「原住民」三個字，在21世紀的臺灣社會，代表的不僅僅是一群擁有與主流社會不同歷史、語言、文化、血緣、生活習慣、信仰的人，附隨在其身上的，還有包羅萬象的優惠性保障措施。過去幾十年來，臺灣關於原住民身分認定，一直以國家單行法規作為認定標準，一體適用在所有原住民族身上，然而，這樣的身分認定也產生了許多平等權、原住民優惠性保障措施資源錯置等問題。對於原住民身分認定，相關國際文件（包括兩人權公約）似乎有不同的看法。本文主要在探究目前的身分認定法制出現了哪些問題、到底誰有權認定誰是原住民（族），以及在兩人權公約時代，臺灣應如何處理原住民身分認定等問題。

Nowadays in Taiwan, the word ＂indigenous person＂ not only represents a person with different history, language, culture, ties of blood, life style and religious belief than the mainstream society, he or she is also the beneficiary of many affirmative actions. For the past six decades, the Taiwanese government has been using similar rule to decide who is an indigenous person. This rule has been proved to be problematic. In the issue of who has the right to decide who is an indigenous person, many international document (including the two human rights covenants) shows different view from the view of the Taiwanese government. This paper tries to examine what kind of problems have raised due to the Indigenous Peoples Status Law, who has the right to decide who is indigenous peoples as well as an indigenous person, and how should the Taiwanese government modify its relative law to uphold the two human rights covenants.