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

ABSTRACT

Ten 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.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous peoples
• self-determination
• UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributors

Dr. Dorothée Cambou is a post-doctoral researcher at University of Helsinki. The main focus of her research lies in human rights law concerning more particularly the rights of indigenous peoples. She has also developed an expertise in the field of sustainable development and Arctic governance. At this moment, she is conducting a research project on energy justice and the rights of indigenous and local communities at the university of Helsinki. She is also the co-editor of Society, Environment and Human Security in the Arctic Barents Region published by Routledge in 2018 and the special editor of the Yearbook of Polar Law, vol 10 published by Brill.

ORCID

Dorothée Cambou http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2772-0641

Notes

1. UN General Assembly, Resolution 61/295. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (hereinafter, the UNDRIP), 2007.

2. Thomas M. Franck, ‘The Emerging Right to Democratic Governance’, American Journal of International Law 86, no. 1 (1992): 46–91.

3. Antonio Cassese, Self-Determination of Peoples: A Legal Reappraisal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

4. See, in particular, Iris Marion Young, ‘Two Concepts of Self-Determination’, in Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights, ed. Stephen May, Tariq Modood, and Judith Squires (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); James Anaya, ‘The Right of Indigenous Peoples to Self-Determination in the Post-Declaration Era’, in Making the Declaration Work: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ed. Claire Charters and Rodolfo Stavenhagen (Copenhagen: IWGIA, 2009), 184–99.

5. Martin Scheinin and Mattias Åhren, ‘Relationship to Human Rights, and Related International Instruments’, in The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A Commentary, ed. Jessie Hohmann, Marc Weller, Oxford Commentaries on International Law (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 72.

6. Scheinin and Åhren, ‘Relationship to Human Rights, and Related International Instruments’, 72.

7. On the doctrine of remedial session, see, e.g. Lee C. Buchheit, Secession: The Legitimacy of Self-Determination, 2nd ed. (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1978). See also the icj Kosovo Case, Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion, i.c.j. Reports 2010, para. 82 and Reference Re secession of Quebec, 2 scr 217, 1998, Supreme Court of Canada, para. 134.

8. See, e.g. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous and peoples, James Anaya, ‘The Situation of Kanak People in New Caledonia, France UN Doc.A/HRC/18/35/Add.6’, 2011, para. 14–7.

9. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous and peoples, James Anaya, para.16.

10. See HRC, General Comment No. 25: Article 25 UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.7, 1996, para 2.

11. See for instance Cassese, Self-Determination of Peoples; Allan Rosas, ‘Internal Self-Determination’, in Modern Law of Self-Determination Modern Law of Self-Determination, ed. Christian Tomuschat (Dordrecht: Marinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1993), 225–52.

12. Helen Quane, ‘The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: New Directions for Self-Determination and Participatory Rights?’, in Reflections on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ed. Stephen Allen and Alexandra Xanthaki (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2011), 262.

13. Quane, ‘The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’, 262.

14. Anaya, ‘The Right of Indigenous Peoples to Self-Determination in the Post-Declaration Era’, 185.

15. Ibid.

16. Andrew K. Erueti, ‘The Politics of International Indigenous Rights’, University of Toronto Law Journal 67, no. 4 (2017): 584.

17. Erueti, ‘The Politics of International Indigenous Rights’, 583.

18. See, e.g. HRC, Concluding Observation: Norway, UN Doc CCPR/C/79/Add/112 (1999), para. 10; Concluding Observation: Canada, UN Doc. CCPR/C/103/Add.5 (1999).

19. James Anaya, ‘A Contemporary Definition of the International Norm of Self-Determination’, Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems 31 (1993): 143.

20. Anaya, ‘The Right of Indigenous Peoples to Self-Determination in the Post-Declaration Era’, 193.

21. Ibid.

22. UNDRIP, Articles 33, 34, 35.

23. UNDRIP, Articles 33–4.

24. Erica-Irene A. Daes, ‘Striving for Self-Determination for Indigenous Peoples’, in First International Conference on the Right to Self-Determination & the United States, ed. Y.N. Kly and D. Kly (Geneva, 2001), 58.

25. Steven Wheatley in International Law Association, ‘The Hague Conference (2010) Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Interim Report’ (London: International Law Association, 2010), 13.

26. Scheinin and Åhren, ‘Relationship to Human Rights, and Related International Instruments’, 67.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. See, e.g. Michael A. Murphy, ‘Representing Indigenous Self-Determination’, The University of Toronto Law Journal 58, no. 2 (2008): 200.

30. Daes, ‘Striving for Self-Determination for Indigenous Peoples’, 58.

31. Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2005/WG.15/2 (2005), article 31.

32. Natalia Loukacheva, ‘On Autonomy and Law’, Working Paper Series, Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition 5, no. 3 (2005): 3.

33. Scheinin and Åhren, ‘Relationship to Human Rights, and Related International Instruments’, 67.

34. International Law Association, ‘The Hague Conference (2010) Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Interim Report’, 16.

35. See also Scheinin and Åhren, ‘Relationship to Human Rights, and Related International Instruments’, 67.

36. International Law Association, ‘The Hague Conference (2010) Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Interim Report’, 12.

37. Iris Marion Young, Global Challenges: War, Self Determination and Responsibility for Justice (Cambridge: Polity, 2007), 50–1.

