Human Rights Of Indigenous Peoples Research Articles

The UNDRIP and the legal significance of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination: a human rights approach with a multidimensional perspective

ABSTRACTTen years have passed since the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the recognition of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination. The declaration provides the first universal instrument to recognise and elaborate on the content of the right to self-determination for indigenous peoples. Yet, the adoption of the declaration has not solved all controversies and the implementation of the right to self-determination remains a contentious issue in practice. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to describe and analyse the legal significance of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination as enshrined in the UNDRIP. Since the declaration emphasises the principle of territorial integrity of sovereign states, this analysis essentially focuses on the examination of what it means to claim self-determination beyond any claims for independence. In this analysis, the study argues that self-determination is based on a democratic model of self-determination that is grounded in human rights law and which calls both for the autonomy and the participation of indigenous peoples in decision-making processes that affect them. This model of self-determination is also multidimensional is so far as it includes a political, a resource and external dimensions. Ultimately, this study evidences that beyond the question of its implementation, the UNDRIP opens the pathway to significantly bolster the democratic understanding of self-determination in a manner that contributes to developing modern international law on the question of self-determination and strengten the human rights of indigenous peoples.

El indígena frente a la ley penal: Una posición desde los Derechos Humanos de los pueblos indígenas

El desarrollo actual de los Derechos Humanos de los pueblos indígenas nos exige repensar las diferentes áreas del derecho para garantizar y efectivizarles un trato digno e igualitario. Ante este escenario, debemos repensar la posición del indígena frente al derecho penal. El presente trabajo busca proponer una posición en construcción sobre el tratamiento del indígena dentro de los estratos analíticos de la teoría del delito. Una posición que tiene en cuenta el actual reconocimiento de los Derechos Humanos de los pueblos indígenas, y ofrece a la dogmática jurídico-penal, una alternativa acorde a la diversidad cultural y respetuosa de los principios que rigen el sistema penal.

Social Cost and Material Loss: The Dakota Access Pipeline

This case study examines the numerous impacts attendant to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project to highlight the costs that companies, financial institutions and investors linked to the project faced by not respecting the human rights of indigenous peoples. This case study thus serves as a basis for the assertion that social risk resulting from the absence of adequate human rights protections can have material impacts. The case study used multiple methods to quantify the material losses including a holistic cost assessment and, in part, an event study methodology. The results revealed that most DAPL tied entities experienced significant financial losses because of their association with the project. Significantly, this case study estimates that the costs incurred by Energy Transfer Partners, DAPL’s parent company, and other firms with ownership stake in DAPL for the entire project are not less than $7.5 billion, nearly double what the project was estimated to cost at the outset. The case study data points to several conclusions: notably that all entities must conduct thorough due diligence and disclosure on social risks related to human rights prior to any business transaction on or near indigenous lands; that costs accumulate to local communities, to taxpayers and to tribal governments as well as larger firms; and, that the #NoDAPL movement grew out of a growing social movement of indigenous peoples pushing for respect for their human rights as to development of their lands, territories, and resources.

El reconocimiento de “la justicia indígena” como agente de la reivindicación de los pueblos indígenas en el marco del pluralismo jurídico

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar la justicia indígena como un elemento activo en la reivindicación de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas, a través de la histo- ria en el marco constitucional, reconociendo su impacto en el derecho internacional. Cabe destacar que este artículo pretende enfocar a la justicia indígena como un prin- cipio aplicable a las distintas esferas en las que se desarrollan actualmente los pueblos y las comunidades indígenas, y no únicamente como un valor absoluto relacionado a la facultad de administrar justicia por parte de líderes indígenas. De este modo, es importante establecer que la justicia indígena no responde a una formula única y exacta, sino que existen cientos de justicias indígenas en el continente americano, que resurgen con el inicio del pluralismo jurídico, en contraposición al modelo de Estado monista.

