Indigenous Human Rights: Environmental

Abstract
Climate change poses a severe threat to the future of humanity, and this threat is even more
serious for Indigenous communities. Ironicallyand unjustlythe people who are least to
blame for global warming will suffer the most, and the soonest; many communities of
Indigenous peoples could be extinct by the year 2050. Furthermore, the environment is
deeply woven into cultural and social roles of Indigenous peoples, so even surviving
communities will be grievously impacted. Sea levels are rising, global precipitation and
temperature levels are fluctuating, and sea ice is melting. Earths flora and fauna are less
fertile, less diverse, and this trend is likely to rise as the frequency of floods, droughts, and
the violent weather continues to increase. Hunting and fishing areas will shrink, livelihoods
will be lost, the disease will spread, and Indigenous peoples will be forced to relocateor
perish. If allowed to, Indigenous peoples can aid the Earth by aiding themselves. From an
environmental standpoint, Indigenous knowledge and practices have always been far ahead of
their times. As global citizens, all of the humanity would be wise to support, promote, and
fight for the enforcement of Indigenous Human rights; doing so would increase the likelihood
of the survival of our species, our cultures, and our standards of living.

Introduction
There is a change that is occurring in the manner that the indigenous people rights and ideas
are influencing the international laws on the environment. The international environmental
laws have been stating centered for a long time and have not been concerned with the rights
or the roles played by the indigenous people about the environmental issues. In the recent
past, there have been debates arguing about the central issues to the indigenous people. These
discussions have started with the art of self-determination including considering the ancestral
land tenure fishing activities, control, and management of resources and sharing of the
benefits of the resources among other aspects. In most major cases, the discussions have been
framed in the contexts of the human rights and the justice of the environment that can apply
to many aboriginal issues. The elementary shifts in the international laws on the environment
have been traced in relations to the roles that the indigenous people are playing at both the
regional, state and local levels. The shift is seen as the creation of new shared desires
regarding the legal status and the rights of the indigenous people. In this paper, the research is
determined to trace the elementary shift in the international laws on the environment that
relates to the roles of the aboriginals at the global, regional and state levels.
Culture and indigenous interest
The role of culture is to meet the needs of the humans, contribute to the social sustainability
and is as well deemed an essential to the well-being of the human beings. Culture has at one
point been described as the complex nature that includes the knowledge, arts and moral laws
that are acquired by human beings as members of the society. In the current day, culture seen

as a set of rules that results in behavior when acted upon by the members of the society and
the behavior is seen to fall in a range considered proper and acceptable y the members. The
members of a particular society then are seen sharing the values and gives rise to varied
interpretations of the surrounding world as they shape the responses and the behaviors that
are found acceptable by the society. In a case where the culture is outnumbered or has been
marginalized by another, there can arise problems even where the non-dominant cultures
exist within the democratic state. Where the democracy is dependent on the majority rule, the
dominant cultures are seen to possess the power to consistently overrule the wishes by the
dominant culture. If the interests of the indigenous people are falling on deaf ears, and the
opinions by the predominant culture always take the lead, their rights are then termed
insecure. Commentators have always noted that the indigenous people experience the
obstructive influence of the majority and in most cases, it is when they try to engage in the
development strategies of ethnicity that may be culturally incoherent to the dominant
societies or is threatening to the legal sovereignty of the countries they live.
Indigenous people and their rights
Before examining the rights of the indigenous people and the aspirations in relations to the
international laws on the environment, there are certain aspects that are considered necessary
to note. One, it is important to know the beneficiaries of the rights and aspirations as well as
the holders. Two, it is also good to know the fundamental attributes that might emerge from
the recognition of the rights and aspirations of the indigenous people. However, there are no
definite answers to such questions and the international organizations, and the fora have been
a struggle with these questions for long and have not come up with any resolutions.
The beneficiaries
The perfect place that one can begin with is the nomenclature. In this context, the
international community seems to be converging on the term indigenous people to be able to
define the beneficiaries. However, it is important to note that the some of the international
agreements and institutions are using the other terms as aboriginal people or the tribal people.
Aboriginal people have been described as the first people, and other states use the term
Native Americans or first nations. In a definition, the indigenous people could be the
communities, people, and nations that have been in the pre-invasion and the pre-colonial
societies who developed on their land. They consider themselves different from the other
sectors of the societies that are currently dominating on their territories or even if it is only a
part of them. They presently are the ones forming the non-dominant sectors of the society and
they are dedicated to preserving and develop and also to transmit to the coming generations
their ancestral territories and also their ethnic identity as the basis of their existence as a
people that has been continued in relations to the own cultural patterns, the social institutions,
and the legal systems. There has been an emphasis on the element of distinctiveness that can
be another trait of the tribal and the indigenous people. Emphasis has as well been made of
the elements of invasion and colonialism that the international law is using to set the
distinction between the tribal and the indigenous people. Researchers have considered the
continuity and the non-dominance, the traditional lands and the self-identification as part of

