The Right of Political Participation of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-144
Author(s):  
Daniela Arrese
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Specific Approach ◽  
Critical Account ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Right ◽  
Systemic Discrimination ◽  
Electoral Quotas

This article explains the obligations the international legal framework on the rights of indigenous peoples imposes on States regarding the right to political participation, in particular, the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Because of the historical exclusion and marginalization of these groups, mere recognition of the right of participation in domestic legal systems is insufficient to ensure the full enjoyment of the right by indigenous communities. Instead, States are obliged to adopt active measures to overcome the systemic discrimination indigenous peoples have been subject to. This article focuses on one of the many aspects of political participation, i.e., electoral participation. It provides both a typology and a critical account of different mechanisms States use to increase and promote the participation of indigenous peoples in electoral processes, specifically in elections for legislative bodies and in constitution-making processes. These mechanisms include the provision for reserved seats in parliament, the creation of special indigenous electoral districts, and the establishment of special electoral quotas for candidacies presented by political parties. The article argues that the effectiveness of each approach cannot be evaluated in abstracto, but must be assessed against the particular context in which a specific approach is adopted. Most importantly, the success of any specific approach should be measured by the extent to which they allow indigenous communities to have an actual chance at influencing political decision-making, particularly in situations that affect them.

scholarly journals Cannabis, Reconciliation, and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Prospects and Challenges for Cannabis Legalization in Canada

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantia Koutouki ◽  
Katherine Lofts
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
New Era ◽  
Real Risk ◽  
Inuit Peoples

The provisions of the federal Cannabis Act came into force on 17 October 2018, opening a new era of cannabis management in Canada. We examine cannabis in Canada through the lens of reconciliation and the rights of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. There is potential for Indigenous communities to benefit from cannabis legalization, but also a very real risk that the new legal framework will simply perpetuate existing injustices. We show that the new legislation is inadequate both in terms of lack of consultation with Indigenous communities, as well as in terms of substantive provisions — and omissions — in the legislation itself.

Resource Nationalism and the Violation of Indigenous Rights in Mexico’s Oil Industry: The Case of a Chontal Community in Tabasco

2021 ◽  
pp. 2631309X2110519
Author(s):  
Marcela Torres-Wong
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Environmental Contamination ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Resource Nationalism ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
The Right

For decades, Indigenous communities living in Mexico’s oil-producing state of Tabasco suffered violence, environmental contamination, and the destruction of their traditional livelihood. The administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) taking office in 2018 promised to govern for the poorest people in Mexico, emphasizing the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples. However, as part of his nationalist agenda AMLO is pursuing aggressive exploitation of hydrocarbons upon the lead of state-owned company Pemex. This article argues that the Mexican government still denies Indigenous peoples living nearby oil reserves the right to self-determination. We examine this phenomenon through the Chontal community of Oxiacaque in the state of Tabasco suffering environmental contamination and health problems caused by the oil industry. We emphasize the government’s use of resource nationalism to legitimize violence against Indigenous communities and their natural environments. Further, the expansion of social programs and infrastructure building serves to obtain Indigenous compliance with the unsustainable fossil fuel industry.

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’.

Human Rights and the Arctic

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-243
Author(s):  
Gudmundur Alfredsson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Independent State ◽  
The Status ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Right

Abstract This article surveys some of the many international human rights law issues that come up in connection with the Arctic, such as the rights of indigenous peoples and the formulation of these rights in a draft Nordic Sami Convention. The focus, however, is on recent developments concerning the status of Greenland as a result of an agreement concluded in 2008 between the Danish and Greenlandic authorities. This agreement foresees not only a significant increase in self-government but also opens the door for the Greenlandic people to create an independent State through the exercise of the right to external self-determination as a matter of political decolonisation of an overseas colonial territory.

The Right to Self-Determination under the Ethiopian Constitution: A Legal Tool for Indigenous Peoples’ Protection against Land Alienation?

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-383
Author(s):  
Tilahun Weldie Hindeya
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Land Resources ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
The People ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

AbstractSince 2008 the Ethiopian government has allocated vast tracts of land, particularly in the Gambella and Benishangul-Gumuz regions, to agricultural commercial actors with little or no participation from indigenous communities. The marginalization of indigenous peoples in this process primarily emerges from the government's very wide legislative discretionary power regarding decision-making in the exploitation of land. The government has invoked constitutional clauses relating to land ownership and its power to deploy land resources for the “common benefit” of the people, to assert the consistency of this discretionary power with the Ethiopian Constitution. This article posits that the legislative and practical measures taken by the government that marginalize these indigenous peoples in decisions affecting the utilization of land resources are incompatible with their constitutional right to self-determination. Further, it posits that the government's use of the constitution to justify its wide discretionary power in the decision-making process relating to land exploitation is based on a misreading of the constitution.

