I Book Review: Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards – Self-Determination, Culture and Land
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410802600111 |
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Part D: DocumentationI Book Review |
I Book Reviews
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 26/1 (2008) 155
also policy makers, judges and l awyers that work with issues related to culture and
human rights.
Alexandra Xa nthaki, Indigenous Rights and United Nations Stand ards – Self-
Determinatio n, Culture and Land, Cambridge Studie s in International a nd
Comparative L aw, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007, 314 pp., ISBN:
13: 9780521835749*
In September 2007, aer more tha n 20 years of negotiations between States and
indigenous peoples, the UN General A ssembly adopted the Declarat ion on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.1 e long-lasting negotiations centred on several issues
sensitive for both indigenous peoples and States such as la nd rights, culture, the right
to self-determination, political participation, poverty, racism sustainable development
and intellectua l property rights. In her recently published bo ok, Alexandra Xanthak i
chooses to discuss only three major issues of relevance to indigenous peoples: self-
determination, cu lture and land rights. She sta rts her journey with the d iscussion on
the recognition of indigenous peoples as collect ivities as she obviously agrees with
the statement of indigenous leaders made i n 1989 that the es tablishment of rights of
indigenous peoples as groups, and not merely the recognition of individual rights is of
paramount importance to indigenous peoples and one of the most important purposes
of the Declaration (the statement quoted on pp. 13–14). Her purpose is to contribute to
the analy sis of current internationa l law standards releva nt to indigenous peoples in
order to evaluate the UN instruments that are devoted to the protection of indigenous
peoples and to assess ‘whether indigenous main cla ims, as recorded in t he relevant
UN fora, are consistent with cu rrent international standards’ (p. 5) or, in other words
the research ‘looks for an accurate and realistic picture of how indigenous claims t or
could t into cu rrent international law’ (p. 6). e author is dr iven by the arguments
of some St ates and commentators that indigenous claims go beyond the ex isting
standards and therefore cannot be accommodated. In her endeavour the author hopes
that her analysis wi ll ‘highlight that t he relationship between indigenous peoples and
international law is a mutually benecial one: international law can help indigenous
peoples as much as they have helped the evolution of that law’ (p. 6).
e book consists of t wo Parts and Conclusions. e rst part deals wit h the UN
instruments on indigenous peoples covering the ILO Conventions Nos 107 and 169 as
well as the UN dra Declaration on Indigenous Peoples (the book had been published
before the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), while
the second part includes themat ic analysis of the indigenous peoples’ right to self-
* Snežana Trifunovska , Associ ate Professor, Law Fac ulty, Radbou d University, Nijmegen, t he
Netherland s.
1 UN General Assem bly Resolution A/61/L/67 adopted in its 61st session, 7 S eptember 2007.
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