'Indigenous peoples are adequately protected by the international Essay

'Indigenous peoples are adequately protected by the international human rights law framework'. Discuss - Essay Example They are now minorities but they still have their ancestral territories and their ethnic identity as the basis of their continued existence as people. They live in accordance with their cultural mould, social institutions and legal systems. They are considered to be the caretakers of the most various biologically territories in the world. World’s linguistic and cultural diversity all originated from them and their traditional knowledge has been the source of invaluable benefits of mankind (United Nations 2009). To date, there are about three hundred ninety million indigenous people in ninety countries. However, indigenous peoples continue to endure racial discrimination, they are greatly marginalized and live in extreme poverty and usually conflict. The situation of the indigenous people in different parts of the world continues to be problematic. Systematic discrimination ranging from political and economic power continues to burden their peaceful way of existence. They are o ften victimized by invasion of their ancestral lands destroying their livelihood. Worse, they have been victimised by development aggression. In most less developed countries, they are being uprooted from their communities to pave the way for development such as mining activities. Not only that governments have abandoned them, but most of the time, governments work in connivance with big foreign capitalists to invade and take over to their ancestral lands. They have fallen victims of wars, militarisations which have led to massive displacement. The indigenous peoples depend on land for their lives, culture and identity. They live in a system that the whole community lord over the lands, territories and natural resources and that they only manage them. However, since the period of colonisation, the indigenous peoples have been constricted, deprived and driven away from their lands. In extreme cases, they have even been completely extinct or assimilated. Their belief systems, cultures , languages and ways of life are usually either being ridiculed, threatened or extricate. Rape and sexual humiliations, especially in times of armed conflict had afflicted to women for ethnic cleansing and demoralization of tribal communities. Indigenous women are particularly at risk to sexual violence. Access to the right to education has been has been a perennial problem. And to some ho can have the access to education, the prevailing culture within the educational institutions is oftentimes harsh ethnic and cultural differences. It has caused poor performance and higher dropout rates. Thus, the sector of the indigenous people was pushed back lower and lower to extreme level of poverty and hunger. International Human Rights Law, hereafter referred to as IHRL has recognized these threats, these serious problems and have provided various and different forms of solution in protecting and preserving the indigenous people. But are these enough to say that IHRL do protect the plight of the indigenous people? Can they truly guarantee protection, from the truest sense of the word, to the