Summary

In Indigenous Peoples in International Law, James Anaya explores the development and contours of international law as it concerns the world's indigenous peoples, culturally distinctive groups that are descended from the original inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. Anaya demonstrates that, while historical trends in international law largely facilitated the colonization of indigenous peoples and their lands, modern international law's human rights program has been responsive to indigenous peoples' aspirations to survive as distinct communities in control of their own destinies. Over the last several years, the international system--particularly as embodied in the United Nations and other international institutions--has exhibited a renewed and increasingly heightened focus on the concerns of indigenous peoples. Anaya discusses the resulting new generation of international treaty and customary norms, while linking the new and emergent norms with previously existing international human rights standards of general applicability. Anaya further identifies and analyzes institutions and procedures, at both the domestic and international levels, for implementing international norms concerning indigenous peoples.