United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Article 1
Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals, of all
human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.
Article 2
Indigenous peoples and individuals are free and equal to all other peoples and individuals and
have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of their rights, in
particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity.
Article 3
Indigenous peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely
determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural
development.
Article 4
Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy o
self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means
for financing their autonomous functions.
Article 5
Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal,
economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their rights to participate fully, if they so
choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.
Article 6
Every indigenous individual has the right to a nationality.
Article 7
1. Indigenous individuals have the rights to life, physical and mental integrity, liberty and security
of person.
2. Indigenous peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct
peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence, including
forcibly removing children of the group to another group.
Article 8
1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation
or destruction of their culture.
2. States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for:
Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, o
of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, te
itories o
esources;
Any form of forced population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining
any of their rights;
Any form of forced assimilation or integration;
Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed
against them.
Article 9
Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right to belong to an indigenous community o
nation, in accordance with the traditions and customs of the community or nation concerned. No
discrimination of any kind may arise from the exercise of such a right.
Article 10
Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or te
itories. No relocation
shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples
concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the
option of return.
Article 11
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and
customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future
manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artefacts, designs,
ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature.
2. States shall provide redress through effective mechanisms, which may include restitution,
developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual,
eligious and spiritual property taken without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation
of their laws, traditions and customs.
Article 12
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and
eligious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in
privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of their ceremonial
objects; and the right to the repatriation of their human remains.
2. States shall seek to enable the access and/or repatriation of ceremonial objects and human
emains in their possession through fair, transparent and effective mechanisms developed in
conjunction with indigenous peoples concerned.
Article 13
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future
generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and
literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.
2. States shall take effective measures to ensure this right is protected and also to ensure that
indigenous peoples can understand and be understood in political, legal and administrative
proceedings, where necessary through the provision of interpretation or by other appropriate
means.
Article 14
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and
institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural
methods of teaching and learning.
2. Indigenous individuals, particularly children, have the right to all levels and forms of education
of the State without discrimination.
3. States shall, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, take effective measures, in order fo
indigenous individuals, particularly children, including those living outside their communities, to
have access, when possible, to an education in their own culture and provided in their own
language.
Article 15
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions,
histories and aspirations which shall be appropriately reflected in education and public
information.
2. States shall take effective measures, in consultation and cooperation with the indigenous
peoples concerned, to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination and to promote tolerance,
understanding and good relations among indigenous peoples and all other segments of society.
Article 16
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to establish their own media in their own languages and to
have access to all forms of non-indigenous media without discrimination.
2. States shall take effective measures to ensure that State-owned media duly reflect
indigenous cultural diversity. States, without prejudice to ensuring full freedom of expression,
should encourage privately-owned media to adequately reflect indigenous cultural diversity.
Article 17
1. Indigenous individuals and peoples have the right to enjoy fully all rights established unde
applicable international and domestic labour law.
2. States shall in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples take specific measures
to protect indigenous children from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is
likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s
health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, taking into account thei
special vulnerability and the importance of education for their empowerment.
3. Indigenous individuals have the right not to be subjected to any discriminatory conditions of
labour and, inter alia, employment or salary.
Article 18
Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would
affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own
procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision-making
institutions.
Article 19
States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through
their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent
efore adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.
Article 20
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social
systems or institutions, to be secure in the enjoyment of their own means of subsistence and
development, and to engage freely in all their traditional and other economic activities.
2. Indigenous peoples deprived of their means of subsistence and development are entitled to
just and fair redress.
Article 21
1. Indigenous peoples have the right, without discrimination, to the improvement of thei
economic and social conditions, including, inter alia, in the areas of education, employment,
vocational training and retraining, housing, sanitation, health and social security.
2. States shall take effective measures and, where appropriate, special measures to ensure
continuing improvement of their economic and social conditions. Particular attention shall be
paid to the rights and special needs of indigenous elders, women, youth, children and persons
with disabilities.
Article 22
1. Particular attention shall be paid to the rights and special needs of indigenous elders, women,
youth, children and persons with disabilities in the implementation of this Declaration.
2. States shall take measures, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, to ensure that indigenous
women and children enjoy the full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence and
discrimination.
Article 23
Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies fo
exercising their right to development. In particular, indigenous peoples have the right to be
actively involved in developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social
programmes affecting them and, as far as possible, to administer such programmes through
their own institutions.
Article 24
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health
practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals.
Indigenous individuals also have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all social and
health services.
2. Indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health. States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving
progressively the full realization of this right.
Article 25
Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual
elationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, te
itories,
waters and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future
generations in this regard.
Article 26
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, te
itories and resources which they have
traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.
2. Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, te
itories and
esources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation o
use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.
3. States shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, te
itories and resources.
Such recognition shall be conducted with due respect to the customs, traditions and land tenure
systems of the indigenous peoples concerned.
Article 27
States shall establish and implement, in conjunction with indigenous peoples concerned, a fair,
independent, impartial, open and transparent process, giving due recognition to indigenous
peoples’ laws, traditions, customs and land tenure systems, to recognize and adjudicate the
ights of indigenous peoples pertaining to their lands, te
itories and resources, including those
which were traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used. Indigenous peoples shall have
the right to participate in this process.
Article 28
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to redress, by means that can include restitution or, when
this is not possible, of a just, fair and equitable compensation, for the lands, te
itories and
esources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have
een confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior and informed
consent.
2. Unless otherwise freely agreed upon by the peoples concerned, compensation shall take the
form of lands, te
itories and resources equal in quality, size and legal status or of monetary
compensation or other appropriate redress.
Article 29
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the conservation and protection of the environment and
the productive capacity of their lands or te
itories and resources. States shall establish and
implement assistance programmes for indigenous peoples for such conservation and protection,
without discrimination.
2. States shall take effective measures to ensure that no storage or disposal of hazardous
materials shall take place in the lands or te
itories of indigenous peoples without their free, prio
and informed consent.
3. States shall also take effective measures to ensure, as needed, that programmes fo
monitoring, maintaining and restoring the health of indigenous peoples, as developed and
implemented by the peoples affected by such materials, are duly implemented.
Article 30
1. Military activities shall not take place in the lands or te
itories of indigenous
peoples, unless justified by a relevant public interest or otherwise freely agreed with o
equested by the indigenous peoples concerned.
2. States shall undertake effective consultations with the indigenous peoples concerned,
through appropriate procedures and in particular through their representative institutions, prio
to using their lands or te
itories for military activities.
Article 31
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural
heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the
manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic
esources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions,
literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also
have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such
cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.
2. In conjunction with indigenous peoples, States shall take effective measures to recognize and
protect the exercise of these rights.
Article 32
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the
development or use of their lands or te
itories and other resources.
2. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned
through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent
prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or te
itories and other resources,