Opportunities and challenges in implementing indigenous peoples’ human rights in Asia

This chapter focuses on the opportunities and challenges faced by indigenous peoples in Asia in pursuing their collective and individual human rights. Despite the denial of their indigenous status by most governments, the region’s indigenous peoples have nevertheless asserted their identity and rights. Autonomous self-government systems and extreme marginality and exclusion are both present in Asia. In the face of structural discrimination, militarisation and violence, this chapter argues that strong alliances and strategic engagement in national and international human rights processes can nevertheless facilitate their survival, as peoples, with their own identity, integrity and worldviews.