the important determinants. The people falling in the contexts defined as the indigenous
people can be juxtaposed against communities that are known as the local and traditional
communities. Such communities may be indigenous, and like all the other indigenous people,
they might be having connections with certain lands. Their use of the lands and their kind of
life has been tied to the cultural traditions that they hold that sets the difference between them
and the dominant societies in their countries.
In the context of the Asians, the local communities are viewed as a focal point and not the
favoring indigenous or tribal concepts. The term has been proven difficult to define, and its
emphasis on the social structure does not always mesh well with the dynamics of the society,
cultures and political forms of the groups that fall in the active international indigenous
people movement. However, it appears that if the indigenous is expanded to also include the
local communities within the ambit of the international laws on the environment has been
associated with certain controversies in other contexts. The terms indigenous and minorities
have been contrasted and have allowed more insights. Minorities can in a way be described as
follows. A group of citizens in a country that forms the lowest population and has a nondominant position in the country. They have been endowed with the ethnic, religious and
linguistic traits that are different from the ones of the majority population. They are a group
that has a sense of unity and are always motivated by a shared will to survive, and they claim
to have an aim of achieving equality with the majority in the factual contexts and in
conforming to the law. While concentrating on the whole issue, the meaning of the
indigenous people has been related to certain four factors to determine their legitimacy to be
referred to as indigenous;
Priority in time while considering the occupation and use of certain boundaries.
The willing perpetuation of the cultural distinctiveness that can be inclusive of the
elements of language, social setting, religion and religious codes, production modes
and laws and institutions.
Self-identification and reconciliation by groups or statutes authorities that may
include a collective district
An experience of subjugation, marginalization or discrimination regardless of whether
the conditions persist.
The seriousness and the relevance that has been assigned to any of these factors have been
seen to be dependent on the relationship between the colonizers and the indigenous people
and also that that exists between the aboriginal people themselves. The members of the
developing world have been displaying familiarity with the settler model that was adopted in
the colonies.
Core Rights, Attributes, Issues, and Conflicts
Considering that there has been a better understanding of the intended beneficiaries of the
international indigenous policies, one can be able to examine the scope of the rights of the

