Last week the European Parliament called on all of its member states to follow the example of the Netherlands and Denmark by signing and ratifying International Labor Organization Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples . It also passed a resolution calling on member states “to recognise the national minorities living in their territory and to guarantee their rights as enshrined” in ILO 169 and other conventions, and “to interpret the concept of 'national minority' broadly and to extend it to all ethnic minorities whose emancipation and social integration is a policy objective.” ILO 169 recognizes and upholds the rights of indigenous groups to the lands they inhabit, and to participation in the management and use of natural resources in their homelands.