Pérdida y rescate de los derechos económicos, políticos y culturales de los pueblos originarios en El Salvador, en relación con la declaración de Naciones Unidas sobre los derechos de los pueblos indígenas

El presente artículo es el resultado final de un proyecto de investigación respecto de la pérdida y rescate de los derechos económicos, políticos y culturales de los pueblos originarios en El Salvador, así como la aplicación de sus derechos humanos en la actualidad, según la Declaración de Naciones Unidas sobre los derechos de los pueblos indígenas, contrastando con la condición de vida de los indígenas salvadoreños. En síntesis, la tesis principal es que la intervención del Estado salvadoreño es fundamental para el reconocimiento de los derechos de los pueblos originarios relativos a la calidad de vida económica, política y cultural.Con base en los resultados, la actual situación económica, política y cultural que viven los diferentes pueblos originarios en El Salvador es difícil, esto a pesar de recibir una pequeña ayuda económica por parte del Gobierno. Sin embargo, esta ayuda no es suficiente para sostener los necesarios programas de reactivación de la economía, política y cultura. Políticamente tienen voz y voto debido a que son salvadoreños por nacimiento, sin embargo, como pueblos indígenas no tienen la capacidad de expresarse socialmente; son pueblos que tratan de sobrevivir al paso de los años; y lo máximo que está realizando el Estado es la innovación de métodos para atraer el turismo. Aun así, dichos pueblos se esfuerzan constantemente contra muchas más situaciones que ponen en riesgo su existencia. El problema radica en la falta de educación sobre sus derechos humanos. Este desconocimiento provoca que los dirigentes indígenas conozcan qué lugar ocupan en la estructura social del país y cuáles son sus posibilidades de participación económica, política y cultural; y esta falta de conocimiento, organización y participación es aprovechada por los sectores públicos y privados para dejarlos en el olvido.Entre las principales causas que provocan la falta de cumplimiento, por parte del Estado salvadoreño, de los derechos humanos de los pueblos originarios está el poco conocimiento que han adquirido estos acerca de los derechos humanos que las leyes nacionales e internacionales establecen, y que pueden aplicar a su favor.Por ende, se propone realizar capacitaciones en relación con los derechos de los pueblos originarios y de los derechos establecidos en la Constitución de la República de El Salvador, y hacer convenios con medios de comunicación para que presenten la forma de vida de la población indígena, y, a partir de esto, gestionar proyectos de rescate y valoración de esos derechos.Entorno, junio 2018, número 65: 69-76

Crime de genocídio e as violações dos direitos territoriais dos povos indígenas no Brasil

O recrudescimento da violência contra os povos indígenas nas disputas territoriais no Brasil e as atuais medidas legislativas e judiciais prejudiciais à s suas garantias constitucionais podem indicar um quadro inicial de genocídio? Partindo desta provocação, este artigo pretende discutir duas possibilidades de utilização estratégica do crime de genocídio para a tutela dos direitos humanos dos povos indígenas: a aplicação do marco de análise da ONU para a prevenção de crimes de atrocidade e a utilização do conceito de etnocídio em casos de desestruturação de comunidades indígenas impactadas por grandes empreendimentos, como a Usina de Belo Monte. Conclui-se que ambos possuem efeitos jurídicos concretos que podem contribuir para a garantia de direitos e a prevenção de violações.

Human rights of indigenous people and remedies for protection

Human rights of indigenous people and remedies for protection

MITIGATING STATE SOVEREIGNTY: THE DUTY TO CONSULT WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Few areas of international law practice illustrate the tensions between business and human rights as well as the implementation of the duty to consult with indigenous peoples. Consultations give indigenous and tribal peoples a safeguard for protection of their rights when confronted by the decisions of governments and business enterprises that may directly affect them. While states, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and corporations are starting to rely on, and to take, this duty seriously, states struggle with tailoring adequate processes, NGOs often argue that the duty provides indigenous peoples with an absolute right to give or withhold consent, and corporations use different strategies to limit the scope of consultations. Based on two case studies in Latin America, we identify divergent positions on the duty to consult – positions we call instrumentalist, consent-or-veto power, and minimalist – and we explain the main elements of each of these positions. After clarifying common imprecisions, we argue for an approach centred on the human rights of indigenous peoples to reconcile this divergent conceptualization of the duty by different stakeholders. Finally, we argue for reinforcing indigenous peoples’ rights with mechanisms for specific safeguards and direct participation in benefits, drawing on the United Nation’s ‘protect, respect, and remedy’ framework, to mitigate the adverse consequences of the existing distribution of sovereign power as predicated by Patrick Macklem’s influential work.

