Principles of international environmental protection - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 87

Figure 4.2 Protest by indigenous people living in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest in
Iquitos, May 2009. The reason for this protest was the permissions to drill
for oil and gas in their traditional common land. The permissions had been
granted without the suffi cient consultation required by the International
Labour Organization's ILO Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention.
(Photo © Ellen Desmet)
carries weight in the development of customary international law; as the UN
International Court of Justice articulated in its Nicaragua judgment in 1986. 6
The legal weight of the UN General Assembly declaration also depends on
how well it has been endorsed by the society of states. The declaration was
adopted by an overwhelming majority of 143 states in favour, with four states
against; 11 abstained from voting. Moreover, those four important states (the
USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), which have indigenous peoples
living in their territory, have one by one come to endorse the declaration,
which increases the weight of the declaration in infl uencing the development
of customary international law.
It is likely that in the near future states will have to decide in one way or
another exactly what is included by the right of indigenous peoples to