Current international human rights law standards are not ready to unify the protection of indigenous rights under the umbrella of minorities' rights. It is dangerous, and even incorrect, to state that ascribing certain populations to the qualifier 'minority' instead of 'indigenous peoples' will not change the protection of their collective rights as 'distinct societies' - if we can interpret this term as meaning 'peoples'. This is not to affirm that indigenous rights are better protected than minorities' rights, but it is to state that the protection of indigenous peoples' rights in Africa and Asia would not benefit from (apart from indigenous peoples themselves being against it) a new interpretation of the term 'indigenous' that would place them all under the category of minorities.
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