The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Collective Rights ◽  
Substantive Content ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
The Individual

The rights of indigenous peoples under international law have seen significant change in recent years, as various international bodies have attempted to address the question of how best to protect and enforce their rights. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is the strongest statement thus far by the international community on this issue. The Declaration was adopted by the United Nations on 13 September 2007, and sets out the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education, and other issues. While it is not a legally binding instrument under international law, it represents the development of international legal norms designed to eliminate human rights violations against indigenous peoples, and to help them in combating discrimination and marginalisation. This commentary on the Declaration analyses both the substantive content of the Declaration and the position of the Declaration within existing international law. It considers the background to the text of every Article of the Declaration, including the travaux préparatoire, the relevant drafting history, and the context in which the provision came to be included in the Declaration. It sets out each provision's content, interpretation, its relationship with other principles of international law, and its legal status, and also discusses the significance and outlook for each of the rights analysed. The book assesses the practice of relevant regional and international bodies in enforcing the rights of indigenous peoples, providing an understanding of the practical application of the Declaration's principles.

scholarly journals KULTURA I ROZWÓJ JAKO PODSTAWOWE KATEGORIE ODNIESIENIA W TWORZĄCYM SIĘ PRAWIE LUDÓW TUBYLCZYCH

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Zbigniew B. Rudnicki
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
National Society ◽  
The United Nations

CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT AS THE BASIC CATEGORIESOF REFERENCE IN THE EMERGING LAW OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES Summary In contemporary international relations indigenous peoples constitute particular ethnic communities waiting for a long time for the regulation of their status as subjects of international law. Paradoxically, decolonisation, which helped many colonial societies gain national rights, has not only left the issue of indigenous peoples in countries formerly colonised by the White Man unresolved but has also complicated their status. In practice former colonies such as the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand have not regulated the legal status of indigenous peoples, relegating them politically and economically to the margins of society. The rights of indigenous peoples as minority groups living in the former Soviet Union, who are not at all colonial peoples officially, have not been defined either. The category of indigenous peoples now extends to many ethnic groups living in nation-states, who are culturally and linguistically distinct with respect to the dominant segments of the national society. However, assigning the attributes of indigenous peoples to them in the strict sense of the term is questionable and is not dealt with in this article. This article traces the process which leads to indigenous peoples acquiring the status of a fully-fledged subject of international law. It describes attempts that have been made to interpret the rights of indigenous peoples on the grounds of the universal instruments of international law. The principal documents are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (1960), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1966), the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and finally the Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation Among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations (1992). Despite the progress made in granting indigenous peoples their rights with the adoption of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights (2007), it is still difficult to talk of full success, i.e. the recognition of the international identity and rights of indigenous peoples on a par with other sovereign nations.

scholarly journals Indigenous Nations’ Rights in the Balance

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Marcelle Burns
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
White Face ◽  
Indigenous Human Rights ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Declaration

The United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) received a mixed reception. Some commentators viewed it as setting important normative standards for the recognition of Indigenous human rights within the international law framework, whilst others have been critical of the declaration for unduly limiting the nature and scope of Indigenous rights (Anaya 2004; Churchill 2011; Davis 2008; Moreton-Robinson 2011; Pitty 2001; Watson and Venne 2012). Indigenous Nations’ Rights in the Balance: An Analysis of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by Charmaine White Face (2013) makes an important contribution to this debate by methodically charting the key changes made during the passage of the declaration through the United Nations process and highlighting the significance of these changes for the recognition and realisation of Indigenous rights.

The Legal Status of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) in Contemporary International Human Rights Law

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvanus Gbendazhi Barnabas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
International Human ◽  
United Nations Declaration

This article explores the legal status or effect of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (undrip) in contemporary international human rights law. As a United Nations General Assembly (unga) resolution, the legal significance of undrip may appear uncertain on the surface. However, several unga resolutions do carry some legal weight with far-reaching legal implications in international law. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (udhr) has been widely accepted, at least in part, as forming part of customary international law. Through a critical examination of relevant literature and some decisions of international, regional and national courts, this article examines whether the undrip, in whole or in part, reflects customary international law. It also considers the relationship of the undrip with other international human rights instruments, and whether it should be applied as part of general principles of law on issues that are essential to indigenous peoples such as non-discrimination, self-identification, land rights and development.

Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-413
Author(s):  
Rizal Abdul Kadir
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Caspian Sea ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
The Caspian Sea ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The United Nations

After twenty-two years of negotiations, in Aktau on August 12, 2018, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. The preamble of the Convention stipulates, among other things, that the Convention, made up of twenty-four articles, was agreed on by the five states based on principles and norms of the Charter of the United Nations and International Law. The enclosed Caspian Sea is bordered by Iran, Russia, and three states that were established following dissolution of the Soviet Union, namely Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

Realising Ainu indigenous rights: a commentary on Hiroshi Maruyama's ‘Japan's post-war Ainu policy. Why the Japanese Government has not recognised Ainu indigenous rights?’

Polar Record ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naohiro Nakamura
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Japanese Government ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
United Nations Declaration

ABSTRACTThis commentary reviews Maruyama's article ‘Japan's post-war Ainu policy: why the Japanese Government has not recognised Ainu indigenous rights?’ (Maruyama 2013a), published in this journal. Maruyama criticises the government for its reluctance to enact a new Ainu law to guarantee indigenous rights, even after Japan's ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). However, in actuality, the government is searching for the foundation of new Ainu policies in the existing legal frameworks and trying to guarantee some elements of indigenous rights. Japan's case suggests the possibility of realising indigenous rights without the enactment of a specific law.

The Eye of the Beholder? The Contestation of Values and International Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 335-343
Author(s):  
Andrea Liese ◽  
Nina Reiners
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The United Nations

The chapter comments on Tiyanjana Maluwa’s analysis of the contestation of value-based norms. It first, referring to the metaphor of the ‘eyes of the beholder’ and the song by Metallica with the same title, answers the question ‘Do I see what you see?’ Second, it is interested in coming closer to an intersubjective ‘truth’, that is a shared understanding for determining the alleged erosion of international law or the value-based legal norms of the United Nations (UN) Charter. By focusing on one of Maluwa’s case studies, it illustrates how conceptual choices may predetermine findings. In other words, they guide ‘into what you read’. Finally, it argues in favour of being more explicit about these choices to let others ‘see what I see’ and therefore to be transparent about the type and form of contestation one seeks to explain.

Unsettling the taken (for granted)

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Howitt
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Settler Societies ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
Indigenous Geographies ◽  
New Instruments

Histories of colonial plunder produced geographies that settler societies take for granted as settled. While some aspects of the conqueror/settler imaginary have been unsettled in specific cases, and through the negotiation of new instruments such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, various national apologies and modern treaties, much unsettling remains to be done. New geographies of plunder, violence and abuse reinstate geographies of various kleptocracies across the planet, reinforcing the unnatural disasters of displacement, disfigurement and loss on many people, places and communities. This paper uses the framing offered by emergent discourses of Indigenous geographies to reconsider the task of unsettling the taken-for-granted privilege of settler dominance in Indigenous domains.

Part II Group Identity, Self-Determination, and Relations with States, Ch.6 The UNDRIP and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Existence, Cultural Integrity and Identity, and Non-Assimilation: Articles 7(2), 8, and 43

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hohmann Jessie
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Cultural Survival ◽  
Cultural Integrity ◽  
Indigenous Group ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
Cultural Entities

This chapter focuses on the rights to identity, existence, and non-assimilation in Articles 7(2), 8, and 43, which together enshrine rights to the protection of indigenous peoples' continued survival and existence, both physically as individuals and as cultural entities in accordance with levels of human dignity and well-being. Indigenous peoples pressed for the inclusion of such principles in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in the recognition that pre-existing international, regional, and national laws had failed to protect their survival as communities with distinct cultures, or recognise them as distinct peoples. The three provisions studied in this chapter reflect this central concern of indigenous group/cultural survival and flourishing as peoples. As such, the final agreed text of Articles 7(2), 8, and 43 must be seen as containing norms aimed at the development of existing international law, which would protect and confirm indigenous collectivities in ways not currently recognised or only now emerging.

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