The UN’s International Day of Indigenous Peoples of the World is celebrated on 9^th August each year. It was only on 23^rd December 1994 that the UN General Assembly recognized the first UN Working Group on Indigenous Peoples (held in 1982 in Geneva) by establishing the celebration of this event.

Indigenous peoples are considered as inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and their particular relation with Nature and the environment. In particular indigenous populations have retained their own and unique social, cultural, economic and political characteristics. These particular characteristics greatly differ from those of the dominant societies and communities in which they live. A common problem of indigenous peoples all around the world, despite their cultural differences, they share common concerns related in particular to the protection of Nature and of their rights as distinct peoples. And this is one of the reason why the UN has created such a Day.

Notably, Indigenous peoples have sought recognition of their identities, and of their way of life which can be very different from we usually believe, and also of their right to traditional lands, territories and natural resources, which have been repeatedly violated.

The celebration, with the aim of promoting and protecting the rights of all indigenous peoples of the world, also recognizes and highlights the achievements and contributions that indigenous peoples themselves make to improve world affairs such as, for example, the environmental protection. Indeed, thanks to their traditional knowledge and their relationship with the natural world, indigenous peoples have long known that environmental degradation has the potential to cause also dangerous disease for humans. Their territories are home to about 80% of the world’s biodiversity and, thanks to their traditional knowledge and their relationship with the natural world, indigenous peoples can teach us how to rebalance our relationship with nature.