The ITS Department co-sponsoredThe International Program on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Policy (May 2025).

The program provides an overview and analysis of the major questions in Indigenous affairs today as they have emerged globally in the last decades, culminating in the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and efforts towards its implementation. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the course will analyze the interaction between the Indigenous movement – one of the strongest social movements of our times – and the intergovernmental system over the past 50 years, paying special attention to its questioning of and impact on international norms, institutions and major global debates. 

The course will be situated at the intersection of human rights studies, international law, political science, Indigenous studies, ethnic studies, development studies, sociology and anthropology. The course incorporates lectures and workshops on the most recent and innovative academic and other research and policy debates on Indigenous Peoples’ issues. It includes a visit to the United Nations, discussions with United Nations officials, a visit to a Native American Nation, discussions with officials of a Native American Nation, and representatives of Indigenous organizations. 

The International Program enjoys the partnership of the University of British Columbia in Canada and the University of Auckland in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Within Columbia the Program is supported, in addition to the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, by the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.

Associate Professor Prem Phyak as well as two doctoral students of the Department, Anna Burns (Anthropology) and Tsewang Chuskit (International & Comparative Education),  represented the Department.