Navigating the spaces between human rights and justice: cultivating Indigenous representation in global environmental governance

ABSTRACT

How and in what ways do ‘marginalized' actors influence global environmental governance? Through a collaborative event ethnography of the Paris Climate Summit (COP21), we examine power as it emerges through interactions between actors, institutions, and spaces, focusing on Indigenous Peoples’ engagement at the international treaty negotiations. The findings show how Indigenous Peoples generate new meanings and avenues for their pursuits of justice by contesting the production of various forms of rights. In doing so, Indigenous delegates situate power through the politics of representation, carving out distinct political roles in international arenas.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous Peoples
• global environmental governance
• justice
• human rights
• collaborative event ethnography

Acknowledgements

CEE relies on collaboration in coordinating field work, collecting and analyzing data, and thinking through meaning, and this paper reflects the efforts of the larger team working on site in Paris. The Paris-COP21 CEE team is: project leaders Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya and Laura Zanotti, and researchers Scott Benzing, Sarah Huang, Fernando Tormos, Suraya Williams, and Elizabeth Wulbrecht. This research was supported by Purdue Climate Change Research Center, the department of Political Science at Purdue University, Purdue University’s College of Liberal Arts, the Center for the Environment at Purdue University, and the Purdue Policy Research Institute. CEE relies on collaboration, in coordinating field work, collecting and analyzing data, and thinking through meaning, and this paper reflects the efforts of the larger team. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the International Studies Association (2015, 2016). Special thanks to the following individuals who provided valuable comments: Shana Starobin, Andy Ten Eyck. Research assistance provided by: Scott Benzing, Kate Yeater, and Desmond O’Shaughnessy. Author Contributions: KMS: Conceived and designed the study; collected, analyzed and interpreted the data, drafted and critically revised the article. LZ: Contributed to study concept and designed the study; collected, analyzed and interpreted the data; critically revised article for important intellectual content. KH: Provided research assistance and support, contributed to data collection and analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We use the term ‘marginalized’ in this paper because it refers to the ways in which certain groups can be treated as peripheral or insignificant in different political and policy arenas. Importantly, however, this term does not capture the range of agency that communities have or how communities self-identify.

2 We use multiple terms that refer to phenomena that transcend specific locales. In this article, international refers primarily to phenomena rooted in nation-state relationships. Transnational refers to phenomena that are both rooted in specific locations and connect across nation-state borders. Global refers to phenomena that, although not rooted in specific locales or generated by specific groups of actors, have effects that transcend geographic, temporal, and spatial scales.

3 Author field notes, November 12-19, 2014

4 Please see Campbell et al. (2014a) for a more in-depth discussion of these analytics.

5 This research was conducted in compliance with a registered IRB protocol at Purdue University.

6 See http://www.iipfcc.org.

7 Author field notes, December 2, 2015.

8 IEN Press Release, December 8, 2015. Available online: https://www.ienearth.org/un-promoting-potentially-genocidal-policy-at-world-climate-summit/.

9 The original draft text released in December 2014 for ADP 2–7 referenced Indigenous Peoples three times, not in connection to human rights. By ADP 2–9 in June 2015, the draft nearly doubled in page length and contained ten references to Indigenous Peoples, several in connection to human rights. “Our proposals to COP21 and beyond.” http://www.iwgia.org/iwgia_files_news_files/1290_IP_Political_statement.pdf.

10 Author Field Notes, December 2, 2015.

11 Author Field Notes, December 2, 2015.

12 Author Field Notes, December 4, 2015, 12:00.

13 Indigenous Peoples (versus ‘People’), recognizes that more than one distinct group of people constitute the world’s Indigenous population. Removing the “s” is a tool of erasure to reduce the identities, histories, cultures, and ways of knowing of Indigenous populations across the world.

14 Author Interview, December 3, 2015, 12:30.

15 Author Field Notes, December 4, 2015, 12:00.

16 Author Interview, December 7, 2015, 13:00.

17 Author Interview, December 7, 2015, 13:00.

18 Team Field Notes, December 7, 2015, 12:30.

19 Author Field Notes, December 7, 2017, 10:30.

20 Team Field Notes, December 7, 2015, 11:00.

21 Team Field Notes, December 7, 2015, 11:00.

22 See also the press release titled, “Indigenous Peoples, human rights and climate changes from the Government of Norway on December 7, 2015: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/cop21-indigenous-peoples-human-rights-and-climat-changes/id2466047/.

23 Author Field Notes, December 8, 2015, 11:30.

24 Author Field Notes, December 8, 2015, 11:30.

25 Author Field Notes, December 11, 2015, 12:45.

26 Letter dated December 11, 2015, addressed to “His Excellency Laurent Fabius, President of the COP-21.” Signed by 14 Ministers and Heads of State, including Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Finland, Guatemala, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, and Uruguay.

27 ‘Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity … ’ (UN 2015, emphasis added).

28 IIPFCC, www.iipfcc.org/cop21.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Purdue Climate Change Research Center, the department of Political Science at Purdue University, College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University, the Center for the Environment at Purdue University, and the Purdue Policy Research Institute at Purdue University.

Notes on contributors

Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya

Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Environmental Policy and Culture program at Northwestern University, with an affiliation with the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research. Trained as an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist, Dr. Marion Suiseeya specializes in global environmental politics and political ecology, forging interdisciplinary connections between international relations, comparative politics, anthropology, and human geography. Her research examines the justice dynamics of global forest and global climate governance and its impacts on forest communities, primarily in Laos and mainland Southeast Asia.

Laura Zanotti

Laura Zanotti is a Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University. She has affiliations with the Center for the Environment, Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program. Zanotti is an interdisciplinary social scientist whose research program partners with communities to examine how local livelihoods and well-being can be sustained for future generations. Using a feminist political ecology framework, Zanotti maps out spatial inequalities and injustices experienced by resource-dependent communities and highlights local creativity in the context of acute change.

Kate Haapala

Kate M. Haapala is a Fishery Analyst for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Purdue University. Haapala is an interdisciplinary social scientist whose work focuses on the interlinkages between resource management, environmental justice, and Indigenous Alaskans. Her recent work uses collaborative approaches to design new institutional pathways for incorporating Local and Traditional Knowledge into resource management systems. Her recent work has been published in International Environmental Agreements.