Indigenizing Self-Determination at the United Nations: Reparative Progress in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Miranda Johnson
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Colonial Histories

Abstract When the United Nations General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, it introduced into the international legal lexicon a new dimension to the concept of self-determination. The declaration emphasizes indigenous peoples’ distinctive rights to land, culture, language, and collective identity. It does not propose political independence or sovereign statehood, instead insisting on indigenous peoples’ equal rights of citizenship within existing nation-states. The distinct dimension of self-determination that the declaration introduces is one that speaks of indigenous peoples’ particular colonial histories of dispossession and the restoration of their rights and identities in the present, but without disrupting the political continuity of the states that surround them. It is reparative rather than revolutionary. In this article, I examine the construction and contestation of an indigenous right to self-determination both in relation to earlier definitions, and among and between the peoples and states who drafted the declaration.

United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the Territorial Integrity of Ukraine

2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 927-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Crawford
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
General Assembly Resolution ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Autonomous Republic

On March 27, 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 68/262 on the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The resolution was adopted in response to the March 16, 2014 referendum held in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and city of Sevastopol, and it affirmed the territorial integrity, unity, sovereignty, and political independence of Ukraine, calling on states to desist and refrain from actions that undermine the unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

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

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xanthaki Alexandra
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Declaration

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.

Restructuring Transnational Mineral Agreements

1979 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel K. B. Asante
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Third World ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Third World

Within our own generation no less than 70 countries have attained political independence and joined the international community of nation states. Third World countries now command a preponderant majority in the United Nations and other world bodies, yet it is trite knowledge that the attainment of political independence and the proliferation of nation states in the Third World have had little impact on the world economic power structure. Access to the corridors of the United Nations and other international bodies has not necessarily assured effective participation in the shaping and restructuring of the world economic system. After the first flush of exhilaration over political independence, developing countries have now grasped the sobering fact that sovereignty is not synonymous with economic self-sufficiency or development and that the rich industrialized countries still substantially control the production and distribution of the world’s resources. An analysis of European direct investment in Africa shows that by the end of 1967 the former metropolitan powers still dominated investments in their former colonies. (The percentage of the total foreign investments in these African countries held by the former imperial powers is illustrated in table 1.)

Reflections on the Indonesian Case

1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rupert Emerson
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
General Assertion ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right ◽  
United Nations Charter

The tangled affairs of Indonesia, twice thrust upon the Security Council, have served as an admirable touchstone of the principles, purposes, and effectiveness of the United Nations as well as of the policies of some of its leading members. Fundamental principles of the new postwar order were at stake. The Atlantic Charter had affirmed the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they would live, and the collapse of empires before the Japanese onslaught led to the widespread conclusion that the old colonial system was dead. These doctrines found sober and modified expression not only in Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter, but also in the more general assertion of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples and of the universal application of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The rights of dependent peoples, the validity of the doctrine of self-determination, and the possibilities for peaceful change all hovered about the Security Council chamber in the course of the debates on the two Indonesian cases.

scholarly journals Too liberal for global governance? International legal human rights system and indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-214
Author(s):  
Ranjoo Seodu Herr
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
Cultural Integrity ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Liberal Individualism

This article considers whether the international legal human rights system founded on liberal individualism, as endorsed by liberal theorists, can function as a fair universal legal regime. This question is examined in relation to the collective right to self-determination demanded by indigenous peoples, who are paradigmatic decent nonliberal peoples. Indigenous peoples’ collective right to self-determination has been internationally recognized in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by the United Nations in 2007. This historic event may seem to exemplify the international legal human rights system’s ability to function as a truly global legal regime applicable cross-culturally to all well-ordered societies, whether liberal or nonliberal. The article argues, however, that the collective right to self-determination advocated by indigenous peoples for the sake of cultural integrity is inconsistent with the international legal human rights system founded on liberal individualism. By showing the plausibility of indigenous peoples’ defense of their cultural integrity, this article suggests that the international legal human rights system ought to be reconceptualized to reflect a genuine international consensus on human rights among all well-ordered societies if it is to function as a just mechanism for global governance.

scholarly journals Still Invisible: Enumeration of Indigenous Peoples in Census Questionnaires Internationally

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn Peters
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
International Attention ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
United Nations Statistics Division

The international attention increasingly being paid to Indigenous peoples culminated in the 2007 adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations General Assembly. Nevertheless, the lack of accurate and consistent data on Indigenous peoples hinders the creation of concrete benchmarks and monitoring mechanisms for their development. Based on the most recent census questionnaires available for 231 countries and regions for which the United Nations Statistics Division collects statistics, this study identifies the proportion and geographic distribution of questionnaires that enumerated Indigenous peoples and variations in the questions used to enumerate them. The fact is that relatively few census questionnaires enumerate Indigenous peoples. Where they were enumerated, Indigenous cultures and identities were homogenized by many censuses, and classified as minorities rather than as distinct peoples. As a result, Indigenous peoples remain invisible in large areas of the globe and the United Nations, various governmental and non-governmental organizations, and Indigenous people themselves all face overwhelming challenges in their attempts to document the existence and circumstances of Indigenous peoples.

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