Indigenous peoples' rights and cultural identity in the inter-American context

Abstract

There is a wide set of rules and political documents that refer to the right to cultural identity, in particular with regard to Indigenous Peoples. However, the definition of a right to cultural identity as a human right has been criticised. The risk of tensions and conflicts based on religious or ethnicity grounds puts culture in a central place in the process of defining peoples' identity. This is a relevant issue in contemporary multicultural societies, not limited to indigenous rights.

The concept of cultural identity and rights has expanded from the individual right to participate in and enjoy cultural events and products, to a wider interpretation of collective cultural rights. This shift includes, for instance, the use of lands by indigenous peoples, the use of local languages, and the use of traditional forms of governance. The relevant legal discussion concerns how this recognition is defined and supported in both national and international law, and how judicial decisions have addressed this complex legal issue.

The scope of this article is to explore the possible legal content of the right to cultural identity, with particular attention to the inter-American human rights system, which may help to clarify the legal content of the right to cultural identity in general, and of indigenous peoples in particular.

Keywords:

• indigenous peoples
• human rights
• cultural rights
• identity
• Organisation of American States

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the anonymous reviewer and the editor of this special issue for their very fruitful comments.

Notes

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P. Macklem, ‘Minority Rights in International Law’, International Journal of Constitutional Law 6 (2008): 531–2; W. Kimlicka, ‘The Internationalization of Minority Rights’, International Journal of Constitutional Law 6 (2008): 1–32.

See W. Kymlicka, Politics in the Vernacular (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 54.

On this issue, see K.L. Karst, ‘Paths to Belonging: The Constitutions and Cultural Identity’, North Carolina Law Review 64 (1986): 303–77.

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J. Donnelly, ‘Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights’, Human Rights Quarterly 6 (1984): 400–19.

UN, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN doc. A/811 (10 December 1948), Art. 2.

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See Xanthaki, Indigenous Rights, 102–27.

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Y.M. Donders, Towards a Right to Cultural Identity? (Antwerpen: Intersentia, 2002).

Xanthaki, Indigenous Rights, 196–236; E. Stamatopoulou, Cultural Rights in International Law (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2007); W.K. Barth, On Cultural Rights: The Equality of Nations and the Minority Legal Tradition (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2008).

See Raz, ‘Multiculturalism: A Liberal Perspective’; and Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship.

R.A. Shweder, M. Minow and H.R. Markus, eds, Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002).

See C. Samson, ‘Indigenous Peoples Rights: Anthropology and the Right to Culture’, in Interpreting Human Rights: Social Science Perspectives, ed. R. Morgan and B. Turner (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009), 82–3.

T. Turner, ‘Human Rights, Human Difference: Anthropology's Contribution to an Emancipatory Cultural Politics’, Journal of Anthropological Research 53 (1997): 273–91; R. Stavenhagen, ‘Cultural Rights and Universal Human Rights’, in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Textbook, ed. A. Eide, C. Krause and A. Rosas (Dordrecht/Boston/London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1995).

See W. Kymlicka, ed., The Rights of Minority Cultures (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).

Y. Dinstein, ‘Collective Human Rights of Peoples and Minorities’, International & Comparative Law Quarterly 25 (1976): 102–20; P. Alston, Peoples' Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); J. Crawford, ed., The Rights of Peoples (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); N. Ghanea and A. Xanthaki, eds, Minorities, Peoples and Self Determination: Essays in Honour of Patrick Thornberry (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2005); P. Thornberry, International Law and the Rights of Minorities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).

