Human Rights Quarterly

This article critically examines the effectiveness of emergent transnational Indigenous rights networks during the first United Nations (UN) Indigenous Decade (1995–2004). Keck and Sikkink's five-part model is utilized in the analysis but is found to be inadequate when gauging the overall effectiveness of Indigenous political mobilization during the first UN decade. A sixth factor, co-optation, better explains the impacts of "mainstreaming" Indigenous rights within the UN system (through blunting and channeling processes) and the subsequent shortcomings of the first UN Indigenous Decade. Potential future strategies for global Indigenous political mobilization outside of the UN system are discussed.