RECOGNISING THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES.

• Author: Bullen, Sally
• Position: Review

RECOGNISING THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES edited by Alison Quentin-Baxter Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington

Recognising the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will both challenge and inspire people concerned with Maori rights and the role of Maori in decision making and policy implementation.

The book is a compilation of the papers presented at a seminar on the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, held in Wellington in 1997. The Seminar was cosponsored by the International Commission of Jurists (New Zealand Section) and the International Law Association (New Zealand Branch). Its aim was to provide a public forum for discussing the Declaration in light of (among other factors) ongoing debate about the practical meaning of commitment to Treaty rights and obligations, limited awareness of parallel developments in other countries; and limited consultation in the community about the Declaration.

Seminar participants included the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi negotiations at that time Sir Douglas Graham, Maori lawyers and leaders, prominent academics including the editor Alison Quentin-Baxter, and Lord Cooke of Thorndon. The seminar was convened by Sir Paul Reeves.

Participants in the seminar were asked to consider:

* the right of indigenous people to self-determination and, as a specific form of its exercise, the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs;

* the right of indigenous people to participate fully, if they so choose, at levels of decision-making and matters which may affect their rights, lives and destinies; and

* the right of indigenous people to participate fully, through procedures determined by them, in devising legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.

This was an ambitious, and not uncontroversial, mandate for a two-day seminar. However, the book demonstrates that the seminar was successful. As Alison Quentin-Baxter states in the Introduction, the book manages to explore the developing relationship between the two main ethnic groups in New Zealand and the implications for our country's future constitutional, governmental and administrative arrangements, as well as our national culture.

The authors of the papers presented in this book do not agree about the rights set out in the Draft Declaration: what they mean, whether and how they should be honoured and implemented, and their interrelationship with Treaty rights.

Recognising the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a valuable publication because it goes beyond stumbling blocks such as the question of Maori secession and the precise wording on the declaration. As the preface by Sir Paul Reeves states, the book considers the great issues of sovereignty and self-determination; and it does so with a view to moving...