J.H. Burgers, ‘The Right to Cultural Identity’, in Human Rights in a Pluralist World, ed. J. Berting, P. R. Baehr, J. H. Burgers, C. Flinterman, B. de Klerk, C. A. van Minnen and K. Vander Wal (Westport/London: Meckler, 1990), 251–4; R. Stavenhagen, ‘The Right to Cultural Identity’ in Human Rights in a Pluralist World, ed. J. Berting, P. R. Baehr, J. H. Burgers, C. Flinterman, B. de Kerk, C. A. van Minnen and K. Vander Wal (Westport/London: Meckler, 1990), 255–8; and A. A. Cançado Trindade, ‘The Right in Indentity in the Evolving Jurisprudential Construction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’, in Multiculturalism and International Law, ed. S. Yee and Y.-Y. Morin (Leiden and Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2009), 477–499.

J. Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (London: Cornell University Press, 1989), 158–60.

Donders, Towards a Right to Cultural Identity?, 7.

See M.K. Arambulo, Strengthening the Supervision of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – Theoretical and Procedural Aspects (Antwerp/Groningen/Oxford: Hart/Intersentia, 1999).

Established by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), resolution 2000/22 (28 July 2000).

UN, Commission on Human Rights, resolution 2001/57 (24 April 2001); Human Rights Council, resolution 6/12 (28 September 2007), and resolution 6/36 (14 December 2007).

United Nations Development Group, Guidelines on Indigenous Peoples' Issues (1 February 2008), http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/docs/guidelines.pdf (accessed 9 May 2011). See also Xanthaki, Indigenous Rights.

J.M. Pasqualucci, The Practice and Procedure of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); J.M. Pasqualucci, ‘The Evolution of International Indigenous Rights in the Inter-American Human Rights System’, Human Rights Law Review 6 (2006): 281–322.

R. Wylie, The Self-Concept (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961).

See, Article 15 of the ICESCR, Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Co-operation (1966), UNESCO Recommendation on Participation by the People at Large in Cultural Life and Their Contribution (1976), UNESCO Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice (1978) and UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001).

Adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at its 31st session on 2 November 2001.

UNESCO, Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, CLT-2005/CONVENTION DIVERSITE-CULT REV (20 October 2005).

See UNESCO, L'UNESCO et la question de la diversité culturelle: bilan et stratégies, 1946–2004, Division des politiques culturelles et du dialogue interculturel, UNESCO, Paris, 2000 (Version révisée septembre 2004).

Adopted on 27 June 1989 by the General Conference of the International Labour Organisation at its 76th session. See P. Thornberry, Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights (Manchester: Juris Publishing and Manchester University Press, 2002), chap. 14.

UN General Assembly, resolution 47/135 (18 December 1992).

Council of Europe, Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, CETS No. 157, Strasbourg (1 February 1995).

UN doc. A/Res/61/295. Odello, ‘United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples’. Other related documents include: Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE, Copenhagen (29 June 1990); European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Strasbourg (5 November 1992); International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted and opened for signature and ratification by General Assembly resolution 2106 (XX) (21 December 1965); Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, approved and proposed for signature and ratification or accession by General Assembly resolution 260 A (III) (9 December 1948).

S. Collini, ed., Arnold: ‘Culture and Anarchy’ and Other Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 190.

S. Hall, ed., Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices (Milton Keynes: The Open University, 1997), 2.

See J.K. Cowan, ‘Culture and Rights after Culture and Rights’, American Anthropologist 108, no. 1 (2001): 9–24; J.D. Moore, Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists, 3rd ed. (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press: 2009); R. Murphy, Culture and Social Anthropology: An Overture, 2nd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1986), 14.

E.B. Tylor, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom (London: Murray, 1871), 1.

A.V. Sherratt, ‘Gordon Childe: Archaeology and Intellectual History’, Past and Present 125 (1989): 151–85.

See K.V. Flannery, ‘The Cultural Evolution of Civilizations’, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 3 (1972): 399–426.

See Samson, ‘Indigenous Peoples Rights: Anthropology and the Right to Culture’, 73–6; G.W. Stocking, Race, Culture, and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).

See M.E. Spiro, ‘Cultural Relativism and the Future of Anthropology’, Cultural Anthropology 1 (1989): 259–86.

