Ana Maria Moure Pino* and Witold Janas**

On the 9th of August, the global community celebrated the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. On that occasion, Joseph Borell, the European Union High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, published the statement highlighting the importance of the protection of the rights of indigenous people in the EU’s external action[1]. As underlined, “many Indigenous Peoples remain among the world’s most marginalized communities. Increasing competition over natural resources and land, as well as the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, puts Indigenous Peoples particularly at risk.” This example illustrates the core idea behind the EU’s cooperation with Latin American countries and organizations such as MERCOSUR and the Andean Community. It aims to develop cooperation by achieving economic benefits but, moreover, implementing common values, such as sustainable development.

Current citation of the Indigenous people

As it is estimated by the United Nations, worldwide, over 476 million Indigenous people are living in 90 countries, which accounts for 6.2 percent of the global population. The number of distinct indigenous groups exceeds 5000 and speak over 7000 languages[2]. According to the World Bank report, the Latin America region is inhabited by 42 million Indigenous people[3]. Among the countries with the most significant indigenous populations are Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Bolivia. As the report underlines, members of those communities are exposed to several socio-economic difficulties. It is estimated that 42% of the indigenous population lives in poverty and 24% in extreme poverty. Moreover, they are often deprived of lands, territories, and natural resources and lack representation in political and economic life[4].

Although international law does not provide an explicit definition of the indigenous people, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)[5] underlines its key characteristics, such as self-identification, historical continuity with the pre-colonial period; distinct social, economic, and political forms of governance; own culture and language; strong link to territories and natural resources and non-dominant position within the country of existence.

The United Nations Agenda 2030, through 17 Sustainable Development Goals, obliges the global community to undertake actions relevant to the indigenous peoples[6]. For instance, Goal 2 refers to the agricultural output of the Indigenous small-scale farmers, and Goal 4 underlines the right to access education for Indigenous children. The World Trade Organization also supports the protection of the indigenous people. For instance, the WTO actively develops programs aimed at increasing the role of fair-trade products, such as the AOELA program, that develop entrepreneurship and trade competitiveness of the indigenous people[7]. The rights of indigenous people are also guaranteed by the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples[8]. Whereas the Convention encourages Staes to undertake systematic actions to protect the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples, including their social, economic, and cultural rights, customs, traditions, and institutions, it must be underlined that only 20 countries have ratified it.

The national laws stipulate the specific legal status of the indigenous groups. For instance, Chile Indigenous Law (Law No. 19,253)[9] defines Indigenous groups as human groups that have existed in the national territory since pre-Columbian times, which preserve their own ethnic and cultural manifestations, with the land being the main foundation of their existence and culture. Hence, the indigenous groups recognized by Chile include Mapuche, Aymara, Rapa Nui, Quechua, Atacameño, Colla, Kawésqar, and Yagán, among others.

Protection of the Indigenous people in the EU’s external action

As underlined in the EU’s High Representative statement, protecting the indigenous people is crucial in the cooperation between the European Union and its partners in the Latin America region, especially in trade policy. The EU’s commitment in that area is derived from its legal framework. According to Art. 21 Treaty on the European Union[10], the EU’s external actions are guided by its principles, which include respect for human dignity, equality, and solidarity. Moreover, it is also provided that the EU shall foster developing countries’ sustainable economic, social, and environmental development.

Hence, the EU’s trade policy ensures the protection of the Indigenous people’s rights through various instruments of multilateral, bilateral, and unilateral forms. Since 2011, the EU included in its Free Trade Agreements the TSD (Trade and Sustainable Development) Chapters, which aim to ensure the protection of environmental and labor aspects of suitable development within trade. Among them, FTAs provide various rights to the groups of the indigenous population. For instance, the recently concluded Interim Trade Agreement between the EU and Chile provides that the Parties “recognize the importance of respecting, preserving and maintaining knowledge and practices of Indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles that contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and the role of international trade therein.”

Moreover, the EU ensures the protection of the native population’s rights within the sustainable development tools of unilateral trade instruments, such as the Deforestation Regulation, the Critical Raw Materials Act, and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Additionally, within its external action, the EU adopted the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, which incentivizes the EU’s partners to undertake measures to increase the social and political inclusion of neglected groups, including the indigenous peoples. This is also complemented by the support of the EU to various research projects, such as Indigenous Navigator, that allow monitoring of the life conditions of indigenous people worldwide.

To conclude, communities of Indigenous people face numerous hardships, such as social exclusion, poverty, and environmental pollution. Those problems are essential in light of global challenges such as climate change, increasing competition over land and resources, and the rise of social and economic inequalities. That is why protecting the rights of the Indigenous people remains one of the integral aspects of the EU’s cooperation with countries from the Latin America Region and international organizations such as the Andean Community and MERCOSUR.

[1] “EEAS. “International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples: Statement by the High Representative on Behalf of the European Union,” 2024. Access 23.08.2024. https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/international-day-world%E2%80%99s-indigenous-peoples-statement-high-representative-behalf-european-union-0_en.
[2] Nations, United. “Background – International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” Access 23.08.2024. https://www.un.org/en/observances/indigenous-day/background.
[3] World Bank Group. 2015. Indigenous Latin America in the Twenty-First Century: The First Decade. Access 23.08.2024.https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/145891467991974540/pdf/Indigenous-Latin-America-in-the-twenty-first-century-the-first-decade.pdf.
[4] ibidem.
[5] United Nations. “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007. Access 23.08.2024. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf.
[6] United Nations. “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” United Nations. United Nations, 2015. Access 23.08.2024. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf.
[7] World Trade Organization “Empowering Indigenous Peoples’ Economic Development through International Trade – Small Business Champions Winners,” 2024. Access 23.08.2024. https://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/business_e/sbc_winners24_e.htm.
[8] ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal People. Access 23.08.2024. https://biocultural.iied.org/ilo-convention-169-indigenous-and-tribal-peoples.
[9] Ley indígena nº 19.253 Establece Normas Sobre Protección, Fomento y Desarrollo de los Indígenas, y Crea la Corporación Nacional de Desarrollo Indígena.
[10] Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union OJ C 326, 26.10.2012, p. 13–390.

*Ana Maria Moure Pino
Former Director of the International Relations Office (Faculty of Law, University of Chile) (2018-2022); Associate Professor at the Department of International Law (Faculty of Law, University of Chile); Doctor in European Law (PhD), University of Alcalá, Spain/TU University Dresden, Germany; Master in European Union Law, Leiden University, Netherlands; Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEN), the University of Chile with the Globalization and Trade Agreements Course (2020-2022); currently pursuing a post doctorate program at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

**Witold Janas
PhD candidate at the University of Warsaw, graduate of the LLM program at the College of Europe (Bruges), and visiting fellow at the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile. Specializes in the topic of the nexus between trade and sustainability in the context of EU trade law and policy