Last updated 28 July 2009

There are an estimated 370 million indigenous people worldwide who live in 70 different countries, according to the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues.  The UN has not adopted an official definition of the term “indigenous.”  The International Labor Organization Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (Convention 169) gives this description for the people it protects:

“(a) tribal peoples in independent countries whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community, and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations;

“(b) peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions.”

The Convention also states that, “self-identification as indigenous or tribal shall be regarded as a fundamental criterion” for determining the indigenous status of a person or group. 

The UN Declaration on the Elmination of Violence Against Women recognizes “that violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men.”  Violence against indigenous women perpetuates not only a marginalized status for women: it is also a means of continuing the oppression of indigenous people.

Indigenous women face both ethnic- and gender-based discrimination and violence, often at the same time.  With colonization, indigenous peoples have been subject to many forms of violence, including displacement, forced assimilation, slavery, and genocide.  The International Fund for Agricultural Development reports that indigenous peoples today have higher rates of illiteracy, malnutrition, displacement, and poor health care access than non-indigenous peoples, and although they make up only 5% of the world’s population, 15% of the world’s poor are indigenous.  Because indigenous women are marginalized in this way, violence against indigenous women may have unique causes, consequences, and challenges. 

Double Discrimination, a report prepared by Rights and Democracy, describes how these intersecting inequalities can result in different kinds of violence against indigenous women: violations of indigenous communities’ rights can increase violence against indigenous women; violence against indigenous women can be made worse by their marginalized status as indigenous; and violence can be targeted at indigenous women because they are both female and indigenous.  In a woman’s experience, each of these kinds of violence may be so interrelated that they are indistinguishable.

International conventions on women’s rights and conventions on indigenous rights, in combination, protect the human rights of indigenous women.  United Nations conventions and declarations on the rights of women include the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.  Indigenous peoples’ rights are protected by the International Labor Organization Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention and further outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. 

Compiled from:
“History,” UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (Accessed 16 July 2009).
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, International Labor Organization (1989).
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, United Nations (1993).
“Statistics and Key Facts about Indigenous People,” International Fund for Agricultural Development (Accessed 16 July 2009).
Double Discrimination, Rights and Democracy (2006).
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, United Nations (1979).
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, United Nations (1993).
Beijing Declaration, United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (1995).
Beijing Platform for Action, United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (1995).
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations (2007)