United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last Thursday, after 20 years of debate. See here. Some excerpts:

• A non-binding text, the Declaration sets out the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues.
• The Declaration emphasizes the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, cultures and traditions and to pursue their development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations.
• It also prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them, and their right to remain distinct and to pursue their own visions of economic and social development.

See here for a bit of a history.

So far so good. But I have few teeny weeny problems with this declaration.

1. I checked out the entire document and nowhere does it define what does the term "indigenous people" signify.
2. What is the difference between a people and individual? If there is no difference, then why call them Peoples? or individuals?
3. If we are specifying group rights, what are the rights of an individual within that group?
4. If the rights of an individual within the group is according to Article 35, does this mean that his rights can be more or less than what the state provides? such as freedom of religion, freedom of association, etc.?
5. If a country is supposed to be made up of indigenous peoples and say non-indigenous people, both citizens of that state, what is the difference between these two groups from a rights perspective? Does one group get more than the other?
6. I could not find anything in the current document which is not already covered in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of Child, of Women, etc. etc. What's the major difference?
7. What was the point of Article 46, section 1 and 2? what's the background?

I am going to be charitable and think that this was needed. But cant help but wondering if this was another quango, NGO driven make work activism?

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

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