Recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources

Abstract

The contemporary international indigenous rights framework takes as a starting point that indigenous peoples’ societies, cultures, ways of life, and ultimately their very identities are intertwined with lands, territories and resources historically used, and that legal consequences must follow from this circumstance. Broad agreement has emerged that the fact that indigenous peoples are inextricably linked to their lands, territories and resources — as these constitute the nucleus of their identities as peoples — must reasonably mean that indigenous peoples are also legally tied to such areas and resources. This understanding is at the core of indigenous rights to lands, territories and resources as reflected in international sources of authority.