What are Indigenous rights?

These individual and collective Indigenous rights are set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). UNDRIP establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of Indigenous peoples around the world. UNDRIP sets out how universal human rights and fundamental freedoms apply to the distinct experiences of Indigenous peoples across the world. It includes the rights of Indigenous peoples to:

• Self-determination: the right to shape their own lives, including their economic, social, cultural, and political futures (Article 3). This is a central right of UNDRIP, and all other Indigenous rights in the Declaration help to achieve self-determination. Learn more about this in the ‘self-determination and Indigenous peoples’ section of this document.
• Autonomy and self-government: the right to decide how to develop politically, economically, and socially (Article 4).
• Indigenous decision-making institutions: the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social, and cultural institutions (Article 5).
• Culture: the right to practise and revitalise their cultural traditions and customs, including to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures (Article 11).
• Language: the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning (Article 14).
• Participation and representation: the right to participate in decision-making in matters that affect their rights, and through representatives they choose (Article 18).
• Consultation with government: the right to be consulted through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them (Article 19).
• Determining future priorities: the right to be actively involved in developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social programs affecting them (Article 23).
• Land: the right to legal recognition and protection of the lands, territories, waters, coastal seas, and resources that they have traditionally owned or occupied (Article 26).

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) specifically requires that Governments around the world ‘in consultation and cooperation with Indigenous peoples, shall take the appropriate measures, including legislative measures, to achieve the ends of this Declaration’. Australia endorsed UNDRIP in 2009. While Australia has long acknowledged the importance of Indigenous rights both in Australia and in international processes, our national government has not yet put in place legal protections for all of the Indigenous rights referred to in the UNDRIP and has therefore not yet fully implemented the requirements of the Declaration. The 2023 referendum is asking the Australian people whether they agree to establishing an Indigenous Voice to Parliament as a potential way to make these rights a reality.

How are Indigenous rights different from human rights for everyone?

Everyone is entitled to the full realisation and protection of human rights as set out in international human rights treaties. This applies to Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous people alike. Foundational among these human rights principles, and captured in Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is the right to be treated equally before the law and to non-discrimination. While this may sound simple, ensuring that people are treated equally has proven a challenge the world over. For this reason, many governments in the world have also agreed to human rights treaties for particular groups of people that set out how universal human rights standards apply to them. This is to ensure that everyone can fully enjoy their human rights – as women, as children, on the basis of their race, as persons with disability and as Indigenous peoples, for example. Human rights principles that relate to Indigenous peoples (or Indigenous rights) set out minimum standards to ensure that Indigenous peoples can equally enjoy human rights alongside everyone else.

History shows that Indigenous peoples around the world have not equally enjoyed human rights. The UNDRIP acknowledges that recognising the distinct cultural characteristics of Indigenous peoples and the impact of their historical treatment is critical if we are to achieve equal enjoyment of human rights between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Indigenous rights are not additional or special rights for Indigenous peoples. Instead, they show what factors should be recognised so that universal human rights standards can be fully realised for Indigenous peoples. As an example, UNDRIP sets out the importance of recognising Indigenous cultures and languages so that Indigenous peoples can equally enjoy the right to education.