In addition to a military alliance, one of the main purposes of the United Nations was the promotion of human rights, particularly in areas seldom seen. The UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights had within it six main groups, among them the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, set up to ensure humane treatment of natives everywhere from the American continents to Australia. The WGIP drafted a controversial, but important, document on the matter, and relentlessly shepherded it through the UN to its eventual full adoption.

On this day, September 13, in 2007, some twenty five years after the first draft of the document, the full U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, emphasizing their individual and collective human rights, and forbidding discrimination against them.

The measure passed with a vote of 143 countries in favour, 4 against, and 11 abstaining. The U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand were the four votes against: all four former colonies of the British Empire, and all four having a small indigenous minority population on their land. Despite the prominent holdouts, and that the declaration was not binding, the UN still considered it to “represent the dynamic development of international legal norms” and reflect “the commitment of the UN’s member states to move in certain directions.”