Africa and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

This article examines the efforts of a transnational indigenous peoples' civil society network to convince African states to the support the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Indigenous peoples' activism with regards the UNDRIP was successful despite the challenges. The author argues that success with UNDRIP was due to the effectiveness of the main African transnational indigenous peoples' network, though there were favourable conditions including a surge of idealism associated with African bloc politics at the United Nations, South Africa's democratisation and focus on human rights, a global awareness of the need for more effective human rights mechanisms for non-dominant peoples and an unwillingness by Africa to forsake the benefits and alliances of the international system. The emergence of an indigenous peoples' movement in Africa represents an evolution of civil society on the continent and the lobbying in favour of UNDRIP was a measure of its capacity. The reactions of African diplomats provide an opportunity to examine Africa's relationship with its own legal and cultural traditions, its openness to pluralist forms of governance and non-state institutions in post-colonial regimes, as well as Africa's relationship with the international human rights system.