The debate over the meaning and significance of the outcome document for the United Nations (UN) high level plenary meeting (erroneously referred to as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples) is not going to end anytime soon. On September 22, the outcome document became a UN resolution, that is now proclaimed by its proponents to be a UN member state effort to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that was adopted by the UN September 13, 2007. A close reading of the outcome document shows that it is undeserving of the praise it has received from its enthusiasts.

Prior to outlining the specifics of the outcome document, first recall the context of the term “indigenous” in United Nations usage. According to UN working definitions, peoples said to be “indigenous” were existing freely in a particular place. Then, eventually, another people of a different “race” or “ethnic origin” arrived there, and the new arrivals gradually became dominant through conquest, settlement, and other means. In other words, the UN working definitions tell us that the original peoples were reduced down “to a non-dominant or colonial situation.”

In the United Nations there are different kinds of “rights.” What are being called “indigenous rights” pertain to those peoples who have been made to live under either colonial or state domination. While some people may presume that the UN currently recognizes that peoples existing under state domination possess a fundamental right to free themselves, the states of the world seem to assume that no such right of liberation exists for “indigenous” peoples. As explained below, the outcome document of the UN high level meeting of September 22 and 23, 2014 reflects this view.