Indigenous Peoples' Rights
Examine how Indigenous Peoples have been contesting norms, institutions and global debates in the past 50 years, and how they have been re-shaping and gradually decolonizing these systems at international and national levels.
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Course Description
- Examine the historical and contemporary challenges faced by over 476 million Indigenous Peoples across approximately 5000 groups worldwide, emphasizing their unique cultural heritage.
- Explore the impactful relationship between the Indigenous People’s movement and the international community, with a spotlight on the UN system and its role.
- Understand the significance of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) and how it has been an instrumental document for Indigenous rights.
- Dive deep into the contributions of Indigenous Peoples to global debates on human rights, development, law, governance, and cultural rights, notably their influence on key concepts such as self-determination and pluriculturality.
What You Will Learn
By the end of this course, learners will be able to:
Articulate the crucial contributions and challenges of Indigenous Peoples in shaping international norms and institutions.
Describe the collaborative efforts between Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations system, and other global stakeholders in advancing Indigenous rights.
Explain the fundamental pillars and tenets of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Critically assess the influence of Indigenous Peoples in pivotal global discussions, particularly within the realms of human rights, development, climate change, and cultural rights.
Course Outline
Module 1: The Indigenous Peoples' Rights Movement
Module 2: Right to self-determination
Module 3: Right to land, territories, and resources
Module 4: Cultural rights
Module 5: UN Indigenous peoples-related mechanisms: The power of advocacy
Instructors
Elsa Stamatopoulou is the Director, Indigenous Peoples' Rights Program, ISHR. She joined Columbia University in 2011 after a 31-year service at the United Nations (in Vienna, Geneva and New York) with some 22 years dedicated to human rights, in addition to eight years exclusively devoted to Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Indigenous issues were part of her portfolio since 1983 and she became the first Chief of the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2003. In 2011, she taught the first-ever course at Columbia on Indigenous Peoples’ rights, the first course on cultural rights (2016) and is the first Director of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia. In 2013 she established the International Summer program on Indigenous Peoples Rights and Policy. She has written extensively on human rights, especially indigenous and cultural rights.
Please note that there are no instructors or course assistants actively monitoring this course.