Implementing the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Description

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007. At that time, 144 member nations of the UN voted for adopting the Declaration and 4 nations voted against it while 11 abstained. The 4 voting against the Declaration included the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Australia changed to a "yes vote" in 2008 while the other three countries waited until 2010 to amend their votes. The last to announce that they had changed their vote was the United States when President Obama made an announcement to the assembled US Tribal Leaders in Washington DC on December 16, 2010.

 We will examine the history of International Law pertaining to the rights of Indigenous Peoples as documented in Professor James Anaya's 2004 edition of "Indigenous Peoples in International Law. We will then consider the views of Indigenous Activists and experts who recently collaborated on the text, "Making the Declaration Work" published in 2010. Finally, we will examine current efforts to address questions regarding implementation of the UN Declaration through the advocacy work of the National Congress of American Indians and other Indigenous national organizations. Steps leading to implementation could include changes to the "plenary power" doctrine and clarifying the authority of tribal courts.