Conceptualizing the Authority of the Sovereign State over Indigenous Peoples

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVEN WHEATLEY
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Distinctive Character ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
Service Conception ◽  
Joseph Raz

AbstractThe objective of this article is to evaluate whether the distinctive nature of the international law on indigenous peoples reflected in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) can be explained by reference to the service conception of authority developed by Joseph Raz. The article rejects arguments that the distinctive character of UNDRIP can be justified by ideas of ‘Indigenous Sovereignty’, not least because ‘sovereignty’ was developed in Western political thought in contradistinction to a constructed and imagined dystopian state of nature endured by the indigenous populations of the Americas. Instead, the work seeks to understand the UNDRIP regime in the light of Raz’s conceptualization of legitimate political authority, concluding that the inchoate and under-theorized international law on the rights of indigenous peoples becomes comprehensible within this framework.

Part VI International Assistance, Reparations, and Redress, Ch.18 Legal Implementation and International Cooperation and Assistance: Articles 37–42

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
van Genugten Willem ◽  
Lenzerini Federico
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Political Commitments ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
The Right

This chapter discusses Articles 37–42, considering legal implementation and international cooperation and assistance. Article 37 recognizes that treaties, agreements, and other constructive arrangements between States and indigenous populations reflect legally important entitlements that have to be honoured by applying the standards of modern treaty law, while taking into consideration the facts of cases at hand and later developments, and including the interests of other parties than the original ones. In addition, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) might be a declaration ‘only’, but it cannot be simply considered as ‘just another’ non-binding argument. Large parts of Articles 37–42 — particularly Article 37, relating to the right that treaties concluded with indigenous peoples are honoured and respected by States, and Article 40, proclaiming the right of indigenous communities to access to justice and to remedies — do have customary international law character, while other parts also reflect more than moral or political commitments ‘only’.

The Draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: What is it? What Does it Mean?

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert T. Coulter
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Indigenous Participation ◽  
Human Rights Standards

The draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, now before the UN Commission on Human Rights, is a far-reaching and innovative document that has resulted from more than 10 years of debate, lobbying and drafting by indigenous representatives, human rights experts and members of the UN Sub-Commission's Working Group on Indigenous Populations. The level and nature of indigenous participation in this elaboration of human rights standards has been unprecedented. The draft Declaration sets forth basic human rights that flow from long-established principles of international law and widely accepted concepts of human rights. The detailed provisions of the draft Declaration would reach out to protect indigenous communities as well as indigenous individuals from the discrimination, the deprivations and the abuses that they so often endure. The author praises the draft for its thoroughness and adherence to principle. The article summarizes and analyses the provisions of the draft Declaration and calls for others to provide futher commentary and analysis.

Indigenous Peoples: An Emerging Object of International Law

1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russel Lawrence Barsh
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Level ◽  
Annual Session ◽  
Indigenous Organizations ◽  
First Time

The Working Group on Indigenous Populations, an organ of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, ended its fourth annual session last August by distributing seven “draft principles” to governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for comment as the first step in preparing “a draft declaration on indigenous rights, which may be proclaimed by the General Assembly.” For the first time since indigenous organizations took their concerns to the international level in 1977, a formal commitment has been made to the development of new law, probably in time for the “cinquecentennial” in 1992 of the “discovery” of the Americas and a proposed international indigenous year.

Indigenous Rights in International Law

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cher Weixia Chen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Indigenous Movement ◽  
Global Arena ◽  
Domestic Law

Indigenous rights have been gaining traction in international law since World War II, as the indigenous peoples, previously classified under the scope of domestic law, have propelled their cause into the global arena. Indigenous societies are vastly heterogeneous, but they possess some common features, such as lack of statehood, economic and political marginalization, and cultural and racial discrimination. Scholars generally agree that one of the most important goals of the international indigenous movement is to advance indigenous rights under international law. Hence, there have since been several international institutions that seek to address indigenous rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 is the first international document that recognizes the need to protect indigenous groups, though there are also actors and organizations specializing in the field, such as the Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP). However, the majority of the indigenous rights scholarship only examines the policy on indigenous rights, rather than the broader contexts of indigenous rights or the rise of indigenous rights as a phenomenon. Therefore, if the ultimate political goal of the indigenous rights scholarship is to better the conditions of indigenous peoples, the study of the efficacy of international legal prescription of indigenous rights is imperative. Otherwise, the considerable efforts put forth by both the academic community and the international indigenous movement could only remain symbolic.

