9 August - International Day of Indigenous Peoples

These returnee indigenous women show the traditional clothes they propose to make for sale. La Esmeralda, near Dolores, Peten © UNHCR/B. Press.

The United Nations declared the decade 1994-2004 the International Decade of the Worlds' Indigenous Peoples. The International Day of Indigenous Peoples is 9 August every year.

"The world's population of indigenous people now numbers some 350 million individuals representing over 5,000 languages and cultures in more than 70 countries on every continent. Many live on the fringes of society, in sometimes precarious and impoverished conditions. Their material, environmental and spiritual situations, together with their world-views and intimate relationship with the land and natural resources, are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of globalization. The resulting instability, aggravated by dispossession from their land and natural resources, has disrupted the handing down of their cultural heritage from one generation to the next."
UNESCO, "International Decade of the World's Indigenous People"

General Resources

• Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, International Labour Organization
• Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UNHCR
• Indigenous Peoples Main Page, UNESCO
• Reports on Indigenous People, UNHCHR
• United Nations Human Rights Documents, UNHCHR

Web Resources

• Aboriginal Planet
• Being Indigenous, Chilean Indigenous Peoples Project
• Center for World Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Studies Virtual Library
• Cultural Survival
• Development Gateway
• GeoNative: native peoples and placenames
• Indigenous Peoples and the Law
• NativeWeb

Publications (see FMO Digital Library for more)

• Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) thematic guide, Rights of Indigenous People
• Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES), Boletínes y publicaciones
• IK Notes, "Indigenous Healing of War-Affected Indigenous Children in Africa," July 1999
• Indigenous People's Seattle Declaration, WTO meeting 1999
• Indigenous Knowledge and Devlopment Monitor ; Indigenous Knowledge WorldWide
• International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Indigenous Affairs
• Kluwer Law International, International Journal on Minority and Group Rights
• Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), PAHO Agreement to Improve Sanitary Conditions in Indigenous Communities, Washington, DC, 16 July 2003 ; Health of Indigenous Peoples ; Newsletter for Indigenous People
• Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), The Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation
• University of Toronto, Canada, Indigenous Law Journal

Related Organizations (see FMO Organisations directory for more)

Global

• Center for World Indigenous Studies
• Cultural Survival
• Indigenous People's Center for Documentation, Research and Information
• International Alliance of the Indigenous-Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests / Alianza Mundial de los Pueblos Indigenas-Tribales de los Bosques Tropicales
• International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
• Nederlands Centrum voor Inheemse Volken / Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples
• Survival International

Regional

• The Cultural Conservancy
• Defensoría Maya
• Etnias de Colombia
• Fundación Rigoberta Menchú Tum
• International Alliance of the Indigenous-Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests / Alianza Mundial de los Pueblos Indigenas-Tribales de los Bosques Tropicales
• International Indian Treaty Council
• Native Law Centre of Canada, University of Saskatchewan
• Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia
• Saqb'ichil Copmagua, La Coordinación de Organizaciones del Pueblo Maya de Guatemala / Mayan Peoples' Organisations of Gautemala