ญ
not against the philosophy and principles of community rights, while those inappropriate ones
must not be adopted.
It was found that five rights of the “traditional indigenous communities” under the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be borrowed to apply with the
“community rights” as follows: (1) Right to maintain and strengthen distinctive spiritual relationship
with traditionally owned or occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coa stal seas and
other resources. ( 2) Right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally
owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired. (3) Right to redress with just, fair and equitable
compensation for the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned or
occupied or used, and which have been confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without
their free, prior and informed consent. ( 4) Right to the conservation and protection of the
environment and the productive capacity of their lands or territories and resources. ( 5) Right to
determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or
territories and other resources.
Protection of the “rights of traditional indigenous communities” are more intense than that
of the “ rights of minorities” because the traditional indigenous communities have unique nature
having an element of being owners of the lands and living on the land long before the majority
of people who came later for occupying the territories. In contrast, the minorities are protected
from the discrimination by the majority. The rights that the minorities need are the same as those
that the majority has. Therefore, there is no need to borrow the minorities’ rights to apply with
the community rights.
1.2 Principles and concepts under domestic law
From the domestic law dimension, the Constitution B. E. 2560 stipulates the rights of
community in managing the natural resources and environment. Although there is no explicit
connection with the international documents on “human rights”, the Constitution adopts key
principles from the international documents on “environment”, by describing the sustainable
development concept within such provisions as Article 43 paragraph 1 , Article 56 paragraph 1,