GUIDELINES FOR IMPLEMENTING THE RIGHT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TO FREE, PRIOR AND INFORMED CONSENT
currently exist in their territories or on a part of them. Presently, they make up
non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to “preserve, develop and
transmit to future generations their ancestral lands and their ethnic identity, as the
basis of their on-going existence as peoples, according to their own cultural
standards, social institutions and legal systems.
This historic continuity may consist of the continuation, during a prolonged period
of time up to the present, of one or more of the following factors:
a) the occupation of ancestral lands or at least a portion of them;
b) common ancestry with the native occupants of those lands;
c) culture in general or in certain specific manifestations (such as religion, living
under the same tribal system, belonging to an indigenous community, dress,
means of living, lifestyle, etc.);
d) language (whether it be the only language spoken, the mother tongue, the
customary means of communication at home or in family, or the principal,
preferred, habitual, common or normal language spoken);
e) residence in certain parts of the country or in certain regions of the world;
f) other relevant factors.
From the point of view of the individual, an indigenous person is understood to
be anyone belonging to such indigenous populations by way of self-identification
as indigenous (group consciousness) and recognised and accepted by those
populations as one of its members (group acceptance).
These communities thereby reserve the sovereign right and power to decide who
belongs to them, without outside influence.”
1.2.2 Consultation and consent
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that
“States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous Peoples
concerned 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” (Art. 19); and “1. Indigenous Peoples
have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development
or use of their lands or territories and other resources. 2. States shall consult and
cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous Peoples concerned through their own
representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior
to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources,
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