Indigenous peoples and the Millennium Development Goals – ‘sacrificial lambs’ or equal beneficiaries?

The author examines the interplay of the MDGs and indigenous peoples' self determination rights in the context of the extractive industry and illustrates the tensions that arise between the realization of these rights and the approaches currently being proposed by states to achieve the MDGs. He argues that to effectively address indigenous poverty and well-being an MDG implementation approach, based on indigenous peoples' self-determination rights, in particular their rights to full and effective participation in decision-making and to free prior informed consent, is required. The author concludes that the incorporation of the indigenous sensitive indicators, currently being developed by indigenous peoples themselves, is a necessary step towards achieving this goal.