Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards: Self-Determination, Culture and Land (Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law, Series Number 52) - Softcover

Xanthaki, Alexandra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521172896 ISBN 13: 9780521172899

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

The debate on indigenous rights has revealed some serious difficulties for current international law, posed mainly by different understandings of important concepts. This book explores the extent to which indigenous claims, as recorded in the United Nations forums, can be accommodated by international law. By doing so, it also highlights how the indigenous debate has stretched the contours and ultimately evolved international human rights standards. The book first reflects on the international law responses to the theoretical arguments on cultural membership. After a comprehensive analysis of the existing instruments on indigenous rights, the discussion turns to self-determination. Different views are assessed and a fresh perspective on the right to self-determination is outlined. Ultimately, the author refuses to shy away from difficult questions and challenging issues and offers a comprehensive discussion of indigenous rights and their contribution to international law.

About this title

Book Description

The debate on indigenous rights has revealed some serious difficulties for international law, posed mainly by different understandings of important concepts. This book explores the extent to which indigenous claims, as recorded in the United Nations forums, can be accommodated by international law.

Review

"...a valuable reference for human rights scholars who must navigate the labyrinthine structure of the United Nations...It will help us to understand the differences and overlaps among universal human rights, the rights of minorities, and the rights of indigenous persons...The strength of this book is in its exploration of the UN bureaucracy...provides historical context and illumination of legal issues identified by all the parties. Scholars who address indigenous issues will want to be certain their library acquires this resource."
--Steve Russell, H-Human-Rights, H-Net Reviews; December, 2008
"...Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards aims high...offers a comprehensive discussion of indigenous rights and their contribution to international law...covers the field quite successfully by focusing on the key issues of self determination, culture, and the land...thoughtful, authoritative, and elegantly written analysis of the current debate in the political sciences regarding the issues of preference and policy choice surrounding the preservation of cultures...Xanthaki's Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards offers thorough, important, novel research into the efforts of intergovernmental organizations to alleviate the plight of the "Fourth World." The book's empirical foundations and analyses of political philosophy are profound, and the author demonstrates a clear understanding, with an emphathetic eye, of what the claims and aspirations of indigenous peoples are and how the international legal process, through formal instruments, has responded to them.These accomplishments alone make the book a most valuable contribution to the literature in the field."
--Siegfried Weissner, St. Thomas University School of Law, The American Journal of International Law [Vol. 103, 2009]

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521172896
• ISBN 13: 9780521172899
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 360