Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and Human Rights in the Case Law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: A Critical Outlook

The case-law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has had an invaluable contribution to the protection of indigenous peoples in the Americas. However, its development has not been an easy task. This paper aims to identify the main challenges and problems that this case-law has faced with evaluating their impacts on the human rights of the communities involved. Indeed, the case-law on indigenous peoples is crossed by the tension orthodoxy-originality and by a dilemma between an ambitious and another more pragmatic approach. This circumstance influences its effects on the rights of indigenous peoples inside the legislation of the signatory States powerfully.