The planet's roughly 350 million indigenous peoples took notable steps on the international stage in the last decade. They got the world's governments to agree to create a body to represent them at the United Nations, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and to appoint a special rapporteur responsible for their human rights. Yet the years 1995-2004, named by the UN as the Indigenous Decade, did not see a significant change in the living conditions of most "tribal", "aboriginal", "native" or "first" peoples. Calling those conditions "precarious", the UN has declared 2005-2014 a second Indigenous Decade. IPS, with its network of contributors at the UN and linked to indigenous communities worldwide, is committed to tracking the world community's efforts to do justice to the rights and aspirations of these peoples..