The International Labor Organization (ILO) and Its Contribution to the Protection of Indigenous Peoples' Rights

Abstract

ILO has been from the very beginning of its creation a pioneer in addressing indigenous peoples’ issues, albeit admittedly through an originally monolithic and culturally biased integrationist view. Its action culminated from the preparation of studies on indigenous peoples working conditions in the 1920’s to the elaboration of recommendations and conventions on indigenous labour rights in the early 1940’ and 1950’s and next to the adoption of legally binding instruments that accord a broader range of rights (ILO No 107:1957; ILO No. 169:1989) like that of the land and resource rights which are at the top of indigenous peoples’ agenda. Thus, besides its original assimilationist orientation, ILO gradually contributed invaluably in the partial satisfaction of indigenous demands and establishment of a solid floor of basic prerequisites for the safeguarding of a minimum of dignity and set of rights for these historically suffered and presently most disadvantaged peoples.