UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples): Human, Civil, and Indigenous Rights

Is UNDRIP an instrument of indigenous empowerment or a new and sophisticated form of assimilation? UNDRIP is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration was in the making for over thirty years. The process was long and deliberate, passing through many channels and committees within the UN. Many arguments by indigenous peoples and nongovernmental organizations were set against arguments from nation-state governments. In the end, the United Nations General Assembly passed the Declaration with an unexpectedly high margin of support on September 13, 2007. At the time there was talk among United Nations diplomats that if the Declaration was not passed in 2007, the Declaration or its working draft would be tabled indefinitely.¹ The Declaration passed not because all issues were resolved; rather, it passed over the objections of four nation-states and the nonvoting and absentee votes of other nation-states.

Many indigenous international leaders welcomed the positive vote, but pointed out that the Declaration was just the basis for further discussion. Many tribal groups from around the world attended international conventions and meetings starting in the 1970s, looking for international help for recognizing and addressing indigenous issues. Indigenous nations sought greater political, economic, and cultural autonomy from nation-state control, and did not believe they were getting acceptable cooperation and protection within most nation-states.

It is not my purpose to recount the story of the development of the UNDRIP or the international indigenous peoples' movement that played a central role in its continuing development. Many of the persons who played central roles in the making of the Declaration, primarily from the UN side, have contributed to a book that recounts the process. I recommend all who are interested in the Declaration to read Making the Declaration Work: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.² While the points of view of many of the indigenous activists are not represented, many of the major positions that led to the final form of UNDRIP are presented and rationales and support are given for many still-contested positions. In this address, I want to comment on the differences between individual and collective human rights, civil rights, and their relation to indigenous rights. In many critical ways, the Declaration adopts human rights, civil rights, and collective human rights positions and seeks to implement them. However, significant indigenous rights positions are not adopted within UNDRIP, and are transported into the language and law of human rights and civil rights within the framework and management of individual nation-states.

Before going further, let me thank the activists, diplomats, and nation-state governments for going as far as they did with developing the Declaration. The document provides an internationally supported statement of indigenous issues and presents a possible solution. The Declaration does not have the force of law, but it does establish a moral high ground. Each nation-state has the moral obligation to at least uphold the standards of the UNDRIP. Although many indigenous leaders believe the Declaration is a basic starting point for addressing indigenous issues, a good number of nation-states, including the United States, believe that many of the points in the Declaration are too difficult to achieve and consider the document only as an as-pirational vision. Nevertheless, the UN with the support of much of the international civil society has produced a document that articulates many indigenous issues and sets standards for conduct by nation-states in relations with indigenous nations. The document is a significant codification of collective human rights, and gives indigenous nations a platform for national and international legal and political negotiation. The Declaration and the process that led to its adoption by the UN Assembly was a significant achievement, and sets new standards from which indigenous nations can seek their cultural, political, and economic goals going forward. In many ways, the Declaration provides a degree of international acknowledgement of the existence of indigeneity and the issues confronting indigenous peoples.

After passage of the UNDRIP, diplomats and activists sought to create ways to implement...