 UN contribution :

 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the General Assembly in its

resolution 61/295 of 13 September 2007
 Assembly resolution 66/296 of 17 September 2012, in which the Assembly further
expanded the mandate of the Voluntary Fund so that it could assist, in an equitable
manner, representatives of indigenous peoples, organizations and communities to
participate in the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, including in the
preparatory process, in accordance with the relevant rules and regulations, and urged
States to contribute to the Voluntary Fund.
 General Assembly resolution 65/198 of 21 December 2010, in which the Assembly
expanded the mandate of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous
Populations so that it could assist representatives of indigenous peoples’ organizations
and communities to participate in sessions of the Human Rights Council, the Expert
Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues and of the human rights treaty bodies, based on diverse and renewed participation
and in accordance with relevant rules and regulations, including Economic and Social
Council resolution 1996/31 of 25 July 1996
 Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - composed of seven
independent experts on the rights of indigenous peoples. The experts are appointed by
the Human Rights Council which is to give due regard to recognized competence and
experience in the rights of indigenous peoples, experts of indigenous origin, and gender
balance. The Expert Mechanism holds an annual session, usually in July, in which
representatives from states, indigenous peoples, indigenous peoples’ organisations,
civil society, inter-governmental organisations and academia take part.
 The decision of the General Assembly, in its resolution 67/153 of 20 December 2012,
to continue, at its sixty-ninth session, its consideration of the ways and means of
promoting the participation of representatives of indigenous peoples at meetings of
relevant United Nations bodies and other relevant United Nations meetings and
processes on issues affecting indigenous peoples.
 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) of the International Labour
Organization (UN Agency dealing with labour problems, particularly international
labour standards, social protection, and work opportunities for all)
 Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
 The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the rights of indigenous
peoples (with his duty to submit to the Human Rights Council an annual report on the
rights of indigenous peoples containing information on relevant developments in
human rights bodies and mechanisms and activities undertaken by the Office of the
High Commissioner at headquarters and in the field that contribute to the promotion of,
respect for and the full application of the provisions of the United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and follow-up on the effectiveness of the
Declaration)
 The contribution of the universal periodic review to the realization of the rights of
indigenous peoples
??? EXPERT MECHANISM ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Expert Mechanism advice No. 5 (2013): Access to justice in the promotion and protection of
the rights of indigenous peoples, 29 April 2013 - is this legally binding? – SEE THE ISSUES
SECTION ON THEIR WEBSITE.

 Mabo v Queensland (No 2)

A landmark High Court of Australia decision in 1992 recognising native title in Australia for
the first time.
The High Court held that the doctrine of terra nullius, which imported all laws of England to
a new land, did not apply in circumstances where there were already inhabitants present – even
if those inhabitants had been regarded at the time as "uncivilized".
Justice Gerard Brennan in his leading judgment in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) also stated that
: “Membership of the Indigenous people depends on biological descent from the Indigenous
people and on mutual recognition of a particular person's membership by that person and by
the elders or other persons enjoying traditional authority among those people”

 P 238- Indigenous peoples and The Law- B.J. Richardson:

“A gender justice idea..” based on a model for systematic research and comparison of gendered
relationships and transaction:
- Gender division of labour: the way in wich production and consumption are arranged
on gender lines including the diviosn between paid wok and domestic labour etc.
- Gender relations of power: the way in wich control, authority, and force are exercised
on gender lines, including organizational hierarchy, legal power, collective and
individual violence
- Emotion and human relations: attachment and antagonism among people and groups
organized along gender lines (including solidarity, prejudice, sexual attraction,
repulsion)
- Gender culture and symbolism: the language and symbols gender difference, the beliefs
and attitudes about gender.

 “Standpoint of women- as a methodological tool” – used to investigate the extended

relations of gender race, and class as they converge in ways wich women experience as
local and specific” (p 240) in order to analyse aboriginal women`s particular interest,
perspectives, the political,legal, economic social forces that are part of their worlds
based on their lived experiences. (developed by Dorothy Smith)

 The inclusion of aboriginal women in order to prevent the aboriginal communities to

be impoverished (244)
“The literature and images of aboriginal peoples focus almost entirely on males and their
activities- hunting, fishing, and trapping…. Women`s role is restricted to dealing with what the
men bring home from the hunt.

But based on the historical and actual facts, as the times when “there were periodic shortages
of buffalo – women contribution to “risk reduction” – midsummer camp movements
determined not only by the buffalo but also by the ripeness and location of Saskatoon berries,
the prairie turnip, and other fuits. Women fished, snared small game, caught prairie chickens
and migratory birds, and gathered their eggs. This activities show how women managed the
harvesting of foods, medicines and other resources including acces , sharing information about
the location of the resources, distributing and sharing the harvest, and managing conflicts
arising from interpretation of the rules.

See: Norvill v Chapman (1995) 133 ALR 266 (FC). – regarding the Hindmarsh Island Bridge
in South Australia and the Ngarrindjeri women (providing confidential evidence about
women`s business at Hindmarsh Island, wich they considered sacred. According to their
indigenous law, they could not divulge this evidence to men. The Federal Court decided that,
if the Ngarrindjeri women wanted protection under Australian law (based on the aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984) , they would have to do so on the law`s
terms – seen as an excluding from early anthropology and contemporary legal processes
involving their connection with the land.

 The Canadian Indian Act vs the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms- authenticity
seen as a divise currency of power among indigenous peoples supported by the state
through legislated racialization => those with less power (as women) lose their access
to benefits and land (see Sawridge v Her Majesty the Queen 2008 – Challenging the
amendments to the Indian Act that reinstated aboriginal women who had lost their status
when they married non-status men, based on woman-follows-man custom (this custom
was protected by S 35 of the Constitution Act 1982, and the reinstatement of female
band members was a violation of their custom. – we need to discuss and about a remedy
without oppression.

 A Compilation of UN Treaty Body Jurisprudence, Reports of the Special Procedures of

the Human Rights Council, and the Advice of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples- FPP COS 2013 - p 99-108 , p 118