International Covenant on the
Rights of Indigenous Nations

The International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations (ICRIN) is the first comprehensive nation-based international law ratified and acceded to by indigenous nations up to May 2022 to affirm the inherent rights and long-term social, economic and political interests of indigenous nations. This concrete initiative calls upon individual indigenous nations to directly decide what role they will play in international affairs and nations’ internal affairs. By virtue of this action the world’s Fourth World nations advances new rules and new standards of conduct in the relations between nations, and between nations and states.

Provisions enshrined in ICRIN include:

• Measures concerning genocide against indigenous nations.
• Protection and maintenance of cultural and biological diversity.
• Protection of the lands and territories.
• Protection of intellectual property.
• Procedures for resolving disputes through negotiation of treaties consistent with the process of free, prior and informed consent exercised between nations and between nations and states.

Protocols integrated into ICRIN include:

• Protocols I and II of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
• The World Council of Indigenous Peoples Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1977).
• Indigenous Peoples Statement of Principles (1987).
• Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as revised by the members of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (E/Cn.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1993/CRP.4) of 2007.