Asian Journal of International Law, 6 (2016), pp. 46–88 doi:10.1017/S2044251314000356 r Asian Journal of International Law, 2015 First published online 4 February 2015 From the Global to the Local: The Development of Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights Internationally and in Southeast Asia Derek INMAN* Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium derek.inman@vub.ac.be Abstract Despite a noticeable shift in recent years, indigenous peoples in Asia continue to experience many forms of human rights violations, with the most serious perhaps being the loss of traditional lands and territories. The purpose of this paper is to examine indigenous peoples’ land rights and its application in Southeast Asia. To that end, the paper will provide an overview of the development of indigenous peoples’ land rights internationally; offer regional perspectives from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights; analyze the concept of indigenous peoples in Asia, juxtaposing it with concurrent difficulties being experienced on the African continent; examine three countries (Cambodia, the Philippines, and Malaysia) that recognize indigenous peoples’ land rights to some extent, whether through constitutional amendments, legislative reform, or domestic jurisprudence; and highlight the implementation gap between the rights of indigenous peoples in law and practice. i. indigenous peoples: the worldwide struggle continues Over the past decades, the international community has begun to focus its efforts on the plight of indigenous peoples. 1 Prior to this, the issue of indigenous peoples only attracted occasional attention within the community of states, mainly in the context of the fight against discrimination and attempts to assimilate ‘‘tribal’’ and ‘‘subordinated’’ communities into the modernized majority. Today, the adoption of specific instruments focusing on indigenous peoples, and the reinterpretation of older * Researcher and PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law and Criminology, Department of International and European Law, Vrije Universiteit Brussels. A shorter version of this paper was presented at the 4th Biennial Conference of the Asian Society of International Law (Student Workshop), 13 November 2013, New Delhi, India. This research has been funded by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office, more specifically the IAP ‘‘The Global Challenge of Human Rights Integration: Towards a Users’ Perspective’’ ,www.hrintegration.be.. 1. Julian BURGER and Paul HUNT, ‘‘Towards the International Protection of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights’’ (1994) 12 Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 405 at 406.