The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as an Important Step towards Justice Restoration

Abstract

This article examines the provisions of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on June 29, 2006 and was ratified by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007.
This document proclaims cultural, religious, educational and other rights of indigenous peoples. The Declaration allows the indigenous people to participate in the political and social life of their country’s community. It fixes the right of self-determination, which means that indigenous people can establish their own political status and economic, social and cultural development. They have the right of autonomy and self-government in their domestic issues.
The document states that indigenous people should be protected against violent assimilation and violent deportation from their lands and also from any other discrimination. Indigenous people can keep their traditions, language; they should have access to their sacred places. Indigenous people can create their own media services in their native language; they can keep their own traditional medicine and so on.
But the main part of this document is the proclamation of indigenous people’s land rights. Article 26 of the Declaration allows indigenous people to hold their native land and its natural recourses.
After the analysis given in this article the author arrives to the following conclusion: the Declaration as a result of more than two decades of negotiation emphasizes that indigenous peoples’ control over their lands, territories and resources will enable them to maintain and strengthen their institutions, cultures and traditions and to promote their development in accordance with their aspirations and needs.