Adopting a Rights-based Approach to Non-communicable Diseases among Indigenous Peoples in Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-155
Author(s):  
Ebenezer Durojaye ◽  
Mariam Wallet Med Aboubakrine
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Non Communicable Diseases ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rising Incidence ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Standards

This article examines non-communicable diseases (ncds) as a challenge among indigenous population in Africa. From a rights-based perspective, the article considers some of the social determinants of health and other challenges that can aggravate ncds among indigenous groups in Africa. It further examines the recognition of the right to health of indigenous populations under international law. This is followed by a discussion on some of the barriers to addressing ncds among indigenous peoples in the region. It concludes by urging African governments to be more proactive in adopting measures grounded in human rights standards to address the rising incidence of ncds among indigenous peoples in the region.

The Many-Colored Cloak

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Malik Mufti
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
The Many ◽  
Religion And Democracy

This articles argues (a) that democratic discourse has already become hegemonic among mainstream Islamist movements in Turkey and the Arab world; (b) that while this development originated in tactical calculations, it constitutes a consequential transformation in Islamist political thought; and (c) that this transformation, in turn, raises critical questions about the interaction of religion and democracy with which contemporary Islamists have not yet grappled adequately but which were anticipated by medieval philosophers such as al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd. The argument is laid out through an analysis (based on textual sources and interviews) of key decisions on electoral participation made by Turkey’s AK Party and the Muslim Brotherhoods in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Particular attention is focused on these movements’ gradual embrace of three key democratic principles: pluralism, the people as the source of political authority, and the legitimacy of such procedural mechanisms as multiple parties and regular elections.

Sovereignty, Self-Determination, and Natural Resources

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérémie Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
The Right

The issue of sovereignty over natural resources has been a key element in the development of international law, notably leading to the emergence of the principle of States’ permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. However, concomitant to this focus on States’ sovereignty, international human rights law proclaims the right of peoples to self-determination over their natural resources. This has led to a complex and ambivalent relationship between the principle of States’ sovereignty over natural resources and peoples’ rights to natural resources. This chapter analyses this conflicting relationship and examines the emergence of the right of peoples to freely dispose of their natural resources and evaluates its potential role in contemporary advocacy. It notably explores how indigenous peoples have called for the revival of their right to sovereignty over natural resources, and how the global peasants’ movement has pushed for the recognition of the concept of food sovereignty.

The Power of Public Positions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
Sufficient Condition ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Condition ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

The Kantian account of political authority holds that the state is a necessary and sufficient condition of our freedom. We cannot be free outside the state, Kantians argue, because any attempt to have the “acquired rights” necessary for our freedom implicates us in objectionable relations of dependence on private judgment. Only in the state can this problem be overcome. But it is not clear how mere institutions could make the necessary difference, and contemporary Kantians have not offered compelling explanations. A detailed analysis is presented of the problems Kantians identify with the state of nature and the objections they face in claiming that the state overcomes them. A response is sketched on behalf of Kantians. The key idea is that under state institutions, a person can make claims of acquired right without presupposing that she is by nature exceptional in her capacity to bind others.

Hobbes among International Relations Thinkers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Boucher
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
English School ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
International Issues ◽  
Civil Condition ◽  
The Individual

Among philosophers and historians of political thought Hobbes has little or nothing to say about relations among states. For modern realists and representatives of the English School in contemporary international relations theory, however, caricatures of Hobbes abound. There is a tendency to take him too literally, referring to what is called the unmodified philosophical state of nature, ignoring what he has to say about both the modified state of nature and the historical pre-civil condition. They extrapolate from the predicament of the individual conclusions claimed to be pertinent to international relations, and on the whole find his conclusions unconvincing. It is demonstrated that there is a much more restrained and cautious Hobbes, consistent with his timid nature, in which he gives carefully weighed views on a variety of international issues, recommending moderation consistent with the duties of sovereignty.

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