indigenous. There are certain core issues that are considered; rights of self-identification, selfdetermination, collective rights, land, culture and resource rights. There are recent
international instruments that have been touching on the rights of the indigenous to selfdetermination. Sometime in 1966, an international convention on the social economic and
cultural rights declared that everyone had the right to self-determination. By the right, the
people were said to be free to determine the political status they held, and they were as well
free to go after their development regarding economic, social and political contexts. In the
same line, the international convention of 1966 that dwelled on the civil and political rights
declared that the states should never deny any minorities the right with the other members of
their kind to be able to enjoy their culture.
Indigenous Health and Climate Change
The indigenous population has been termed to be the most vulnerable to the climatic changes.
People have had different experiences, understanding and responses to the climate-related
health results and they usually overlook the no climatic determinants. Research has been done
focusing majorly on Australia and the Arctic, and they have displayed important capacities
that are associated with active responses the health risks that are related to climatic issues.
Further, there are also climatic responses that majors and talks a lot about the land
dispossession, poverty, and globalization that has been associated with some socio-cultural
transitions that challenge the adaptability. Research has proven that the global climate is
changing and will continue to change. That has only been the beginning of the examination of
the potential implications on the health, and it is indicating that there is a significant
vulnerability. The main risks include the exposure to the infectious diseases, exacerbated
waters, and food insecurity among other factors. The population has different vulnerabilities
to the possible impacts at global and domestic levels. The people standing at higher risks are
the ones that already have higher loads of ill health, sensitive to health issues caused by
climatic changes, living in nations with limited technological capacities and those with higher
poverty rates among others.
Indigenous people have been seen to be the ones with higher vulnerability to the global
disclosure on climatic change since their habitats in the regions facing rapid change and
inappropriateness in morbidity and mortality faced by certain groups. However, the
understanding that people have regarding the main dimensions of the climatic change for the
indigenous population at the global level is too limited. There has been researching that has
noted the way focused content on the indigenous people have been overlooked in reports of
the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) and in the policy discussions that is
surrounding the United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC). In the
cases where the issues concerning the aboriginals have been captured, the tribal ways of
understanding the information on the interactions between the climate and the society that is
embedded in the myths, traditions, and even observations appear to have been marginalized.
Thus, the later has been described as the civic epistemology of the universal change in
climate that gives priority to the positivist discipline at the expense of the interpretative and
as a result, creating knowledge that is retrieved from the local context. Consequently, the
aboriginals have come to be seen as the powerless victims of the climate change. Contrasting

the global farming of the climate change disclosure for the Native Americans, there has been
a rise in the diverse body of scholarship that is assessing the vulnerability and how adaptable
to climate changes at a local level with many studies focusing on health. In such cases,
research studies have majorly focused on certain places, people, and cultures, although this
work can be helpful in identifying some wide trends in the understanding.
Status and Limits of Current Understanding
Most Aboriginal people are believed to have faced unique exposures and sensitivities to the
changes in climate, a function of close relationship with the land and the dependence on it
also, sea and other natural occurring resources in the places that experience rapid climatic and
socioeconomic change. Such factors are prone to causing risk profiles that differ from the
non-native populations as well as among the aboriginal groups. Understanding specific traits
of exposures related to climate change and sensitivities has been seen to be greatest in the
Arctic and Australia. In the Arctic, there are many climate-related health issues that have been
propagated through the traditional food cultures and that have significant importance for the
many indigenous populations globally. There has also been strong empirical knowledge on
the links for the Inuit and Alaska natives where the sea ice has been changing and have been
constraining the food access with the implications for the nutrition and the cultural nature.
Warming temperatures have been seen to have the ability to impact the infectious illness that
is associated with the storage and preparation of the traditional foods. There are health risks
documented that are facing the aboriginal populations in Australia as a result of the difference
climatic changes that are also associated with occupation in high-risk areas that there exist a
baseline idea of how the climate transition occurs.
The sensitivity to the climate-related outcomes has as well been determined by the
organizational of health systems, the current weight that the ill health is carrying and the
material conditions and behavioral factors i.e. the social factors that determine health. There
are some generalizations that have been derived from many existing scholarships across
various regions and populations.
The first is the traditional approach to the conceptualization of health that has since remain
the center for most indigenous populations and has been based on the ideological substratum
concepts, ideas and is also based on the interpersonal and environmental relationship. The
scope of the climate change to impact on the health is thus wide than altering the incidence
and prevalence of the disease with the potential for the range of indirect influences most of
which are bound to be associated with sociocultural well-being. There have also been
Western approaches that are significantly important in the health systems of the aboriginals
and have been credited with an increase in life expectancy. Depending on the location and
historical relationships with the countries the health system components may be exhibiting
complementary and competitive relationships. The barriers to accessing the allopathic health
may widely be noted across various regions, financial functions, geographic and cultural
barriers that include history of the oppression via the medical systems for certain groups.
Such challenges are seen to come with implications for informing the indigenous people
about the risk avoidance and preventing activities in light of the changing climate.

