.Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards Part 1 doc

This page intentionally left blank

Indigenous Rights and United Nations Standards

The debate on indigenous rights has revealed some serious diffi￾culties for current international law, posed mainly by different

understandings of important concepts. This book explores the

extent to which indigenous claims, as recorded in the United

Nations fora, can be accommodated by current international law.

By doing so, it also highlights how the indigenous debate has

stretched the contours and ultimately evolved international human

rights standards. The book first reflects on the international law

responses to the theoretical arguments on cultural membership.

After a comprehensive analysis of the existing instruments on

indigenous rights, the discussion turns to self-determination.

Different views are assessed and a fresh perspective on the right to

self-determination is outlined. Ultimately, the author refuses to shy

away from difficult questions and challenging issues and offers a

comprehensive discussion of indigenous rights and their contribu￾tion to international law.

ALEXANDRA XANTHAKI is a lecturer in International Human Rights

at Brunel University. After graduating from Athens Law Faculty,

Alexandra completed an LLM in Human Rights at Queens

University, Belfast, and later a PhD at Keele University under the

supervision of P. Thornberry. She has published on human rights,

group rights and indigenous rights and has repeatedly acted as a

consultant to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous

Issues. She has participated in several projects funded by the

European Commission, DfID and international NGOs in the UK,

Greece and Ukraine. She is a member of the Athens Bar.