J. Clifford, The Predicament of Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988).

Ibid., 338.

Ibid., 10.

Samson, ‘Indigenous Peoples Rights: Anthropology and the Right to Culture’, 70.

Stamatopoulou, Cultural Rights.

For a full analysis see Donders, Towards a Right to Cultural Identity?, chap. I.

J.W. Berry, ‘Aboriginal Cultural Identity’, The Canadian Journal of Native Studies XIX, no. 1 (1999): 1–36, 3.

See ‘Indigenous Identity and Human Rights’ below.

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: Perspectives and Realities (Ottawa, Ontario: Canada Communication Group Publishing, 1996).

Berry, ‘Aboriginal Cultural Identity’, 4.

H.N. Weaver, ‘Indigenous Identity: What Is It, and Who Really Has It?’, The American Indian Quarterly 25, no. 2 (2001): 240–55, 240.

Human Rights Committee, Lovelace v. Canada, Communication No. 24/1977, UN doc. CCPR/C/OP/1 at 37 (1984), in Human Rights Law Journal, 2 (1981): 158.

R. Baubock, ‘Cultural Minority Rights for Immigrants’, International Migration Review 30, no. 1 (1996): 203–50.

Perú, Corte Superior de Ancash, Expediente no. 110–98, Sentencia del 23 de noviembre de 1998.

For more examples see: Odello, ‘Indigenous Rights in the Constitutional State’.

See UN Charter, Art. 1(3); UDHR, Arts 1, 2(1) and 7; ICESCR Arts 2(2) and 3; N. Lerner, Group Rights and Discrimination in International Law (Dordrecht/Boston/London: Martinus Nijhoff, 2003); S. Fredman, Discrimination Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); A.F. Bayefsky, ‘The Principle of Equality or Non-Discrimination in International Law’, Human Rights Law Journal 11 (1990): 1.

Progress Report on the Concept and Practice of Affirmative Action by the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, UN doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2001/15 (26 June 2001): para. 7; International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Art. 1(4).

UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN doc. 217 A (III) (10 December 1948).

American Anthropological Association, ‘Statement on Human Rights’, American Anthropologist 49, no. 4 (1947): 539–43.

UN, Charter of the United Nations (24 October 1945), 1 UNTS XVI, Preamble, and Articles 1(3), 13(1)(b), 55, 62(2), 68.

UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (16 December 1966), UNTS, vol. 993, 3.

R. McCorquodale, Self-Determination in International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991); J. Klabbers, ‘The Right to Be Taken Seriously: Self-Determination in International Law’, Human Rights Quarterly 28 (2006): 186.

UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (16 December 1966), UNTS, vol. 999, 171.

See also Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (‘Protocol of San Salvador’), 17 November 1988, OAS Treaty Series No. 69 (1988), Art. 14.

P. Roe, ‘Securitization and Minority Rights: Conditions of Desecuritization’, Security Dialogue 35, no. 3 (2004): 279–94.

See Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005); Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003); Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001); Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972); Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970); Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954); and Universal Copyright Convention (1952 and 1971).

UNESCO, Mexico City Declaration on Cultural Policies, World Conference on Cultural Policies, Mexico City (26 July–6 August 1982), doc. CLT/MD/1, Part IV, in particular paras 1–9.

UN, Indigenous Peoples: Development with Culture and Identity in the Light to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN doc. E/C.19/2010/17 (18 February 2010).

Ibid. para. 65(c).

CESCR, General Comment No. 21, Right of Everyone to Take Part in the Cultural Life (Art. 15, para. 1(a), of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), UN doc. E/C.12/GC/21 (21 December 2009); R. O'Keefe, ‘“The Right to Take Part in Cultural Life” under Article 15 of the ICESCR’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly 47 (1998): 904–23; Stamatopoulou, Cultural Rights, 37–105.

CESCR, General Comment No. 21, para. 7.

