Indigenous & Tribal Peoples’ Rights in Practice: A Guide to ILO Convention No. 169

In 1989, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) adopted the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (ILO Convention No. 169). Since then, the Convention has been ratified by 20 countries. In these countries, the ILO supervisory bodies have monitored and guided the implementation process through regular examination of reports and provision of comments to the concerned governments. In this context, workers’ organizations have also assisted indigenous and tribal1) peoples’ organizations to bring specific issues to the attention of the ILO supervisory bodies. Moreover, the Convention has inspired governments and indigenous peoples far beyond the ratifying countries, in their work to promote and protect indigenous peoples’ rights. The 20 years that have passed since the adoption of the Convention thus represent 20 years of efforts, dialogue and achievements in the challenging process of gradually deepening the understanding and implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/RES/61/295). The adoption was the culmination of years of discussions and negotiations between governments and indigenous peoples and is a landmark achievement, which provides the international community with a common framework for the realization of indigenous peoples’ rights. Following the adoption of the UN Declaration, there is now a general consensus that there must be a focus on implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights at the country-level to ensure that international instruments bring the necessary changes for the millions of indigenous peoples around the world, who are still living in marginalized and disadvantaged situations. Convention No. 169 and the UN Declaration are compatible and mutually reinforcing (see section 1) Convention No. 169 uses the terminology of ‘indigenous and tribal peoples’ (see section 1 for a more detailed discussion of the term). The Convention does not differentiate between the rights ascribed to the two groups. However, for practical reasons, this Guide uses the term ‘indigenous peoples’, which is also the most commonly used term and the one that is used by international instruments such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 2), although these instruments were negotiated at different time periods by different bodies and therefore diverge in some respects. However, the implementation process of the two instruments is largely the same, and experiences generated so far in the context of Convention No. 169 can thus to a certain degree serve to inspire the further efforts to implement the Declaration. The main purpose of this Guide is to provide governments, indigenous and tribal peoples and workers’ and employers’ organizations with a practical tool for the implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights, based on the experiences, good practices and lessons learned that have been generated so far. The Guide does not attempt to provide a blueprint for implementation. The diversity of situations faced by indigenous peoples does not allow for a simplistic transfer or replication of models from one country to another. Rather, the Guide is a catalogue of ideas that hopefully will be assessed, discussed and, eventually, will inspire adaptation of good practices to national and local circumstances. The Guide has been developed through collaborative efforts, thereby reflecting the multi-party and collective nature of the implementation process. The main sources of information and input for the Guide are: • Analysis and comments provided by the ILO supervisory bodies in order to guide the implementation of Convention No. 169 in ratifying countries. • A series of case studies, conducted by indigenous peoples’ organizations and researchers that document key positive experiences, achievements and impacts of the implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights. • A series of short examples of key experiences, which the reader can further study by following the links and references included in the Guide