SMÅ SKRIDT ELLER ET KÆMPE SPRING: Indfødte folk og de Forenede Nationer

Abstract

Julian Burger: Small steps or a giant leap:
 Indigenous people and the United Nations
 For the first five decades of the existence of
 the United Nations indigenous people have
 been absent from the deliberations of the
 world organization. But over the last fifteen
 years small but significant changes have occured.
 The article describes the development
 of how the indigenous voice „stepwise“,
 has gained more and more resonance inside
 the United Nations system. A short history
 of The Working Group of Indigenous
 Populations is sketched, elaborating on its
 most important achievement, the draft declaration
 on the rights of indigenous peoples.
 The author outlines the innovating proposals
 of this unique document, as well as its contested
 status for some States, specifically
 conceming the issue of defining the controversial
 concept of self-determination.
 Among other activities, initiated by the United
 Nations on indigenous matters, the article
 emphazises the studies on historie treaties
 and indigenous cultural and intellectual
 property, as well as expert seminars on racism,
 self-govemment, sustainable development,
 and land rights. Finally an assesment is
 made on the possible outeome of the Year
 and the Decade of Indigenous Peoples, the
 outeome of which, hopefully, could be a permanent
 forum for indigenous peoples inside
 the United Nations system.