38. Murphy, ‘Representing Indigenous Self-Determination’, 185.

39. HRC, Marshall et al. v. Canada Communication No. 205/l9864, UN Doc CCPR/C/43/D/205/l986, (1991), para. 5.5.

40. Ibid., para.5.4.

41. Quane, ‘The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’, 273.

42. International Law Association, ‘The Hague Conference (2010) Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Interim Report’, 14.

43. James Anaya and Sergio Puig, ‘Mitigating State Sovereignty: The Duty to Consult with Indigenous Peoples’, University of Toronto Law Journal 67, no. 4 (2017): 462.

44. For a general overview, see Nico Schrijver, Sovereignty over Natural Resources: Balancing Rights and Duties (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

45. Daes, ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources', UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/30 (2004).

46. Ibid., para 18.

47. Ibid.

48. Ibid., para 40.

49. UNDRIP, Article 26.

50. Erueti, ‘The Politics of International Indigenous Rights’.

51. HRC, Concluding Observation: Canada, UN Doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.105 (1999), para.8; Concluding Observation: Australia, UN Doc. A/55/40, vol. I (2000), para. 506- 507; Concluding Observation: Sweden, UN Doc. CCPR/CO/74/SWE (2002), para.15; Concluding Observation: Mexico, UN Doc. CCPR/C/MEX/CO/5 (2010), para. 22;

52. Alice Farmer, ‘Towards a Meaningful Rebirth of Economic Self-Determination: Human Rights Realization in Resource-Rich Countries’, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 39, no. 2 (2006): 417–73; Emeka Duruigbo, ‘Permanent Sovereignty and Peoples’ Ownership of Natural Resources in International Law’, George Washington International Law Review 38, no. 1 (2006): 33–100.

53. International Law Association, ‘The Hague Conference (2010) Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Interim Report’, 13.

54. UNDRIP, Article 26.

55. HRC, UN Doc. CCPR/C/VEN/CO/4 (2015).

56. CESR, UN Doc E/C.12/GUY/CO/2-4 (2015).

57. CESR, UN Doc E/C.12/AGO/CO/4-5 (2016).

58. See HRC supra note 51 and CESCR, Concluding Observation: Finland, UN Doc. E/C.12/FIN/CO/6 (2014), para.9 (a); CESCR, Concluding Observation: Paraguay, UN Doc. E/C.12/PRY/CO/4 (2015), para.6.

59. HRC, UN Doc CCPR/C/THA/CO/2 (2017).

60. EMRIP, ‘Final Study on Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Participate in Decision Making’, para. 21–2.

61. Jérémie Gilbert, ‘The Right to Freely Dispose of Natural Resources: Utopia or Forgotten Right?’, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 31, no. 3 (2013): 328.

62. Murphy, ‘Representing Indigenous Self-Determination’, 200.

63. HRC, Poma Poma v. Peru, Communication 1457/2006 of 27 March 2009, UN Doc. CCPR/C/95/D/1457/2006 (2009), para. 7.6; Inter-American Court of Human rights, Saramaka People v. Suriname, Judgment of 28 November 2007, IACtHR Series C, No. 172, para.134.

64. Ibid.

65. G. Pentassuglia, Minority Groups and Judicial Discourse in International Law: A Comparative Perspective (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009), 113. + Barelli FPIC p 14

66. International Law Association, ‘The Hague Conference (2010) Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Interim Report’, 14.

67. For a general overview, see Dorothée Cambou, ‘Enhancing the Participation of Indigenous Peoples at the Intergovernmental Level to Strengthen Self-Determination: Lessons from the Arctic’, Nordic Journal of International Law, no. 87 (2018): 1–30.

68. David Goldblatt et al., Global Transformations: Politics, Economics, Culture, 1st ed. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999), 49.

69. Goldblatt et al., Global Transformations, 212.

70. Anaya, ‘A Contemporary Definition of the International Norm of Self-Determination’, 143.

71. Young, ‘Two Concepts of Self-Determination’; Murphy, ‘Representing Indigenous Self-Determination’.

72. Carol C. Gould, Interactive Democracy: The Social Roots of Global Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2014), 232.

73. International Law Association, ‘The Hague Conference (2010) Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Interim Report’, 15.

74. Cambou, ‘Enhancing the Participation of Indigenous Peoples at the Intergovernmental Level to Strengthen Self-Determination’.

75. Ibid., 21–8.

76. See 2005 Draft Nordic Sami Convention, Article 20.

77. Murphy, ‘Representing Indigenous Self-Determination’, 200.

78. Originally, the draft UNDRIP stipulated that ‘indigenous peoples have the right to participate fully, if they so choose, at all levels of decision-making in matters which may affect their rights’. Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Doc. e/cn.4/Sub.2/1994/2/ Add.1 (1994), Article 19.

79. Draft Resolution by the General Assembly on enabling the participation of indigenous peoples ‘representative institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them (2017), https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2016/02/CLEAN-FINAL-ZERO-DRAFT-21-APRIL-2017-RESOLUTION-ON-IP-PARTICIPATION.pdf (accessed September 1, 2018).

80. Ibid., para. OP6.

81. Claire Charters, speaking at UN General Assembly, Informal consultations, 71st Session, UN Web TV, 14 December 2016.

82. UN Doc. A/72/186, para 86.

83. Ibid., para 25.