What is ICRIN?

The International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations (ICRIN) is the first comprehensive international law to address the rights and long-term social, economic and political interests of indigenous nations. This concrete initiative calls upon individual indigenous nations to directly decide what role they will play in international affairs. By virtue of this action the world’s Fourth World nations may evolve new rules and new standards of conduct in the relations between nations, and between nations and states.

Provisions enshrined in ICRIN include:

  • Measures concerning genocide against indigenous nations;
  • Protection and maintenance of cultural and biological diversity;
  • Protection of the lands and territories;
  • Protection of intellectual property; and
  • Procedures for resolving disputes through negotiation of treaties.

Protocols integrated into ICRIN include:

  • Protocols I and II of the Geneva Conventions of 1949;
  • The World Council of Indigenous Peoples Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1977);
  • Indigenous Peoples Statement of Principles (1987); and
  • Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as revised by the members of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (E/Cn.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1993/CRP.4) of 2007.

Source: Center for World Indigenous Studies

See the text of the International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations