176 Giulia Sajeva
direction of human rights that not only embed the planetary boundaries of the
Earth but that also strive to guide human behavior toward sustainable paths.
However, their focus on indigenous peoples may limit any potential for development. It is probably better to disentangle them from indigenous peoples,
whose rights are still widely threatened, so often disregarded, and vulnerable
to political shifts and economic interests. A possible way forward would be to
develop biocultural rights in the direction of rights to be granted in return for
environmental stewardship duties of local communities, whether they may be
farmers, urban dwellers, ecovillages, or fishermen; whether they may be in the
so-called South of the world or its North, and whether they are already holders
of other collective rights or not.
Notes
1 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No
841546. Email: giulia.sajeva@strath.ac.uk. *All URLs retrieved on 1 September
2021.
2 There are many proposed definitions. The most commonly used is the one proposed
in the Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations, commissioned by the United Nations in 1986, which underlines as the first and foremost
of characteristics necessary to identify indigenous peoples the “historical continuity
with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories” (UN
Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986/7 and Add. 1–4, para. 379).
3 The peculiar features of indigenous cultures, institutions, and traditions have also
been central in the description of indigenous peoples in the ILO Convention 169. For
a closer look at these features, see Sajeva et al. (2019, p. 10).
4 Indigenous peoples have traditionally been claiming internal self-determination,
which is aimed at asserting identities, preserving languages, cultures, and practices,
and maintaining traditional governance structures (Anaya, 1996, p. 111) rather than
at obtaining political independence from the State where they reside.
5 The use of the plural of the term people in the UNDRIP is a very important achievement because peoples are subjects of international law, and are subjects whose right to
self-determination is recognized by the UN Charter (Art. 1.3) and by the two 1966
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (Art. 1.1).
6 From now on, ILO 169.
7 Recognized also by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948), the 1966
Covenants, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (1966), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to
National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992).
8 Recognized also by the UN Declaration on the Right to Development (1986).
9 In 2011, the CBD Working Group on Article 8( j) and related provisions of the
Convention on Biological Diversity proposed a list of features a local community
could possess “reflecting its own unique cultural, ecological and social circumstances”
(p. 12), with particular focus on characteristics linked to traditional ecological knowledge, and environmental sustainability. These features very much resemble those
usually employed to describe indigenous people, with the sole (important) exclusion of the existence of links with pre-colonial societies (Convention on Biological
Diversity 2011).
direction of human rights that not only embed the planetary boundaries of the
Earth but that also strive to guide human behavior toward sustainable paths.
However, their focus on indigenous peoples may limit any potential for development. It is probably better to disentangle them from indigenous peoples,
whose rights are still widely threatened, so often disregarded, and vulnerable
to political shifts and economic interests. A possible way forward would be to
develop biocultural rights in the direction of rights to be granted in return for
environmental stewardship duties of local communities, whether they may be
farmers, urban dwellers, ecovillages, or fishermen; whether they may be in the
so-called South of the world or its North, and whether they are already holders
of other collective rights or not.
Notes
1 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No
841546. Email: giulia.sajeva@strath.ac.uk. *All URLs retrieved on 1 September
2021.
2 There are many proposed definitions. The most commonly used is the one proposed
in the Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations, commissioned by the United Nations in 1986, which underlines as the first and foremost
of characteristics necessary to identify indigenous peoples the “historical continuity
with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories” (UN
Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986/7 and Add. 1–4, para. 379).
3 The peculiar features of indigenous cultures, institutions, and traditions have also
been central in the description of indigenous peoples in the ILO Convention 169. For
a closer look at these features, see Sajeva et al. (2019, p. 10).
4 Indigenous peoples have traditionally been claiming internal self-determination,
which is aimed at asserting identities, preserving languages, cultures, and practices,
and maintaining traditional governance structures (Anaya, 1996, p. 111) rather than
at obtaining political independence from the State where they reside.
5 The use of the plural of the term people in the UNDRIP is a very important achievement because peoples are subjects of international law, and are subjects whose right to
self-determination is recognized by the UN Charter (Art. 1.3) and by the two 1966
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (Art. 1.1).
6 From now on, ILO 169.
7 Recognized also by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948), the 1966
Covenants, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (1966), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to
National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992).
8 Recognized also by the UN Declaration on the Right to Development (1986).
9 In 2011, the CBD Working Group on Article 8( j) and related provisions of the
Convention on Biological Diversity proposed a list of features a local community
could possess “reflecting its own unique cultural, ecological and social circumstances”
(p. 12), with particular focus on characteristics linked to traditional ecological knowledge, and environmental sustainability. These features very much resemble those
usually employed to describe indigenous people, with the sole (important) exclusion of the existence of links with pre-colonial societies (Convention on Biological
Diversity 2011).