Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM)

conceptualized and implemented, some consider the
MDGs themselves as a significant obstacle in bringing
indigenous peoples out of poverty.
Past international Action
Given the severity of the current conditions
of impoverishment for indigenous peoples, the
international community has a surprisingly wellestablished
base of resolutions and declarations on
the topic. The United Nations General Assembly has
listed the right to development among the standard
human rights in numerous resolutions over the
past sixty years, beginning with the 1948 Universal
Declaration on Human Rights. The International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
of 1966 also includes various aspects of the right
to development, including the right to work in a
profession of one’s choice, the right to fair wages,
the right to an adequate standard of living, and
the right to freedom from hunger. 191 this right
was formalized in 1986 with the United Nations
Declaration on the Right to Development, which
defines development as “a comprehensive economic,
social, cultural and political process, which aims at the
constant improvement of the well-being of the entire
population and of all individuals.” 192 it calls upon all
states to work toward development for all peoples
and to specifically protect equal access to basic
resources, food, housing, and the fair distribution
of income. Thus, the rights to development and
to freedom from impoverishment are thoroughly
established in United Nations precedent.
The first major international treaty to codify
the developmental rights specifically accorded to
indigenous peoples is the 1989 International Labour
Organization (ILO) Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
Convention. The Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
Convention updated a previous ILO resolution,
removing all calls for the assimilation and integration
of indigenous peoples from the older document.
it declares that states must help eliminate the
socio-economic gap between indigenous and nonindigenous
populations. It encourages governments
to consult indigenous peoples in all developmental
decisions. Finally, it lists a number of specific
developmental rights that indigenous peoples are
accorded, including the right to ownership over
traditionally occupied lands, the right to consultation,
consent, and adequate compensation for relocation,
and the right to freedom from discrimination in
employment. 193 Despite its passage by the ILO, the
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention has only
been ratified by 22 nations and is not legally binding
in most countries.
The most relevant and recent international
agreement is the 2007 united Nations declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a landmark
document in the modern human rights movement.
With the declaration on the Rights of indigenous
Peoples, the United Nations General Assembly
affirmed for the first time that all previous human
rights accords, including the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, are applicable
to indigenous peoples. the declaration on the
Rights of indigenous Peoples goes on to enumerate
a list of rights that are especially relevant for the
problems that indigenous peoples face in the modern
world. A number of these rights aim to secure
the ability of indigenous peoples to emerge from
impoverishment and to development economically
while still maintaining their traditional cultures and
livelihoods. Article 20, for example, reserves the right
for indigenous peoples to have security in whatever
means of subsistence and development they choose.
Article 23 explicitly protects the right to development
for indigenous peoples and reads:
“Indigenous peoples have the right
to determine and develop priorities
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