term “Indigenous Peoples” does not uniquely refer to peoples who were colonized, or who were the first inhabitants of a given land, to the exclusion of colonizers or those who came later. It has evolved as a human rights term through which distinct peoples who have suffered particular human rights violations and abuses seek redress. 26. As a previous Special Rapporteur has explained, the Declaration does not define “Indigenous Peoples” but it makes clear who they are by emphasizing the common pattern of human rights violations that they have suffered.26 27. The high-grade racial discrimination that Indigenous Peoples have suffered has been aimed at dehumanizing and demeaning the victims as racially and culturally inferior, backward and unable to govern themselves, bring up their own children or enjoy property rights over their ancestral lands, territories and resources. Often, their livelihoods and ways of life have been perceived as savage and wasteful of resources. These pernicious injustices and racial discrimination have led to acts of mass killing and displacement in many countries, and they affect not only the bodies but also the minds of peoples, through intergenerational trauma. They alter the victims’ self-esteem, making them feel worthless and, in many cases, pushing them into mental illness, addiction, high rates of suicide and homelessness. Indigenous women continue to be affected by multiple forms of discriminations, forced sterilization, sexual violence and trafficking in persons. 28. While these injustices have led to higher poverty rates among Indigenous Peoples, it is important to acknowledge that they are not merely poor. Indigenous Peoples suffer far more destructive social injustice. Considering them as merely poor has misled States’ interventions, focusing on effects rather than the historical root causes. 29. The Declaration is the remedial instrument that aims to correct the wrongs of the past and establish equality.27 It does not give special rights to Indigenous Peoples. Rather, it sets the minimum standards necessary for ensuring substantial equality between them and all others. Acknowledging the uniqueness of the injustices suffered by Indigenous Peoples and legally recognizing their rights does not mean that States discriminate against other groups or provide Indigenous Peoples with a special status or more rights than others. 30. Acknowledging historical injustices initiates a process of reconciliation and an opportunity to build a new future with Indigenous Peoples, based on partnership and mutual respect. As proclaimed in the Declaration, the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Declaration will enhance harmonious and cooperative relations between the State and 25 26 27 6 See ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention. 1989 (No. 169), art. 1; and Declaration, preamble. S. James Anaya, “The rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination in the post-Declaration era”, in Making the Declaration Work: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Claire Charters and Rodolfo Stavenhagen, eds. (Copenhagen, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 2009), pp. 190 and 191. See Ian Brownlie, “The rights of peoples in modern international law, in The Rights of Peoples, James Crawford, ed. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1992). GE.25-12002