The Politics of Human Rights: Indigenous Peoples and the Conflict on Collective Human Rights

Abstract

Human rights are not apart, above or outside social, cultural and political relations. The human rights discourse is creating and constituting social relations according to the visions on which the discourse is based. This argument has been illustrated by an empirical study of the political dispute regarding collective cultural rights of Native Hawai'ians. This political dispute shows that the human rights discourse, while implying a level political field, restates and takes conflicts to other arenas. It illustrates the many ways human rights and collective cultural rights are taken up in politics, and how they are viewed as utilities for social emancipation and political strategy. The article shows that recourse to the human rights discourse does not necessarily end political conflict. Human rights become objects for political conflict. The question of Native Hawai'ian cultural rights and sovereignty has been simmering since the US led the overthrow of the Hawai'ian monarchy in 1893 and the annexation of Hawai'i five years later in 1898. During the last decades demands for cultural recognition and sovereignty for Hawai'i have been renewed and taken to the political frontline. This period has also seen a renaissance of Native Hawai'ian culture, language and identity. A common strategy for the different sovereignty groups is to use culture as a political strategy in claiming human rights and political sovereignty.