Secondly, the disadvantages regarding the social and economic contexts are evident in the
continuation of persistent poverty rates that are equally high as well as the burden of the ill
health for the many indigenous populations and the access to the education and employment
that are also below one of the non-aboriginal people. The conditions are said to increase the
sensitivity to the climate relate health issues through some pathways that include forcing
people to reside in suboptimal conditions, engage in hazardous activities, and also live in high
risk and involve in unethical behaviors. For the Aboriginal people residing in Canada, and
Australia, there have been observed the issue of house overcrowding. The issue has been said
to be the factor posing an increase in the risk of the communicable diseases and also favors
the transmission of respiratory illness. These are the health outcomes that are possibly
affected by the projected warming temperatures. The proper regions of the world have the
possibilities to infer important sensitivities to the climate change as the pronounced health
inequality among the natives. It is despite the fact that there lacks a specific population data.
This is seen to experience the higher rates of mortality of infants, deficiency in nutrition, and
also increased rates of infectious and parasitic disease globally.
Living Marine and Terrestrial Resources: Indigenous People, Animals, and Climate
Animal, food, and survival
The indigenous people of the arctic have subsisted for many years from environmental
resources. In the current day, the indigenous people in the Arctic are still seen to depend on
the harvesting and using terrestrial, marine and fresh waters sources. In a few decades ago,
the aboriginals have demanded the right to be involved in policy making process concerning
the matters that affect their lives and land. In response to the rapid social change and threats,
to the arctic environment, the demands for the land claims and self-government has been
based on the historical and cultural rights to land and resources. The species that is most
commonly harvested by the indigenous population of the Arctic are the marine mammals and
land mammals as well as fish. Most of these species re used for food, clothing and for
economical purposes. The aboriginals have also collected eggs and hunted. There are studies
on harvesting that have been conducted in the Arctic and the sub-arctic, especially in Alaska
and Canada. The huge range and diversity of plant and animals that have been used by the
indigenous people for food have been illustrated by recent data from a recent survey from the
Canadian Arctic and has been summarized in the reports of the Arctic Monitoring And
Assessment Program (AMAP). According to the report, the harvest in the north territories I
has been estimated to be almost 5 million kilograms every year. The report also displays the
high resilience rates on the subsistence production in the entire northern Canada. The
traditional diets of the indigenous people in the northern parts of Canada appear to be more
balanced than that of the southern people of Canada. These are said to have more sugar levels
and has saturated fats. The traditional country foods are regarded as the most economical by
the aboriginals that the ones purchased from the stores. The latter is more important in the
communities where there are no many people employed, or there are low-income rates below
the poverty lines. The traditional foods are as well important as they reinforce the social
relationship that is deemed central to the culture and their economy.

Animals and cultural identity

Successful harvesting of the species that are used by the aboriginals for the different purposes
has been seen to need special knowledge of the behaviors of the animals and fish. There is
also need to understand the terrestrial conditions and the weather of the Arctic. The
knowledge of the indigenous people in the Arctic is widely recognized. They have detailed
and complex systems of classification and knowledge in the world that has been developed
and enhanced by long-term experiences and general transmission. The knowledge has helped
the aboriginal nation to exploit the productive ecosystems effectively in the region for many
years and has also provided them with a foundation for the economic, cultural and spiritual
concerns that has been guiding then in the use and management of the natural occurring
resources. The living resources that reside in the Arctic have offered sustainability to the
indigenous people aside from providing them with the fundamental basis for the social
identity, cultural survival and spiritual life. The dependence on the animal for food
consumption and economic well-being can be seen in the hunting regulations and the herding
practices as well as in the pattern of the sharing and gift-giving that is based on the kinship
ties and other forms of close social relationships.
In the Arctic, the art of sharing and distributing the meat and fish is based on the daily social
life and is also expressing the social relationships aside from sustaining them. Harvesting and
the processing seen in the process and sharing arts is a sign for reaffirming the elementary
values and attitudes towards the animals and environment. It is also seen to provide a moral
foundation for the continuity between different generations in the lineage. The expression of
the relationships between the humans and the animals has been evidently displayed in the
first-catch celebrations. Boys are usually taken for hunting at an early stage with their fathers
who in the process teach them the hunting skills and gives them the knowledge that is needed
for one to become a successful hunter.
Place, Environment, and Climate
The arctic is usually known to be one of the last wilderness that is remaining on earth. This
has ignored the long known fact that the Arctic has been home for the indigenous people. The
names that the aboriginal people have given to the natural occurring features cannot be
described geographically. The names are multidimensional