Included or Excluded: An Analysis of the Application of the Free, Prior and Informed Consent Principle in Land Grabbing Cases in Cameroon

Even though the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is soft law, the need to respect, protect and fulfil the rights to be informed and to be involved in development projects is strongly backed in international legal instruments including inter alia the ILO Convention 169 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal People in Independent Countries (1998) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous and Tribal People (2007). These instruments do not only appear to be the most comprehensive and advanced international legal instruments that deal with indigenous peoples' rights in terms of the FPIC, but also signal an addition to the growing body of international human rights law that serves to ensure the realisation and protection of the substantive environmental and other human rights of indigenous people, particularly in the context of land grabbing activities that have the potential to negatively impact on their rights. Such rights include, for example, the rights to be informed and to participate in decision-making processes with respect to development projects, including land grabbing activities. This implies an obligation on states party to such international agreements to ensure that indigenous people are informed about and are actively involved in both the negotiation and the implementation of land grabbing deals. However, because the latter often takes place against the background of non-transparent transactions which are inimical to the rights and interests of indigenous people, one may wonder why the principle of FPIC is not applicable during land grabbing transactions.
 Focusing on Cameroon, this article examines instances of land grabbing in the country in order to support this hypothesis. This is done by focusing specifically on the application of the principle of FPIC. The arguments in the article are inspired by international law in which the application of the principle in the context of land grabbing serves not only to protect the rights and interests of indigenous people but is also conducive to fostering and reinforcing the land governance regime of host countries involved in such deals. To this end, the article concludes that because the principle embodies aspects of procedural rights such as the rights to information and participation, which are often conspicuously lacking during land grabbing contracts, its application in and during land grabbing might be useful to set the basis for the recognition, promotion, and enforcement of local communities' rights in Cameroon.
 

Under the Radar: Fair and Equitable Benefit-Sharing and the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Related to Natural Resources

As a result of little-noticed cross-fertilization between international environmental law and international human rights law, fair and equitable sharing of benefits is emerging as an inherent component of the human rights of indigenous peoples and local communities that may be affected by traditional forms of natural resource extraction and by nature conservation measures. While such cross-fertilization is still incipient, exploring the full potential for a mutually supportive interpretation of benefit-sharing in the natural resource sector serves to illuminate the over-looked interplay of benefit-sharing with impact assessment, consent, and compensation, both in terms of States’ due diligence and of business responsibility to respect human rights. A nuanced appreciation of the opportunities and risks of benefit-sharing at the intersection of international biodiversity and human rights law may not only allow for a better appreciation of respective blind spots and missed opportunities for cross-compliance. It may also shed light on the extent to which international law can support a respectful dialogue between different worldviews about nature, development and conservation.

