Call for Papers: Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Griffith Law Review – Law Theory Society invites submissions for its symposium, 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People; Indigenous Survival: Where to from here?
Symposium Editors – Sharon Venne and Irene Watson.
Deadline for Manuscripts – 2 May 2011.
After September 13 2007, the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) raised expectations as to the implications for the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights to survival. Some have cited the Declaration as being more concerned with the broad universal human rights of indigenous peoples than it is with the rights of indigenous peoples to survive as distinct peoples. While the Declaration is seen to define the individual and collective rights of the world’s indigenous peoples, it is clear that the connection between the final version of the 2007 Declaration and the UN Charter on Human Rights and its reference to the rights of peoples in international law had been watered down compared with early drafts. How then does it now stand; does the Declaration advantage the advancement and protection of Indigenous peoples? It provides for human rights protection, but is that sufficient to prevent the ongoing abuses and genocide visited upon indigenous peoples?

This symposium will present critical responses to the contemporary position of Indigenous Peoples globally after the ratification of UNDRIP. In particular the following questions will be pursued:

  • How are indigenous peoples positioned in law by their respective states, post-Declaration?
  • To what extent might the Declaration support sustainable development on Indigenous peoples’ lands?
  • If the Declaration is one part of the journey in the realization of Indigenous peoples’ survival, what work remains to be done to ensure that the original concern to protect indigenous people from genocide is still on track?
  • What strategies might we need to consider to ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples are not disappeared from the UN and other international forums?