The Bushmen are an indigenous people.  They hardly have any way of getting their plight heard, because they are discriminated against, poor, marginalized, isolated, socially excluded and have no access to NGOs or lawyers.  More often they are the victims of human rights abuses.  One of the main problems facing indigenous peoples within their homelands is the right to exist as peoples.  The Indigenous people’s rights have been recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) (everyone entitled to rights), the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169 (1989) and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (1993).   Two sources that would help the Bushmen define themselves is the availability of time and land.

"We the indigenous peoples walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors. From the smallest to the largest living being, from the four directions, from the air, the land and the mountains, the creator has placed us, the indigenous peoples upon our mother the earth."  
-Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter (1992)

*source numbers

Copyright © December 16, 2007 8:03 PM
created by M.W. ; email at walsh20m at mtholyoke edu

TERMS of Indigenous Peoples

GOVERNMENT Response