The following is an excerpt from the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs' report The Indigenous World 2011:

In 2009″ the UN Human Rights Council asked the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) to carry out a study on indigenous peoples and the right to participate in decision-making” to be completed by 2011. The EMRIP submitted a progress report to the Human Rights Council in September 2010. This report shows that indigenous peoples’ participation in decision-making and the right to free” prior and informed consent are at the core of indigenous peoples’ rights and this is strongly reflected in the articles of The Indigenous World 2011. As the report states:

Indeed” indigenous participation in decision-making on the full spectrum of matters that affect their lives forms the fundamental basis for the enjoyment of the full range of human rights. This principle is a corollary of a myriad of universally accepted human rights” and at its core enables indigenous peoples to be freely in control of their own destinies in conditions of equality. Without this foundational right” indigenous peoples’ human rights” both collective and individual” cannot be enjoyed.

Let us start with some of the positive developments of 2010…

Read the report in its entirety here.