History of the Rights to Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples under International Law

Article 3 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognizes the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples. Prior to this international law recognition, the indigenous peoples have gone through various obstacles. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to describe the history and development of the right to self-determination of the indigenous peoples in international law. This research uses socio-legal methodology. For clarity, this article is divided into four parts. In the first part, this paper explains the definition and status of the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples under international law. In the second part, the article clarifies the history of the rights to self-determination by referring to the rights of peoples. The third part describes the development of the right to self-determination of the indigenous peoples until it received the recognition under international law. Discussions on the development of the right to self-determination include efforts undertaken at the Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) and the Working Group on the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (WGDD). The article concludes in part four that the recognition of the rights to self-determination is vital to ensure the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples within any States is compatible to the international law standards and thus assists States in meeting international law obligations.