'The Government of Canada is committed to renewing the relationship with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples based on the recognition of rights, respect, cooperation and partnership. To live up to this commitment, the Government of Canada is undertaking major reforms to its laws and policies to ensure the constitutional commitments made to Indigenous peoples are respected. The recognition and implementation of Indigenous rights is central to Canada's relationship with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and to advance the vital work of reconciliation. As part of the ongoing journey of reconciliation, the Government of Canada has launched a national engagement to help develop a Recognition and Implementation of Indigenous Rights Framework'--Purpose, p. 3.
The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Constitutions Assessment Tool helps users to analyse a constitution from the perspective of indigenous peoples’ rights. Using a series of questions, short explanations and example provisions from constitutions around the world, the Assessment Tool guides its users through the text of a constitution and allows for systematic analysis of the language and provisions of a constitutional text to assess how robustly indigenous peoples’ rights are reflected in it. A constitution articulates a vision that reflects a state’s values and history, as well as its aspirational objectives for the future. As the supreme law of a state, the constitution defines its structure and institutions, distributes political power, and recognizes and protects fundamental rights, critically determining the relationship between citizens and governments. Embedding in a constitution recognition of and rights-based protections for specific groups, such as indigenous peoples, can give these groups and their rights enhanced protection. This can be furthered by providing for specialized institutions and processes to deepen the realization of those rights in practice.
This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the complicated power relations surrounding the recognition and implementation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights at multiple scales. The adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 was heralded as the beginning of a new era for Indigenous Peoples’ participation in global governance bodies, as well as for the realization of their rights – in particular, the right to self-determination. These rights are defined and agreed upon internationally, but must be enacted at regional, national, and local scales. Can the global movement to promote Indigenous Peoples’ rights change the experience of communities at the local level? Or are the concepts that it mobilizes, around rights and political tools, essentially a discourse circulating internationally, relatively disconnected from practical situations? Are the categories and processes associated with Indigenous Peoples simply an extension of colonial categories and processes, or do they challenge existing norms and structures? This collection draws together the works of anthropologists, political scientists, and legal scholars to address such questions. Examining the legal, historical, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of the Indigenous Peoples' rights movement, at global, regional, national, and local levels, the chapters present a series of case studies that reveal the complex power relations that inform the ongoing struggles of Indigenous Peoples to secure their human rights. The book will be of interest to social scientists and legal scholars studying Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and international human rights movements in general.
Despite centuries of sustained attacks against their collective existence, Indigenous peoples represent over 5,000 languages and cultures in more than 70 nations on six continents. Most have also retained social, cultural, economic, and political characteristics distinct from other segments of national populations, yet recognition of their humanity and rights has been a struggle to achieve. Based on personal experience, James (Sa’ke’j) Youngblood Henderson documents the generation-long struggle that led to the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations General Assembly. Henderson puts the Declaration and the struggles of Indigenous peoples in a wider context, outlining the rise of international law and how it was shaped by European ideas, the rise of the UN, and post-WWII agreements focusing on human rights.
This ground-breaking Research Handbook provides a state-of-the-art discussion of the international law of Indigenous rights and how it has developed in recent decades. Drawing from their extensive knowledge of the topic, leading scholars provide strong general coverage and highlight the challenges and cutting-edge issues arising in international Indigenous rights law.
Throughout the world, indigenous rights have become increasingly prominent and controversial. The recent adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the latest in a series of significant developments in the recognition of such rights across a range of jurisdictions. The papers in this collection address the most important philosophical and practical issues informing the discussion of indigenous rights over the past decade or so, at both the international and national levels. Its contributing authors comprise some of the most interesting and influential indigenous and non-indigenous thinkers presently writing on the topic.
This interim report covers the activities of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada since the appointment of the current three Commissioners on July 1, 2009. The report summarizes: the activities of the Commissioners, the messages presented to the Commission at hearings and National Events, the activities of the Commission with relation to its mandate, the Commission's interim findings, the Commission's recommendations.
This book explains how recognition theory contributes to non-colonial and enduring political relationships between Indigenous nations and the state. It refers to Indigenous Australian arguments for a Voice to Parliament and treaties to show what recognition may mean for practical politics and policy-making. It considers critiques of recognition theory by Canadian First Nations’ scholars who make strong arguments for its assimilationist effect, but shows that ultimately, recognition is a theory and practice of transformative potential, requiring fundamentally different ways of thinking about citizenship and sovereignty. This book draws extensively on New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi and measures to support Maori political participation, to show what treaties and a Voice to Parliament could mean in practical terms. It responds to liberal democratic objections to show how institutionalised means of indigenous participation may, in fact, make democracy work better.
"The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a culmination of a centuries-long struggle by indigenous peoples for justice. It is an important new addition to UN human rights instruments in that it promotes equality for the world's indigenous peoples and recognizes their collective rights."--Back cover.
The right of indigenous peoples under international human rights law to give or withhold their Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) to natural resource extraction in their territories is increasingly recognized by intergovernmental organizations, international bodies, and industry actors, as well as in the domestic law of some States. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the historical basis and status of the requirement for indigenous peoples’ consent under international law, examining its relationship with debates and practice pertaining to the acquisition of title to territory throughout the colonial era. Cathal Doyle examines the evolution of the contemporary concept of FPIC and the main challenges and debates associated with its recognition and implementation. Drawing on existing jurisprudence and evolving international standards, policies and practices, Doyle argues that FPIC constitutes an emerging norm of international law, which is derived from indigenous peoples’ self-determination, territorial and cultural rights, and is fundamental to their realization. This rights consistent version of FPIC guarantees that the responses to questions and challenges posed by the extractive industry’s increasingly pervasive reach will be provided by indigenous peoples themselves. The book will be of great interest and value to students and researchers of public international law, and indigenous peoples and human rights.
