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Of Special Interest To
International Law and Standards on Indigenous PeoplesConventions and Declarations The first international documents about the rights of indigenous people were produced by the International Labour Organisation. One of these was the Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957. The document tended to assume that indigenous peoples should expect and try to integrate into the wider community. Nepal never became a party to that Convention. More recently another Convention was adopted, which reflects more contemporary ideas about the place of indigenous peoples in society. This is The Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). Nepal became a party to this in 2007.
Some of the more important points under Convention 169 are listed below (but anyone seriously interested must read the document itself and not just this summary which lacks the detail, the elaborations and the limitations in the Convention):
Many of these points could appropriately be included in a national constitution. UN General Assembly In 2007, after many years of discussion, the General Assembly of the UN adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is not a binding document (unlike the ILO Convention for the States that have ratified it). Among the provisions that are of particular interest to Janajatis in Nepal are: Article 3 Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Article 4 Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions. Article 31 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions. Though this technique may appear appealing, it does create problems in application. International documents are often couched in rather vague terms, and it might be difficult for courts to apply them. You can see that from the provisions on autonomy quoted above. What exactly does or should self-determination or autonomy mean in the context of Nepal? |
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