Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards: Self‐Determination, Culture and Land by Alexandra Xanthaki
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2008.00695_3.x |
| Author | Stephen Allen |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
system. However, perhaps more signi¢cantly, this book has an important role in
encouraging the reader to consider the extent to which the existing framework
mightbe applied to emergingpatterns of migration and displacement.There is an
increasing t rend of people su¡ering forced migration who do not satisfy tradi-
tional conditions within international refugee law. (By way of illustration, esti-
mates suggest that as many as 200 million people maysu¡er displacement by the
end of the centuryas a result of climate change:see IP CCFourth Assessment Report:
Climate Change Impacts,Adaptation and Vulnerability (2007)). Clearly, suchi ndividuals
do not fall within the refugee framework that currently exists within interna-
tional law, yet will often have a valid need forprotection in the sameway as tradi-
tional refugees. From this perspective, McAdam provides a solid foundation for
the future analysis of issues which have the potential to shape the ongoing devel-
opment of complementary protection in international law.
AngelaWilliams
n
Alexandra Xanthaki, Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards: Self-
Determination, Culture and Land,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2007, 358 pp, hb d55.
Alexandra Xanthaki states that‘very few books engage in a comprehensive ana-
lysis of curre nt international law standards relevant to indigenous claims’ (5). Her
book seeks to ¢ll this gap byo¡ering a broad examination of UN standards that
concern indigenous peoples. The book also provides thematic analysis of several
key areas (rights to self-determi nation, culture and land) and a discussion of the
salience of cultural membership and collective rights in t he indigenous context.
The central objective of this work is to measure core indigenous claims against
relevant UN standards in order to determine whether they are consistent with
current international law. In addition, Xanthaki examines the extent to which
those claims that are presently outside such standards could be accommodated
by international law. The author, therefore, o¡ers a view of how international
law ought to develop if it is to be capable of creating a‘more inclusive and, ulti-
mately, fairer i nternational community’ (10). She adopts a solid hermeneutical
approach to the subject of indigenous rights that is remini scent of Patrick Thorn-
berry’s methodology in his seminal work, Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002). While Xathanki argues that
indigenous claims encourage pluralistic value-driven interpretations of interna-
tional law that dista nce it from its Eurocentric origins, her pragmatic approach
provides a counterweight to the more radical visions espoused by in£uential
scholars such as James Anaya (Indigenous Peoples in International Law, New York:
Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2004).
In the ¢rst substantive chapter, Xanthaki explores the extent towhich interna-
tional lawendorses rights to cultural membership.She addresses the objections of
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Universityof Sussex.
Reviews
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r2008 The Authors.Journal Compilation r20 08The Modern Law Review Limited.
(2008) 71(2) 320^330
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