The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

On 13 September, 2007 the General Assembly of the United Nations, with an overwhelming majority of votes, adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration was over 22 years in the making. Its purpose, as described by the UN, is to set an important standard for the treatment of indigenous peoples and to act as a significant tool in eliminating human rights violations against the planet's over 350 million indigenous people, while assisting them in combating discrimination and marginalisation. Only four countries voted against it: the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. In 2009, the Australian government decided to endorse this landmark Declaration. Michel Streich's simple yet…