three “generations” of rights: civil and political rights; economic, social, and cultural rights; and group and peoples’ rights. In that regard, the African Commission notes its own observation that the term “indigenous” is also not intended to create a special class of citizens, but rather to address historical and present-day injustices and inequalities. This is the sense in which the term has been applied in the African context by the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities of the 50 African Commission. In the context of the African Charter, the Working Group notes that the notion 51 of “peoples” is closely related to collective rights. 150. The African Commission also notes that the African Charter, in Articles 20 through 4, provides 52 for peoples to retain rights as peoples, that is, as collectives. The African Commission through its Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities has set out four criteria for 53 identifying indigenous peoples. These are: the occupation and use of a specific territory; the voluntary perpetuation of cultural distinctiveness; self-identification as a distinct collectivity, as well as recognition by other groups; an experience of subjugation, marginalisation, dispossession, exclusion or discrimination. The Working Group also demarcated some of the shared characteristics of African indigenous groups: … first and foremost (but not exclusively) different groups of hunter-gatherers or former huntergatherers and certain groups of pastoralists… … A key characteristic for most of them is that the survival of their particular way of life depends on 54 access and rights to their traditional land and the natural resources thereon. 151. The African Commission is thus aware that there is an emerging consensus on some objective features that a collective of individuals should manifest to be considered as “peoples”, viz: a common historical tradition, racial or ethnic identity, cultural homogeneity, linguistic unity, religious and ideological affinities, territorial connection, and a common economic life or other bonds, identities and affinities they collectively enjoy – especially rights enumerated under Articles 19 to 24 of the African Charter – or suffer collectively from the deprivation of such rights. What is clear is that all attempts to define the concept of indigenous peoples recognise the linkages between peoples, their land, and culture and that such a group expresses its desire to be identified as a people or have the 55 consciousness that they are a people. 152. As far as the present matter is concerned, the African Commission is also enjoined under Article 61 of the African Charter to be inspired by other subsidiary sources of international law or general 56 principles in determining rights under the African Charter. It takes note of the working definition proposed by the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations: … that indigenous peoples are …those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and precolonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in 57 accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems. 153. But this working definition should be read in conjunction with the 2003 Report of the African Commission’s Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities, which is the basis 58 of its ‘definition’ of indigenous populations. Similarly it notes that the International Labour Organisation has proffered a definition of indigenous peoples in Convention No. 169 concerning 59 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries: Peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political 60 institutions. 154. The African Commission is also aware that though some indigenous populations might be first inhabitants, validation of rights is not automatically afforded to such pre-invasion and pre-colonial claims. In terms of ILO Convention 169, even though many African countries have not signed and ratified the said Convention, and like the UN Working Groups’ conceptualisation of the term, the African Commission notes that there is a common thread that runs through all the various criteria that