23

The end of the XXth Century was a key period for the organization of the autochthonous peoples’ movement and the development of political and legal thought. The debates in the United Nations system took on a new operational dimension through influence from programmes of the organization’s various agencies. These institutional developments are leading in the United Nations to the construction of the profile of the person representative of autochthonous people who combines political and identity-related qualities with an image of expert. The constitutional changes introduced in some States are the expression of an historic movement towards an overall re-examination of the move for national identity and citizenship. In this context, it is essential to consider the ways in which collective rights and individual rights of the person can be reconciled, in order to settle disputes among autochthons themselves and between them and non-autochthons. Collective action has made universal the relationship between the State and one of its components, and led to a means of bringing into perspective the possible measures to take for these populations concerning education, health and development, as well as political rights. That brings into question the relationship between a “people” in the philosophical sense of the word and “peoples” in terms of cultural entities given an ethnic character, elaborated in a political and legal language that is seeking a new grammar.