Latin American States and the International Labour Organization: Circumscribing Indigenous Peoples as Internal Outsiders

Abstract

The category of ‘indigenous peoples’ has entered the modern zeitgeist. According to some statistics, it delineates 370 million people in 70 states. It today signifies, especially within IOs (international organizations), peoples’ distinct identities with concomitant claims vis-à-vis the society of states. This article interrogates the classification ‘indigenous peoples’ by focusing on its discursive emergence and legal adaptation in the ILO (International Labour Organization) post-World War I. This article stresses that the ILO played a constitutive role in search of a more politically correct category based on a broader ‘civilizational process’ and with a novel ‘humanitarian concern’ largely stemming from contradictions emerging from Latin American nation-building efforts. It accounts for how IOs reacted to these foremost Latin American demands by demarcating a novel social reality, and consequently clarifies the conceptual lines drawn between regulative and constitutive norms by distinguishing constitutional foundations from regulative action. It thus augments arguments on the efficacy and authority of international organizations; in doing so, it addresses the emergence of international indigenous rights norms within historical and Latin American regional contexts.