Speculative States

This essay analyzes the legal arguments made by Gerald Vizenor in his 1991 speculative novel Heirs of Columbus. I will contextualize this Indigenous speculative text in terms of the development of international human rights law at the end of the twentieth century. Specifically, I analyze Heirs of Columbus in relationship to the Columbian quincentennial, paying close attention to how Vizenor critiques contemporaneous international legal norms in response to global celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas. Throughout this essay, I identify passages from Heirs of Columbus that demonstrate how Vizenor uses the speculative genre to encourage and demonstrate the reformation of international law and the construction of international political coalitions.1My reading of Heirs of Columbus is inspired by James Cox's literary analysis of it. In Muting White Noise (2006), Cox explores how Vizenor Eurowestern storytelling traditions that are hostile to Native people in Heirs of Columbus. In comparison to such Eurowestern literary texts, Vizenor's sources of worldviews, identities, and representations are more nourishing and more specifically Native: oral individual and communal memories, dreams, and laser holograms projected into the sky (102). Building from Cox's study, which unpacks Vizenor's strategy of revising non-Native textual traditions, I focus my analysis on how Vizenor specifically revises Eurocentric legal norms (which simultaneously privilege and constitute non-native textual traditions). I am particularly interested in how Vizenor reconceptualizes citizenship criteria and human rights law from an Anishinaabe perspective. By narrating the creation of a new Indigenous state named Point Assinika-situated at the border between Canada and the US -Vizenor reforms tribal citizenship criteria as an act of external self-determination that privileges Indigenous forms of governance and law. And, in terms of human rights law, Vizenor centers the human right to health as a universal right held by each citizen in the new Indigenous state. Point Assinika's commitment to recognizing the right to health also exposes human rights abuses in neighboring settler- colonial states: in comparison to how Point Assinika safeguards the right to health, Canada and the US have failed to secure appropriate healthcare for their citizens.Thus Point Assinika emerges as an Indigenous space that upholds human rights ideals. Rather than rely on the settler-colonial state to respect human rights law, Vizenor makes the argument that securing external self-determination for Indigenous peoples is the best way to protect the human rights of Indigenous peoples.2 Furthermore, Vizenor suggests that human rights ideals will be fully realized globally only when international legal norms reflect the values of Indigenous epistemologies and mandate the direct participation of Indigenous peoples. In other words, the future success of human rights law at large is contingent on the implementation of Indigenous traditions and knowledges to reshape international legal norms. By narrating the decolonization of legal norms, Heirs of Columbus offers a powerful example of how Indigenous futurisms contend with various legal legacies of colonialism by privileging Indigenous legal traditions and reforming international law from Indigenous perspectives.Indigenous speculative Fiction at the Columbian QuincentennialIn 1992, nation-states on both sides of the Atlantic marked the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas with elaborate and costly celebrations. most expensive by far was the Universal Exposition in Seville.3 With a price tag of over 9.3 billion euros, the Expo drew over 42 million visitors. Lasting from April 20 to October 12, the Expo coincided with the Barcelona Summer Olympics and boasted the motto of The Age of Discovery. …

The Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Forest-Dependent Communities in the Complex Legal Framework for REDD+

The Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Forest-Dependent Communities in the Complex Legal Framework for REDD+

Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Africa within the Context of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Sustainable Environmental Management

Over the course of history to date, traditional or local communities in Africa have continued to rely heavily on indigenous knowledge to conserve and manage the environment and use local natural resources in a sustainable manner.Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is still intact among local or indigenous communities in many parts of Africa. However, this knowledge is not well documented and it stands in danger of being lost as its custodians are passing away.Hence this paper aims at realizing the following objectives: - to,i. Provide clarification of the following key terms: - Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS), Sustainable environmental management, (SEM) and human rights;ii. Underscore the important role of IKS in contributing to the development of indicators for measuring sustainability in environment, biodiversity conservation and use of local natural resources, thereby establishing a significant nexus between Traditional Knowledge and Environmental management;iii. Underscore the necessity for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in Africa over their practices, innovations and knowledge of their environment and its sustainable management;iv. Conclude with some recommendations to readers.

What's Right? Development and Access to Capital for Indigenous Peoples

This article explores the role of the private sector and financial services companies in respecting, protecting and particularly advancing the human rights of Indigenous peoples. Using the results from a participatory research based project with an Indigenous group in Canada, it makes the argument that firms in the financial sector have an obligation to respect and advance the rights of Indigenous peoples.

