Indigenous peoples as international political actors: presenting the INDIPO project

This paper focuses on the evolution and development of the legal scope of governance and the right to autonomy in the Arctic context by considering contemporary indigenous internationalism through a legal lens and by employing examples from the Arctic indigenous peoples of Greenland and Nunavut. It argues that depending on national policy, partnerships, and relations, there are possibilities for considering direct international representation, and the participation of autonomous sub-national units or indigenous peoples, as a part of the right to autonomy/selfgovernment or internal self-determination. Since indigenous peoples have a limited legal personality and capacity in international law, the states of which they are a part can take special measures to accommodate their needs.

Section: Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic indigenous peoples' internationalism: in search of a legal justification

Loukacheva

2009

“…International indigenous activism was the topic of the INDIPO (Indigenous peoples as international political actors) project (2005)(2006)(2007) which was introduced by the author (Tennberg 2006) in this journal. The project was a collaborative effort to study indigenous political activism internationally using Arctic cases as examples.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous peoples as international political actors: a summary

Tennberg¹

2009

Self Cite

The article discusses the results of a three year research project studying international indigenous political activism using case studies from the Arctic. Drawing on two different disciplinary starting points, international relations and international law, the project addressed two interrelated questions. The first of these was how relations between states, international organisations and indigenous peoples have been and are currently constructed as legal and political practices; the second was how indigenous peoples construct their political agency through different strategies to further their political interests. These questions are addressed from the point of view of power relations. The power to act is the basic form of political agency. However, this power may take different forms of political action, for example, self-identification, participation, influence, and representation. The main conclusions of the article are: 1) indigenous political agency is based on multiple forms of power; 2) practices of power that enable and constrain indigenous political agency change over time; 3) power circulates and produces multiple sites of encounters for states, international organisations and indigenous people; 4) indigenous political agency is a question of acting; and 5) there are new challenges ahead for indigenous peoples in claiming a political voice, in particular in global climate politics.

“…This is an INDIPO project paper (Tennberg 2006). The result of decades of development, the forum signified an official opening of the UN to indigenous peoples' participation alongside that of states.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous-state relations in the UN: establishing the indigenous forum

Lindroth

2006

The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII) was established on 31 July 2000 and held its first session at UN Headquarters in New York in May 2002. The result of decades of development, the forum signified an official opening of the UN to indigenous peoples' participation alongside that of states. This article analyses the discussions on the establishment of the PFII and the role of indigenous peoples as political actors in those discussions. A focus of particular interest is the contradiction between state sovereignty and indigenous self-determination. In examining the establishment process, the analysis draws on scholarship dealing with norms, institutions, organisation and legitimacy. The themes and frames used by indigenous peoples that are significant in state-indigenous relations and that have had an effect on the forum are indigenousness, self-determination, rights and recognition. These show how the relationship between state sovereignty and indigenous self-determination underlay the establishment discussions and their outcome. The materials for the article comprise the transcripts of the establishment negotiations, interventions of state and indigenous representatives, as well as literature on the political participation of indigenous peoples, international law and the UN system and indigenous peoples. The discussions are analysed textually. The article claims that, although the UN is a state-dominated organisation, indigenous peoples are nevertheless able to affect international cooperation. This is an INDIPO project paper (Tennberg 2006).