STV-3013 Indigenous Rights, Politics and Institution Building - 10 stp

The course is organized in four parts. The aim of the first part is to give an introduction to the philosphical debate on justification of minority and indigenous rights, including the right to self-determination. The second part of the course is a presentation and discussion of developments in international law related to indigenous issues. The third part will look upon the implementation of indigenous self-determination by assessing the level of indigenous participation, the relationship between indigenous political organizations and nation states, and the organization of decision-making procedures. The fourth part has an institutional focus as the Saami political influence in a Scandinavian context will be highligted and compared to other governernment and self-government structures in the circumpolar North.

Organization of topics and lectures

• Indigenous rights

The aim of this part is to present the current theoretical (philosophical) debate over minority and indigenous rights. The discussion, encouraged by Will Kymlicka, has been lively and an important part of political theory for two decades. Important questions have been: How can minority rights be defended? What are specific indigenous rights, and can indigenous peoples make other claims than other minorities?

• Rights of indigenous peoples in international law

Normative instruments of international organizations (ILO, UN) and international law in general have been important both for the development of a common framework and for the attention paid to indigenous rights within nation-states. The aim of this part is to trace the emergence and development of indigenous peoples¿ rights internationally, to explain the development and outcomes, and to discuss the importance of the international legal framework. The legal meanings and consequences of the concept of indigenous peoples will be analysed. Even though the emphasis is on indigenous peoples¿ rights, an important goal will be to highlight the role of international law in general, for example related to universal human rights, and how international law is implemented within different nation-states.

• Indigenous self-determination

To fullfil the idea of indigenous rights and self-determination institutional arrangements have to be established. The goal for this part of the course is to discuss ways to organize for self-determination within different forms of government like federal states and unitary states, the framework for consultations proposed by the ILO. A discussion of self-determination as goal and idea is also included.

      4. Indigenous political influence

Indigenous peoples all over the world have been struggling for recognition, rights, and self-determination. Groups living in the north have been among the more successful, as many of them have got a certain amount of legal protection, rules and institutions aspiring to operationalize self-determination, and some recognition for their vulnerable culture. The goal of this part is to present and discuss this development by focusing on nation-building processes, the development of indigenous politics and participation in decision-making, and the organization of institutions for indigenous governance. The situation for the Sami people in Scandinavia will be used as the main example.

Bachelor degree in a social science subject is required as a general rule.

The minimum average grade requirement is:

• C - for bachelor¿s degree or equivalent issued in Europe, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand
• B - for bachelor¿s degree or equivalent issued in all other countries

The course requires solid competence in reading and writing English.

Application code: 9371.

Students who have successfully completed the course should have achieved the following learning outcomes:  

• For the last two decades the debate over the situation for minorities and indigenous peoples has been rife in different disciplines, also in law, political science, and philosophy. The tensions have been over questions like recognition and rights, including rights to lands, resources and self-determination. This course aims to illuminate some of the key aspects in the debate over indigenous peoples in law, political science and philosophy. The course will thus give an introduction to the debate on indigenous rights, give a presentation of political organization and indigenous political influence, and discuss different strategies for indigenous self-determination. The empirical emphasis will in particular be Sami politics and Sami political institutions.

 Knowledge and analytical understanding

• introduce students to important debates over indigenous rights, in particular rights to land and resources and self-determination;
• present examples of how questions of indigenous rigths have been raised, the outcomes of claims, and how different outcomes have been institutionalized;
• increase the ability to do critical examinations of claims for indigenous rights and the legitimacy of minority rights generally and indigenous rights specifically;

Skills and competences

• have learned about the major instruments in international law regarding indigenous peoples, how indigenous rights can be defended, and how self-determination can be handled institutionally;
• be able to present critical evaluations of indigenous rights debates ¿ in public and for indigenous peoples;
• improve their skills as to understand how different systems of government influence and define conditions for self-determination arrangements.

20 hours of lectures.

Quality control of the course

The course will be evaluated once during a program period

One written university-based exam (3 hours), and one take-home exam (2000 words). Each exam has an approximately equal weight on the final mark.

The Grade-scale goes from A (tope score) to E (pass) and F (fail). A re-sit exam will be arranged for this course

The date for the exam can be changed. The final date will be announced at your faculty early in May and early in November.

STV-3013:

Indigenous rights, politics, and institution building

Required readings/syllabus

(Texts marked with * are included in a compendium which is sold in the University Book Shop)

Indigenous rights

*Susan Dodds: ¿Justice and Indigenous Land Rights.¿ Inquiry 41 (2/1998): 187¿205 (19 p)

*Natan Glazer: ¿Individual Rights against Group Rights,¿ in Will Kymlicka (Ed.): The Rights of Minority Cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 (pp. 123¿138) (16 p)

*Chandran Kukathas: ¿Are There Any Cultural Rights?¿ in Will Kymlicka (Ed.): The Rights of Minority Cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995 (pp. 228¿256) (29 p)

*Will Kymlicka: ¿The Rights of Minority Cultures: Reply to Kukathas.¿ Political Theory 20 (1/1992) (pp. 140¿146) (7 p)

*Will Kymlicka: ¿The new debate on minority rights (and postscript),¿ in Anthony Simon Laden and David Owen (Eds): Multiculturalism and Political Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007 (pp. 25¿59) (35 p)

*Will Kymlicka: ¿The Global Challenge.¿ Chapter 7 in Will Kymlicka: Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007 (pp. 247¿293) (47 p)