Protecting the economic patrimony of indigenous nations: the case of the Shuar

This article concerns contemporary problems of indigenous peoples and human rights. In general, the human rights of indigenous people occupy marginal space in the global discourse. Overcoming cultural hurdles, and recognizing that indigenous peoples are not objects of juridical concern, not abstractions of analytically precise units of analysis, but in fact are subjects who come with perspectives of identity, demand and expectations, is a necessary starting point for both the scholar and the advocate. This article deals with a particular indigenous nation in the Amazon: the Shuar. The Shuar hold important perspectives of identity, demand and expectation encompassing the critical values that sustain their lives in the community.

Participatory Rights of Russian Indigenous Peoples Regarding Land Issues

Altogether 40 types of indigenous peoples presently inhabit their ancestral lands in the Russian North, Siberia and the Far East. The indigenous peoples have traditionally occupied these territories, which provide the entire country with oil and gas. Among the outcomes of intensive nature use, we are witnessing a large-scale alienation of indigenous homelands and granting licences to private corporations for exploitation of natural resources. On top of this, Russian legislation does not provide the indigenous peoples with the right of land ownership. Neither does it guarantee for them any preferential access to land. Moreover, the international standards regarding human rights of indigenous peoples are not acknowledged in Russia. The planned amendments of national legislation regarding the rights of indigenous peoples to preferential access to land would solve the mentioned problems. Nonetheless, the author suggests that amending of legal acts in this case means a shift in the official stance of Russia as regards indigenous rights to land. At least previously, public authorities were reluctant to legalise indigenous title to land. This article studies, from the perspective of international human rights law, how indigenous peoples can influence decision-making processes affecting their right to land, while awaiting the forthcoming legal amendments. In light of previous experiences of the engagement of indigenous peoples in the implementation of state policies, the author believes that such engagement contributes effectively to the protection of indigenous rights.

Armed Conflict and Human Rights in Colombia

Armed Conflict and Human Rights in Colombia

The authors reply

to the principles of legal pluralism, it safeguards the principles laid out under international hu-man rights legislation and affirms respect for the internal law of peoples whenever human rights (as well as each national state’s legislation) are not violated. Thus, the argumentation relying on this safeguard is only relatively effective. It would be more effective to draw on Brazil’s commitment, assumed by ratifying this Convention, but also more recently by signing the Declaration of the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to not leg-islate for indigenous peoples without their own participation in the decision-making process on norms that will affect their lives.Further considering respect for each people’s own law, I have argued at length that the discus-sion of infanticide does not involve this issue, but another area which I find central for dealing with such extreme dilemmas as infanticide: the state’s responsibility to protect each peoples inter’ nal de-cision-making capacity, and in keeping with this, safeguarding each people’s autonomy to build its own history. Through its own history, woven from the internal debate, and not the preservation of customs from an essentialist perspective of cul-ture, each people will build its own particular dia-logue with the common sphere of human rights. This has been my stance, and I believe that it al-lows us to efficiently transcend the paralyzing di-chotomy between relativism and universalism

Os autores respondem

to the principles of legal pluralism, it safeguards the principles laid out under international hu-man rights legislation and affirms respect for the internal law of peoples whenever human rights (as well as each national state’s legislation) are not violated. Thus, the argumentation relying on this safeguard is only relatively effective. It would be more effective to draw on Brazil’s commitment, assumed by ratifying this Convention, but also more recently by signing the Declaration of the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to not leg-islate for indigenous peoples without their own participation in the decision-making process on norms that will affect their lives.Further considering respect for each people’s own law, I have argued at length that the discus-sion of infanticide does not involve this issue, but another area which I find central for dealing with such extreme dilemmas as infanticide: the state’s responsibility to protect each peoples inter’ nal de-cision-making capacity, and in keeping with this, safeguarding each people’s autonomy to build its own history. Through its own history, woven from the internal debate, and not the preservation of customs from an essentialist perspective of cul-ture, each people will build its own particular dia-logue with the common sphere of human rights. This has been my stance, and I believe that it al-lows us to efficiently transcend the paralyzing di-chotomy between relativism and universalism

International column: The open source road to Web 2.0 for Nigeria: A view of two worlds from the outside

International column: The open source road to Web 2.0 for Nigeria: A view of two worlds from the outside