Indigenous peoples have become more visible in the last 50 years, largely due to efforts from within their own communities and organizations. However, it has not been easy for the international community to create legal instruments that would guarantee their autonomy, cultural integrity, protection of their special needs… in general to guarantee their rights. Indigenous peoples are the inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to other people and to the environment. Indigenous peoples have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Despite their cultural differences, the various groups of indigenous peoples around the world share common problems related to the protection of their rights as distinct peoples.
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Greenland, the world’s biggest island could become the first independent country of indigenous people in modern times, if the current search for oil in its territorial waters bears fruit. 
There are over 370 million indigenous people in some 90 countries, living in all regions of the world. The Sami are the indigenous people living in the very north of Europe, in Sápmi, which stretches across the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula. They are a minority in today’s Finland, Russia, Sweden and Norway, but a majority in the innermost parts of Finnmark county in Norway and in the municipality of Utsjoki in Finland. However, although regarded as one people, there are several kinds of Sami based on their patterns of settlement and how they sustain themselves. Furthermore, their rights and general situation differ considerably depending on the nation state within which they live.
Although the term is gaining acceptance, the use of Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian context can be misleading, as it masks their quite intricate and heavily codified status in Canada. Indian collectively describes all the Indigenous Peoples in Canada that are not Inuit or Métis, and can be further divided into Status, Non-Status and Treaty Indians. Only Status Indians are recognized as Indians under the Indian Act and are entitled to specific rights and benefits under the law. To make matters even more complicated, in the Constitution Act of 1982, along with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, enshrined in the Constitution, Aboriginal Peoples is used to refer to Indians, Inuit and Métis.