Ibid.

Ibid., para. 6.

Ibid., para. 40.

Ibid., para. 49(a).

See, for instance: UN, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, State of the World's Indigenous Peoples, UN doc. ST/ESA/328 (New York: United Nations, 2009).

See J. Anaya, Indigenous Peoples in International Law, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

UN, Study of the Problem of Discrimination against Indigenous Populations, UN doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986/7 and Add.1–4 (UN Sales No. E.86.XIV.3: 1986).

ILO, Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (No. 169), 72 ILO Official Bull. 59, entered into force 5 September 1991. This Convention was a revised version of the 1957 ILO Convention 107 on the same topic.

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, ECOSOC, resolution 2000/22 (28 July 2000); UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, UN, Human Rights Commission, resolution 2001/57 (24 April 2001).

UN doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986/7/Add.4: 29, para. 379.

UN, Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 (20 November 1989), Art. 30.

CERD, General Recommendation No. 23: Indigenous Peoples (18 August 1997).

UNESCO doc. 160 EX/Decision 3.1.1, Part II, (2001).

Donders, Towards a Right to Cultural Identity?, 134–7.

World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, UN doc. A/CONF.157/23 (12 July 1993).

OAS, Record of the Current Status of the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, OEA/Ser.K/XVI, GT/DADIN/doc.334/08 rev. 6 (20 January 2011).

American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, OAS Res. XXX, adopted by the Ninth International Conference of American States (1948), reprinted in Basic Documents Pertaining to Human Rights in the Inter-American System, OEA/Ser.L.V/II.82 doc.6 rev.1 at 17 (1992).

See European Court of Human Rights, Tyrer v. United Kingdom, judgement of 25 April 1978, Series A no. 26, para. 31; European Court of Human Rights, Marckx case, judgement of 13 June 1979, Series A no. 31, para. 41; European Court of Human Rights, Loizidou v. Turkey (Preliminary Objections) judgement of 23 March 1995, Series A no. 310, para. 71.

ICJ, Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa), notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), Advisory Opinion, ICJ Reports 1971; para. 53.

Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua, Judgement, 31 August 2001, IACtHR Series C 79 (2001); 10 IHRR 758 (2003), para. 125.

IACtHR, Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented Migrants, Advisory Opinion OC-18/03 (17 September 2003), Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (Ser. A) No. 18 (2003), para. 120. See also: ‘Other Treaties’ Subject to the Consultative Jurisdiction of the Court (Art. 64 of the American Convention on Human Rights), Advisory Opinion OC-1/82 (24 September 1982), Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (Ser. A) No. 1 (1982); Interpretation of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man within the Framework of the Article 64 of the American Convention on Human Rights, Advisory Opinion OC-10/89 (14 July 1989), Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (Ser. A) No. 10, para. 43; The Right to Information on Consular Assistance in the Framework of the Guarantees of the Due Process of Law, Advisory Opinion OC-16/99 (1 October 1999), Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (Ser. A) No. 16 (1999), para. 115.

See OAS, Report on the Human Rights Situation of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.108 Doc. 62 (20 October 2000).

Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights.

American Declaration, Art. II and American Convention, Art. 24.

Yatama v. Nicaragua, Judgement of 23 June, IACtHR Series C 127 (2005), para. 184. IACtHR, Advisory Opinion on Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented Migrants, OC-18/03, 17 September 2003, para. 101.

Yatama case, para. 185.

OAS, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Ecuador, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.96 doc.10, rev.1 (24 April 1997): 115; See, also, articles 1(4) and 2(2) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (21 December 1965), UNTS, vol. 660, 195.

Yakye Axa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay (Merits, Reparations and Costs), Judgement of 17 June 2005, IACtHR Series C No. 125, para. 51.

ILO Convention No. 169, Art. 1(b); Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Art. I(1).

