Paper short abstract:

When indigenous peoples began in the 1970s to acquire the right to participate in decision-making concerning them, outcomes in law, rights and development began to change dramatically.

Paper long abstract:

Historically indigenous peoples have always been subject to conquest and subjugation, with no right to take part in deciding their own futures. This was given legal justification by the Papal Bull of 1065 that declared lands occupied by non-Christians to be 'Terra Nullius', i.e., occupied by people with no rights. This led to European colonization and subjugation of indigenous territories with the earlier inhabitants often not recognized as having any rights whatsoever. When the League of Nations was established in 1919, no recognition was given to the rights of colonial peoples. However, the International Labour Organization (ILO), established at the same time, began in the 1930s to adopt a series of international Conventions that began to recognize rights for so-called 'Native populations'. The ILO continued this work after World War II with the adoption of other international standards concerning indigenous populations, and development programmes aimed at them. However, all this was done with a 'top down' approach, imposing the views of non-indigenous decision-makers on their conditions of life and work. Only in the 1970s did indigenous peoples begin to organize at the international level and to express their hopes and desires. Once they did, outcomes began to change dramatically, and today indigenous rights and development, with their participation, are a major focus of both national and international protection and development. This paper explores how that happened, and what has changed.