Indigenous Peoples’ Interaction with External World: The Principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent

Abstract

Indigenous peoples are inheritors of earlier population of their present day territories of modern states, committed to their land and traditional way of life. The world community for many decades proceeds along the path of recognition the rights of indigenous peoples, the main of which, in the author’s opinion, is the right to choose the degree and form of their integration in the modern society. Historically, the attitude towards indigenous peoples’ rights developed from recognition of their right “to be as other peoples are” to the consent to their right to be different an original. One of the main tenet ensuring the realization of their right to originality, which has important practical implications, is the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of indigenous peoples to affecting them economic and cultural activities of their dominant neighbors, as well as to more particular (including special) rights and implementation procedures resulting from them. In economic terms, it primarily concerns nature management and, especially, extraction of natural fossil and usage of biological resources, military activities, and waste disposal. The article analyzes the history of ideas about the of indigenous peoples’ rights and their legal fixation, as well as problems of interpretation of the principle of free, prior and informed consent and its implementation in various regions of the world and spheres of activity.