A Socially Constructed Human Right to the Self‑determination of Indigenous Peoples

Benjamin Gregg

doi:10.18543/djhr-1-2016pp105-143

Benjamin Gregg University of Texas at Austin

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/djhr-1-2016pp105-143

Keywords: indigenous peoples, human rights, self‑determination, social construction, individual rights, collective rights, human rights state

Abstract

I propose a human right to self‑determination for indigenous peoples as a something in each case developed by the indigenous people and valid only if embraced by that people. That is, I approach human rights as social constructs toward (1) arguing for the social construction of indigenous peoples themselves, (2) with certain limits on indigenous rights to autonomy and diversity even as they construct collective rights for themselves, (3) in this way achieving the internal self‑determination of indigenous peoples, whereby an indigenous people would design its own human right to self‑determination without thereby undermining individual rights, (4) by means of a social and political movement that I conceive as a metaphorical «human rights state.»

Received: 25 July 2016
Accepted: 30 November 2016
Published online: 11 December 2017

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