Pasqualucci, ‘The Evolution of International Indigenous Rights in the Inter-American Human Rights System’, 281–322, 295.

Yakye Axa Indigenous Community case, para. 82.

Samson, ‘Indigenous Peoples Rights: Anthropology and the Right to Culture’, 71.

HRC, Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee: Canada, UN doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.105 (7 April 1999), para. 8.

The first case was the Guahibo people in Colombia, Resolution 1690 in OAS, Informe Anual de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos 1971, OAS/Ser.L/V/II/.27, doc. 11 rev. (6 marzo 1972), Part III; other cases addressed include the Ache and Toba-Maskoy of Paraguay, the Miskito of Nicaragua, the Mayan of Guatemala, the Inuit and Athabascan of Alaska, the Kanaka Maoli of Hawaii.

See T.L. Gragson, ‘Land Rights and Indigenous Peoples: The Role of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’, The Latin American Anthropology Review 4 (1992): 18.

See O. Kreimer, ‘Collective Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Inter-American Human Rights System, Organization of American States’, American Society of International Law Proceedings 94 (2000): 315.

IACHR, Mary and Carrie Dann v. United States, Case 11.140, Report No. 113/01 (2001).

Case of the Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community, para. 144, and Case of Ivcher Bronstein, Judgement of 6 February 2001, IACtHR Series C No. 74, para. 122.

Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua, para. 149.

See Pasqualucci, ‘The Evolution of International Indigenous Rights in the Inter-American Human Rights System’, 295–306; J.M. Pasqualucci, ‘International Indigenous Land Rights: A Critique of the Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Light of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’, Wisconsin International Law Journal 27, no. 1 (2009): 51–98.

See Panama Constitution (1972), Art. 123; Guatemala Constitution (1985), Art. 67; Argentinean Constitution (1004), S. 75(17); Brazil Constitution (1988), Art. 231.

Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua, para.149.

Yakye Axa Indigenous Community, above, para. 139; see also Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua, para. 148.

Paraguay, Ley N° 43/89 Por la cual se modifican disposiciones de la ley N° 1372/88 ‘que establece un régimen para la regulación de los asentamientos de las comunidades indígenas’ (21 December 1989), Art. 4.

Paraguayan Constitution, Art. 63: ‘The right of indigenous peoples to preserve and develop their ethnic identity in the respective habitat is recognized and guaranteed. They likewise have the right to freely apply their systems of political, social, economic, cultural, and religious organization, as well as to voluntarily submit to their customary rules regarding life within them, insofar as they are not contrary to the basic rights set forth in this Constitution. In cases of conflicting jurisdiction, indigenous customary law will be taken into account.’ [Translation provided in the text of the case.]

Paraguayan Constitution, Art. 64: ‘Indigenous peoples have the right to communal landholding, with an area and quality sufficient for conservation and development of their specific form of life. The State will provide these lands free of cost, and they will be unencumberable, nonextinguishable, not subject to guaranteeing contractual obligations or to rental; they will also be tax free’. [Translation provided in the text of the case.]

Yakye Axa Indigenous Community, para. 131.

Ibid., para. 137.

Ibid., para. 147.

Moiwana v. Suriname, paras 86.5, 86.6., 130, 199(2)(f).

Yakye Axa Indigenous Community, para. 143.

Ibid., para. 216.

Ibid., paras 151 and 217.

Ibid., para. 149.

Ibid., para. 146.

Ibid., para. 144.

Ibid.

Ibid., para. 145.

Ibid., para. 146.

Ibid., para. 147.

Ibid., para. 148.

See generally, S.J. Anaya and R.A. Williams, ‘The Protection of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Over Lands and Natural Resources Under the Inter-American Human Rights System', Harvard Human Rights Journal 14 (2001): 33.