*Margaret Moore: ¿Internal minorities and indigenous self-determination,¿ in Avigail Eisenberg and Jeff Spinner-Halev (Eds): Minorities within Minorities. Equality, Rights and Diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 (pp. 271¿293) (23 p)

*James Tully: ¿The Struggles of Indigenous Peoples for and of Freedom,¿ in Duncan Ivison et al. (Eds): Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000 (pp. 36¿59 + notes) (28 p)

*Jarle Weigård: ¿Is There a Special Justification for Indigenous Rights?¿ in Henry Minde et al. (Eds): Indigenous Peoples: Self-determination - Knowledge - Indigeneity. Delft: Eburon, 2008 (pp. 177¿192) (16 p)

Rights of indigenous peoples in international law

Mattias Åhrén: Indigenous Peoples¿ Status in the International Legal System. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 (239 p)

Indigenous self-determination

Ravi de Costa: ¿States¿ Definitions of Indigenous Peoples: A Survey of Practices,¿ in Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Jo Saglie and Ann Sullivan (Eds): Indigenous Politics. Institutions, Representation, Mobilisation. Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015 (pp. 25¿60) (35 p)

*Benedict Kingsbury: ¿Reconstructing Self-Determination: A Relational Approach,¿ in Pekka Aikio and Martin Scheinin (Eds): Operationalizing the Right of Indigenous Peoples to Self-Determination. Turku/Åbo: Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University, 2005 (20 p)

*Will Kymlicka: ¿Federalism, Nationalism, and Multiculturalism,¿ in Dimitrios Karmis and Wayne Norman (Eds): Theories of Federalism. A Reader. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005 (pp. 269¿292) (24 p)

Martin Papillon: ¿Making Space for Indigenous Governments: Comparing Patterns of Institutional Adaption in Canada and the United States,¿ in Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Jo Saglie and Ann Sullivan (Eds): Indigenous Politics. Institutions, Representation, Mobilisation. Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015 (pp. 95¿111) (17 p)

Jane Robbins: ¿Indigenous Political Representation in Liberal-Democratic Countries: A Comparative Analysis,¿ in Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Jo Saglie and Ann Sullivan (Eds): Indigenous Politics. Institutions, Representation, Mobilisation. Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015 (pp. 61¿93) (33 p)

Ann Sullivan: ¿Maori Representation and Participation in National and Local Government Politics,¿ in Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Jo Saglie and Ann Sullivan (Eds): Indigenous Politics. Institutions, Representation, Mobilisation. Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015 (pp. 115¿133) (19 p)

*James Tully: ¿Recognition and Dialogue: The Emergence of a New Field.¿ Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 7 (3/2004): 84¿106 (23 p)

*Steven Wheatley: ¿Deliberative Democracy and Minorities.¿ European Journal of International Law, 14 (3/2003): 507¿527 (21 p)

*Iris Marion Young: ¿Two Concepts of Self-Determination,¿ in Iris Marion Young: Global Challenges. War, Self-Determination and Responsibility for Justice. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007 (pp. 39¿57) (19 p)

Indigenous political influence and participation

*James Anaya: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people: The situation of the Sami people in the Sápmi region of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The UN Human Rights Council, 2011 (22 p) <http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/docs/countries/2011_report_sami_advance_version_en.pdf>

*Nigel Bankes: ¿Legal Systems,¿ in Arctic Human Development Report. Akureyri: Stefansson Arctic Institute, 2004 (pp. 101¿118) (18 p)

Einar Braathen and Cássio Inglez de Sousa (2015): ¿Semi-Autonomy: Contemporary Challenges for Indigenous Peoples in Brazil,¿ in Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Jo Saglie and Ann Sullivan (Eds): Indigenous Politics. Institutions, Representation, Mobilisation. Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015 (pp. 253¿273) (21 p)

*Else Grete Broderstad: ¿Implementing Indigenous Self-Determination: The Case of the Sámi in Norway,¿ in Marc Woons (Ed.): Restoring Indigenous Self-Determination. Theoretical and Practical Approaches. Bristol: E-International Relations, 2014 (pp. 80¿87) (8 p)

*Else Grete Broderstad and Jens Dahl: ¿Political Systems.¿ In Arctic Human Development Report. Akureyri: Stefansson Arctic Institute, 2004 (pp. 85¿100) (16 p)

*Ulf Mörkenstam, Eva Josefsen and Ragnhild Nilsson: ¿The Nordic Sámediggis and the Limits of Indigenous Self-Determination.¿ Gáldu Cála. Journal of Indigenous Peoples Rights. No 1/2016, (pp. 4¿40) (37 p)

*Mikkel Berg-Nordlie: ¿Two Centuries of Russian Sámi Policy: Arrangements for Autonomy and Participation Seen in Light of Imperial, Soviet and Federal Indigenous Minority Policy 1822¿2014.¿ Acta Borealia: A Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies 32 (1/2015) 40¿67 (28 p)

*Nils Oskal: ¿Political Inclusion of the Saami as Indigenous People in Norway.¿ International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 8 (2¿3/2001) (pp. 235¿261) (27 p)

*Melissa S. Williams: ¿Sharing the River. Aboriginal Representations in Canadian Political Institutions,¿ in Robert C. Thomsen and Nanette L. Hale (Eds): Canadian Environments. Essays in Culture, Politics and History. Brussels: P.I.E. ¿ Peter Lang, 2005 (pp. 25¿51) (27 p)

In total: 874 pages