This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the complicated power
relations surrounding the recognition and implementation of Indigenous
Peoples' rights at multiple scales.
The adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples in 2007 was heralded as the beginning of a new era
for Indigenous Peoples' participation in global governance bodies, as
well as for the realization of their rights - in particular, the right
to self-determination. These rights are defined and agreed upon
internationally, but must be enacted at regional, national, and local
scales. Can the global movement to promote Indigenous Peoples' rights
change the experience of communities at the local level? Or are the
concepts that it mobilizes, around rights and political tools,
essentially a discourse circulating internationally, relatively
disconnected from practical situations? Are the categories and processes
associated with Indigenous Peoples simply an extension of colonial
categories and processes, or do they challenge existing norms and
structures? This collection draws together the works of anthropologists,
political scientists, and legal scholars to address such questions.
Examining the legal, historical, political, economic, and cultural
dimensions of the Indigenous Peoples' rights movement, at global,
regional, national, and local levels, the chapters present a series of
case studies that reveal the complex power relations that inform the
ongoing struggles of Indigenous Peoples to secure their human rights.
The book will be of interest to social scientists and legal scholars
studying Indigenous Peoples' rights, and international human rights
movements in general.
