Law Commons^™

Indigenous Peoples, Intangible Cultural Heritage And Participation In The United Nations, Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

This chapter concentrates on the participation of indigenous peoples in multilateral initiatives to protect cultural heritage, with specific reference to intangible heritage. While an international instrument for the protection of intangible heritage was adopted over a decade ago, the importance of intangible heritage for indigenous peoples is evident in their work in various UN fora. I examine indigenous peoples’ interventions before UNESCO and bodies established to implement the Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage; within WIPO in respect of ongoing moves to adopt specialist instruments on traditional knowledge and cultural expressions; and finally, within UNEP and the implementation …

Climate Change, Forests, And International Law: Redd's Descent Into Irrelevance, Annecoos Wiersema

Annecoos Wiersema

Forestry activities account for over 17% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2005, parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change have been negotiating a mechanism known as REDD – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation – to provide an incentive for developing countries to reduce carbon emissions and limit deforestation at the same time. Many believe this mechanism will not only mitigate climate change but will also provide biodiversity and forests with the hard international law regime that has so far been missing. These commentators assume REDD will develop into this kind of hard international law regime. They …

Arctic Justice: Addressing Persistent Organic Pollutants, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This article recommends enhanced governance of persistent organic pollutants through incentives to develop environmentally sound, climate friendly technologies as well as caution in developing the Arctic. It highlights the toxicity challenges presented by POPs to Arctic people and ecosystems.

Traditional Knowledge Under International Human Rights Law: Applying Standards Of Communitarian Property Over Ancestral Lands To Traditional Knowledge-Related Claims, Maria Dolores Mino Ms.

Maria Dolores Mino Ms.

The article intends to explore the possibility of protecting intellectual property right of indigenous peoples over their traditional knowledge under the existing norms and jurisprudence on the right to communitarian property to ancestral land, as developed by international human rights law, and in particular, the jurisprudence of the Inter- American System of Protection and Promotion of Human Rights. To do so, the article will explore the inadequacy of the currently existing Intellectual Property Regime to protect the rights of indigenous peoples over their traditional knowledge, the existing international standards and jurisprudence on Intellectual Property Rights and International Human Rights Law, …

Spirit Food And Sovereignty: Pathways For Protecting Indigenous Peoples' Subsistence Rights, Allison M. Dussias

Allison M Dussias

Abstract: SPIRIT FOOD AND SOVEREIGNTY: PATHWAYS FOR PROTECTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ SUBSISTENCE RIGHTS

By Professor Allison M. Dussias

This article examines three pathways recently followed by Native American tribes and other Native communities in seeking protection of their rights to culturally valuable and legally protected subsistence resources – wild, renewable resources on which Native peoples have traditionally relied to sustain themselves. They have pursued their claims not only through litigation in U.S. courts, but also through claims to international bodies and through the regulatory process. The sources of law and rights on which they have relied as they followed these different …

Listening To Indigenous Voices: What The Un Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples Means For U.S. Tribes, Aliza G. Organick

Aliza G. Organick

When the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September, 2009, it was heralded as a major victory for all of the world’s Indigenous Peoples, as well as international human rights. This remarkable effort took over two decades to come to fruition and recognizes that Indigenous Peoples worldwide continue to suffer from the dispossession of their lands and resources and that existing human rights documents did not do enough to protect those rights. The Declaration not only reaffirms the basic human rights recognized in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, …

Ethical Issues In Cultural Property Law Pertaining To Indigenous Peoples, Kimberly L. Alderman

Kimberly L. Alderman

In this article, I use the 5Ps Framework for Ethical Problem Solving to begin meaningful discourse on the ethical problems in cultural property law pertaining to indigenous descendants of creator cultures. I use the divisiveness in the cultural property debates and the recent passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a backdrop, highlighting points of tension between indigenous interests and those of other cultural property stakeholders.

I identify three ongoing ethical problems in international cultural property law: (1) that indigenous peoples are persistently underrepresented; (2) that the current cultural property model inappropriately ties possession/control to …

Indigenous Recognition In International Law: Theoretical Observations, Patrick Macklem

Patrick Macklem

Drawing on a classic essay by Hans Kelsen, this Article addresses the status of indigenous peoples in international law. It argues that the criteria for determining the legal existence of indigenous peoples in international law are a function of the nature and purpose of international indigenous rights. The twentieth century legal history of international indigenous rights, from their origins in international protection of indigenous workers in colonies to their contemporary expression in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, demonstrates that their purpose is to mitigate injustices produced by how the international legal order treats sovereignty as …

Self-Determination And Cultural Rights, Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Self-determination has broadly two components: one relates to participation and the other concerns identity. Until recently, contemporary discourse on self-determination has largely centred on the former. Yet, from its earliest conceptions, self-determination has been inextricably tied to notions of identity of peoples - and cultural rights. This paper examines the evolving link between self-determination and cultural rights in modern international law. By detailing this often tandem, sometimes overlapping, development, it is argued that the reformulation and reinforcement of self-determination in recent decades has had an accompanying impact upon cultural rights.

Minorities, Cultural Rights And The Protection Of Intangible Heritage, Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

The protection of intangible cultural heritage has often been regarded as the long neglected area of international cultural heritage law. Indeed, while international conventions for the protection of movable and immovable, tangible heritage have been operational for several decade, a specialist multilateral instrument covering intangible heritage was only finalised in 2003. Yet, the safeguarding of intangible heritage has preoccupied international law for well over a century. I argue that the question of intangible cultural heritage in international law has influenced, and is influenced by, the protection of minorities and the articulation of cultural rights. Treaties covering these various areas contain …