ABSTRACT
The role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the definition and protection of the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples is well known. The work of the international system in creating a new field of international law applying to these peoples has been remarkable, including the ILO’s Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957 (No. 107), discussions in the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Council, the ILO’s revision of Convention 107 and its adoption of the only ratifiable international instrument specifically on their rights—the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). In 2007 the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the most advanced aspirational instrument yet adopted. Since 1975 many of the world’s indigenous peoples have mobilized to defend themselves at the national and international levels, and many of the international development agencies have responded by adopting special provisions for development activities affecting them.
