We are the aborigines here," and both his party, the BNP, and the English Defence League regularly invoke the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.

"If there was to be agreement it would have to be developed through a joint process with other forest conventions and human-rights instruments, like the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples."

Reflecting this difficulty, the International Labour Organisation, the UN and the World Bank have all chosen not to offer definitions so much as interpretations in their respective declarations on the rights of indigenous peoples.

It is also expected that the proposed declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples will be again considered for approval in September 2007 by the UN General Assembly in order to protect these rights universally.