See OAS, Report on the Human Rights Situation of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.108 Doc. 62 (20 October 2000), 134; UN Centre on Transnational Corporations, Transnational Investments and Operations on the Lands of Indigenous Peoples, UN doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1991 (18 July 1991), para. 6; M.A. Geer, ‘Foreigners in Their Own Land: Cultural Land and Transnational Corporations – Emergent International Rights and Wrongs’, Virginia Journal of International Law. 38 (1998): 331, 382.

Yakye Axa Indigenous Community, para. 135.

IACtHR, Plan de Sánchez Massacre v. Guatemala (Reparations), IACtHR Series C 116 (2004), para. 85.

Adoption of Agreements on Environment and Development: The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, UN doc. A/CONF.151/26/Rev.1 (1992), reprinted in 31 I.L.M. 876 (1992).

Aloeboetoe et al. v. Suriname (Reparations), IACtHR Series C 15 (1993), para. 62.

Ibid., para. 12.

Ibid., para. 58.

Ibid., paras 17 and 58.

Ibid., para. 62. See also J.M. Pasqualucci, ‘Victim Reparations in the Inter-American Human Rights System: A Critical Assessment of Current Practice and Procedure’, Michigan Journal of International Law 18, no. 1 (1996): 52–3.

Aloeboetoe et al., para. 66.

See M.C. Lâm, At the Edge of the State: Indigenous Peoples and Self Determination (Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 2000).

Canada, Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Aboriginal Self-government: The Government of Canada's Approach to Implementation of the Inherent Right and the Negotiation of Aboriginal Self-Government (Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 1995).

Canada, Nunavut Act 1993, c. 28, N-28.6, assented to 10 June 1993, http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/sc-1993-c-28/latest/sc-1993-c-28.html.

Canada, Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act 1993, c. 29, Assented to 10 June 1993, http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/n-28.7/FullText.html.

CERD, General Recommendation No. 23, para. 4(d).

USA, CERD/C/USA/CO/6 (8 May 2008), para. 29.

Guyana, CERD/C/GUY/CO/14 (4 April 2006), para. 14; Australia, CERD/C/AUS/CO/14 (14 April 2005), para. 11; Argentina, CERD/C/65/CO/1 (24 August 2004), para. 18.

Mexico, CERD/C/MEX/CO/15 (4 April 2005), paras 12 and 14.

Guatemala, CERD/C/GTM/CO/11 (15 May 2006), para. 16; Australia, CERD/C/304/Add.101 (24 March 2000), para. 9.

Yatama v. Nicaragua. See M.S. Campbell, ‘The Right of Indigenous Peoples to Political Participation and the Case of Yatama v. Nicaragua’, Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law 24 (2007): 499.

The Electoral Law required that political groups must present candidates in at least 80 per cent of municipal electoral districts.

Yatama case, para. 229

Ibid., para. 223.

Ibid., paras 218–19.

Ibid., para. 227.

American Convention, Art. 12.

Plan de Sánchez Massacre v. Guatemala (Reparations), IACtHR Series C No. 116 (2004), para. 85.

Bámaca Velásquez v. Guatemala (Reparations), IACtHR Series C 91 (2002), para. 82.

Plan de Sánchez Massacre v. Guatemala (Merits), IACtHR Series C 105 (2004), para. 42(30).

Ibid., para. 36(4).

López Álvarez v. Honduras (Merits, Reparations and Costs), IACtHR Series C, No. 141 (2006), para. 157(c).

Ibid., paras 161, 162 and 174.

Ibid., para. 169.

Ibid., para. 171.

Yakye Axa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay, Judgement of 17 June 2005 (Merits, Reparations and Costs), partially dissenting opinion of Judge A. Abreu Burelli.

In particular Articles 1(1), 5, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23 and 24 of the American Convention on Human Rights.

UN, Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, UN doc.A/CONF.157/23 (25 June 1993), para. 5.

Indigenous Peoples: Development with Culture and Identity in the Light to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, para. 65(c).

Donders, Towards a Right to Cultural Identity?, 340–5.