Realisation of the right to self-determined development and the protection of indigenous women against discrimination in Tanzania

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Zacharia Matinda
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Cultural Survival ◽  
Central Pillar ◽  
The Right

The UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007, marking the culmination of thorough negotiations, lobbying and advocacy involving indigenous peoples’ representatives as key actors. Among other rights, the UNDRIP affirms the right to self-determination for indigenous peoples. Also referred to as the right to self-determined development, the right to self-determination, as stated in the UNDRIP, encompasses indigenous communities’ rights to determine their development trajectories. To indigenous peoples, the significance of the right to self-determination includes the promotion of cultural distinctiveness, which is central to their survival as communities. However, women’s rights scholars and activists are sceptical about the emancipatory potential of realising the right to self-determination for indigenous women. In contrast, exercising this right might also entail the perpetuation of gender-based violence and other forms of discrimination, thus heightening women’s fragility and subordination among indigenous communities and beyond. Using UNDRIP and other relevant international and regional human-rights instruments as vantage points, this paper seeks to juxtapose the implementation of the right to self-determination and the realisation of indigenous women’s rights in Tanzania. The article posits that the protection of indigenous women’s rights should form the central pillar of the enjoyment of the right to self-determination. This is because the cultural survival, vitality and continuity of indigenous peoples’ distinctiveness largely hinges on respect for the rights of indigenous women.

Case Comment: Do Indigenous Peoples Have a Right to Limit Religious Proselytism Activities in Their Territories?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Trilce Gabriela Valdivia Aguilar
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Spiritual Renewal ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
The Right

Abstract In ruling T-1022/01, the Colombian Constitutional Court responded to a claim brought by a member of the United Pentecostal Church of Colombia against the Yanacona Indigenous Council. The claimants alleged the violation of their rights to freedom of conscience, worship, and dissemination of thought based on two facts: (a) the refusal of their petition to carry out a “Spiritual Renewal Day” in the main square of the indigenous reservation of Caquiona, and (b) the interruption of the religious gatherings of the United Pentecostal Church of Colombia, as well as the prohibition of their pastors entering the indigenous reservation territory. The Court found no violation of the rights alleged. The purpose of this comment is to explore the understanding by the Colombian Constitutional Court of the right to cultural identity of indigenous communities, focusing particularly on whether it encompasses the right to be free from religious proselytism.

Rhetoric and Reality: The World Bank Development Policies, Mining Corporations, and Indigenous Communities in Latin America

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Munarriz
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
The World ◽  
Latin American Countries

AbstractRelying on critical legal approaches, in particular TWAIL and the work of Indigenous scholars, this paper analyzes the extent to which the World Bank's notion of "development" and its promotion of the expansion of market-based legal reforms in Latin American countries have benefited transnational corporations (TNCs) to the detriment of Indigenous Peoples. It argues that the World Bank's policy-based lending programmes and market-oriented legal framework since 1980 have contributed to an expansion of corporate mining activities, which have caused not only forced displacement and further impoverishment of numerous Indigenous communities but have also directly contributed to the destruction of their cultures and the environment they inhabit. Furthermore, the World Bank's normative operational policies and practices on issues affecting Indigenous Peoples have provided a legal framework and mechanisms that "manage" affected Indigenous communities in ways that further the dispossession of their lands and natural resources.

scholarly journals “I WRITE MYSELF AS MANSI”: ETHNICITY AND INDIGENEITY IN THE KONDA RIVER REGION

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-107
Author(s):  
Ilya V. Abramov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Nature Management ◽  
Strong Mixing ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
River Region ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Right

The article explores the identity of indigenous peoples in a multinational urbanized society, where mixed marriages prevail, the languages of national minorities are lost, and the way of life is not associated with traditional nature management. What does it mean to be indigenous in these conditions? Is ethnicity still linked to blood and land? The institute of ancestral lands of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Ugra is considered as a variant of (re)rooting of titular peoples who were earlier deprived of their rights to land and resources by the Soviet government. The author traces how the introduction of support programs for indigenous minorities provoked an instrumental approach to identity in the 1990s. The correction of genealogy was widespread and led to an unnatural jump in the number of indigenous peoples. The status of the subject of the law of the territories of traditional nature use (the user of ancestral lands) turned out to be equally problematic in the Konda river region. Against the background of ambiguous federal and regional projects to support indigenous peoples, the article examines the concept of indigeneity, which seems adequate for the territories of strong mixing of cultures, to which the Konda river region belongs. The right to determine membership in indigenous communities belongs to the members of these communities, as well as the choice of criteria by which this selection will be carried out. Global experience shows that heredity and consanguinity are not exceptional qualities for inclusion in the “indigenous slot”, but their core is formed by ethnic communities, as the most consolidated groups.

Securing the Rights: A Human Security Perspective in the Context of Arctic Indigenous Peoples

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 493-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamrul Hossain
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Right To Development ◽  
The Right

Abstract In today’s world the state-centric approach of security has been extended to includea human-centric approach. Since individuals are the ultimate victims of any securitythreats, a state is not secure if insecure inhabitants reside within it. The insecurityof individuals arises from various sources of threats, such as from “fear” aswell as from “want”. While often the concept is confused with that of human rights,the concept of human security embraces policy choices in order for the better implementationof human rights. In a sense therefore, it complements both the conceptsof traditional security and human rights. This article addresses the concept in thecontext of the Arctic and its people, particularly in the context of its indigenouspeoples. Obviously, because of differing meanings of the concept, the human securitythreats of the Arctic cannot be seen as similar to those of the other regions ofthe global south. This article nevertheless explores various human security concernsfaced by the Arctic indigenous communities. In addressing the concept of humansecurity in the context of the Arctic, the article affirms the normative developmentoccurred relatively recently in the human rights regime – which today includes a setof group rights called third generation human rights. These broadly include amongothers; the right to environment and the right to development. The presence of thesecategories of rights are therefore argued to ensure human security for which in theArctic perspective a right to self-determination plays a pivotal role, particularly forits indigenous communities.

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