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22 Fourth Session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations Bv Gudmundur Alfredsson The Working Group on Indigenous Populations, meeting at Geneva in 1985 for its fourth session, considered for the first time certain specific draft principles in line with its mandate on standard-setting activities. The Group also established the aim of drafting, as a first formal step, a declaration on indigenous rights for eventual adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations. In the following remarks, the background to this undertaking, the mandate and composition of the Group, the type of instrument to be produced, its possible con-
353 Indigenous Rights in 1988 By Gudmundur Alfredsson* I. In 1987, several events took place which underlined that indigenous rights have become a major item before the human rights organs of the United Nations. The Working Group on Indigenous Populations, attended by a record 370 participants, added seven articles to the draft declaration currently under pre- paration. It also adopted three recommendations all of which became the sub- ject of subsequent resolutions by its parent bodies. A Board of Trustees was appointed for the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations. The Independent Commission for International Humanitarian Issues published a report on
The 12th annual conference of the European Society of International Law (
Plenary sessions, fora and agorae all addressed a host of related topics.
Abstract
This article surveys some of the many international human rights law issues that come up in connection with the Arctic, such as the rights of indigenous peoples and the formulation of these rights in a draft Nordic Sami Convention. The focus, however, is on recent developments concerning the status of Greenland as a result of an agreement concluded in 2008 between the Danish and Greenlandic authorities. This agreement foresees not only a significant increase in self-government but also opens the door for the Greenlandic people to create an independent State through the exercise of the right to external self-determination as a matter of political decolonisation of an overseas colonial territory.
Abstract
The website of the Arctic Council rather proudly refers to the designation of Indigenous peoples as ‘permanent participants’ in the Council’s work as a unique feature, but some Indigenous leaders are less than fully satisfied. In this article it is argued that this arrangement in significant ways falls behind the role of Indigenous peoples in the United Nations, in particular its human rights and environment programs. Drawing on this comparison, the article concludes with placing a few suggestions before the Arctic Council.