ABSTRACT
The evolution of environmental law and the development of human rights represent the gradual erosion of the so-called exclusive national jurisdiction. Both international environmental rights and international indigenous rights were developed as a response from the international legal community to the nations’ inefficiencies in dealing with those issues. (Kastrup, 1997)
Throughout this work, the multiple conflicts between indigenous peoples’ rights and the environmental degradation to which they are exposed have emerged as a major source of global disagreement. In 1993, the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights issued a declaration1 in partial response to the ongoing discrimination against aboriginal peoples. The main aspect of such discrimination is the lack of environmental protection of their territories (Kastrup, 1997). Governments from the Americas to Australia and New Zealand have not been doing enough, hence the need for an international focus to bring about change.
