ABSTRACT
Over time, international law has taken fundamentally different positions toward indigenous communities' property rights over territories traditionally used. The claim that indigenous communities hold property rights over territories traditionally used follows from a contemporary understanding of the right to equality. A number of international legal sources, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Article 26, ILO Convention No 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries Article 14, and United Nation (UN) treaty body jurisprudence, reflect this development. The Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR) accepts that indigenous communities' property rights over territories can be restricted, provided that such restrictions are intended to satisfy an imperative public interest. Beyond the positions taken by the SRIP and the IACHR, international legal sources offer limited guidance about when the legitimate aim criterion is fulfilled in the context of resource extraction in indigenous territories.
