The Interest Group on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples examines the rights and status of indigenous peoples in international law, helping to bring together scholars and activists to participate in transnational information sharing and cooperation in this vital, yet often overlooked, struggle. In a day and time where reactive, defense issues dominate the interchange of ideas, emancipatory themes of active empowerment have somewhat receded from the limelight of international issues, and the indigenous peoples? plight and avenues of redress have been set back on the global political agenda. Members of the Group have the opportunity to actively participate in discussions related to goals of indigenous peoples' struggles for recognition and enhanced status under international law. The Group aims to create a forum for those interested in the concerns of indigenous people to discuss, assess and promote matters relating to this critical topic.

Through sponsorship of panels at the ASIL Annual Meetings, the Interest Group has focused on the evolution of standards on indigenous peoples' rights within international organizations, on their right to self- determination, and on intellectual property law as it relates to the heritage of indigenous peoples. The group has also co-sponsored tribal sovereignty symposia with the St. Thomas University School of Law, with findings published in the St. Thomas Law Review, and endeavors to continue this type of collaboration both in the United States and abroad.

Group Officers

Yuri G. Mantilla

Co-Chair

Jonathan Liljeblad

Co-Chair