Part III Rights to Culture, Ch.10 Culture: Articles 11(1), 12, 13(1), 15, and 34

Author(s):  
Xanthaki Alexandra

This chapter examines the rights to culture in Articles 11(1), 12, 13(1), and 34. The freedom of indigenous peoples to have their indigenous identities and cultures respected has been the main incentive for their struggle and one of the main reasons for the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The recognition of indigenous cultural rights is deeply rooted in the principle of respect of the diversity and richness of their identities, the end of historical injustices committed against them, and the principle of self-determination, all of which are incorporated in the preamble of the Declaration. Unfortunately, patterns of expropriation of indigenous religious and cultural objects and neglect, even destruction of indigenous cultural manifestations, still continue. In addition, new waves of tourism beyond ‘the beaten truck’ commodify important indigenous historical and archaeological sites. It is therefore of no surprise that the protection of culture is so important in the whole text of the Declaration.

Polar Record ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naohiro Nakamura

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Howitt

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.


Author(s):  
Hohmann Jessie

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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