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Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Project

Project Officer: Dr Helena Whall

What's New?

Announcements:

The Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Project concluded on March 14th, 2004, when its three year funding grant from the EC finished. Please see the Summary Report of the Project.

‘Indigenous Voices: A Commonwealth Perspective’ - the edited collection of the papers presented at the four meetings are due to be published in a book , 'Indigenous Voices: A Commonwealth Perspective'. The CPSU is currently seeking a suitable publisher for this book. Please keep an eye on this webpage for further information.

‘Indigenous Land Rights and Resource Management in the Commonwealth’ - the proposed sequel project, due to start in late 2005, will be a collaboration between the CPSU and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA). Based on a concept paper, 'Conceptualising Indigenous Land Rights in the Commonwealth', written by Charlene Yates, CPSU/CLA Intern, the CPSU and CLA have put up the initial funding for a six month inception phase, to start in June 2004.

'Indigenous Peoples and Mining in the Commonwealth Workshop' - the CPSU will host a workshop on 'Indigenous Peoples and Mining in the Commonwealth' at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, in association with the Canadian Institute of Resources Law (CIRL), funded by the North West Territories Government, Canada. The workshop, which will look at cases of best practice in the Commonwealth, will be attended by representatives of indigenous peoples, mining companies and governments from Australia, Canada, South Africa and India.
Please keep an eye on this webpage for further information.

'Indigenous Self-Determination in the Commonwealth of Nations', chapter by Helena Whall, CPSU Associate Fellow, in Barbara Hocking (ed), 'Unfinished Constitutional Business: Rethinking Indigenous Self-Determination', Canberra (Aboriginal Studies Press), 2005. For more details and ordering information see:
http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/aboriginal_studies_press/find_a_book/recent_releases/unfinished_constitutional_business

Link to Commonwealth Association of Indigenous Peoples

Introduction

While many of the problems facing Indigenous peoples today are the direct result of colonialism, the Commonwealth has not yet taken full responsibility for the rights of its Indigenous peoples. While other major international organisations have been working hard to define and protect Indigenous peoples' rights, the Commonwealth has remained apparently oblivious to the situation of its most vulnerable citizens - there are approximately 300 million Indigenous peoples around the world and at least 150 million live in Commonwealth countries.

The Commonwealth currently has no consensus or policy as such on Indigenous rights. It is left up to each Commonwealth Government to respond to Indigenous people's concerns in the context of their own national policies. However, while a number of Commonwealth countries have developed individually specific policies to recognise and protect Indigenous peoples, the reality is that many of the fifty-four member states in the Commonwealth do not promote and protect the rights of their Indigenous peoples.

Moreover, there is no official Commonwealth publication descriptive of the current political, economic, social and cultural status of Indigenous peoples in member states, and there is no administrative mechanism within the Commonwealth Secretariat to channel specific enquiry, advocacy or support.

The Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Project is a three-year research and advocacy programme (2001-2004), funded by the European Commission and the Department for International Development (DfID), UK, designed to encourage the Commonwealth to recognise the special situation of Indigenous peoples in its human rights policy and to acknowledge their marginalisation, their vulnerability and the legitimacy of their goals of distinct group survival.

The Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Project calls on the Commonwealth to recognise its responsibility to Indigenous peoples, and the potential role that the Commonwealth can play in the area of Indigenous rights. The Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Project urges the Commonwealth Governments to include support for Indigenous rights in the Abuja Commonwealth Declaration, December, 2003.

The Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Project aims to improve and strengthen the information exchange, research and publicity on issues concerning Indigenous peoples' rights on a pan-Commonwealth basis. The project has two interrelated aspects.

First it will bring together, in conjunction with representatives of Indigenous peoples themselves, information about key issues affecting them in Commonwealth states. The main concerns include, amongst others, constitutions, treaties and status; land rights; questions of cultural identity or assimilation; relationships to development and the environment; and economic and social rights. The project will focus on twenty Commonwealth member states where there are significant issues of concern.

Four regional consultative meetings will be held across the Commonwealth. The papers from the meetings will be collated and published in an edited volume at the end of the Project.

The second aspect of the project will be to assist the Commonwealth to include Indigenous rights in its concern for human rights. It will provide relevant expert inputs to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), March 2002, Brisbane, Australia, and to the CHOGM December, Abuja, Nigeria, 2003 and other related international meetings.

The project will also support networking among Indigenous peoples themselves, especially through the Commonwealth Association of Indigenous Peoples (CAIP), which was established in 1999 and which has Commonwealth accreditation.

During the project input will be received from an international Adivisory Board; Mr Fergus MacKay, Coordinator, Three Guyanas and Legal/Human Rights Programme, Forest Peoples Programme,UK; Dr Albert Barume PhD, African Lawyer, currently working for Global Witness, in Cameroon, and author of 'Heading Towards Extinction?', IWGIA, (2000); and Mr Jonathon Mazower, Campaigns Coordinator, Survival International, UK.

The grant from the Department for International Development (DfID), UK, is for a separate but complementary two-year project, 2002-2003, coordinated by Richard Bourne, Head of CPSU. This project will focus on the International Development Targets of 2015, which the Commonwealth is committed to meeting, and Indigenous peoples' economic, social and cultural rights. This project will feed into the overall Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Project.