Higgins, Noelle
(2014)
Advancing the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples:
Getting UN attention via the universal periodic review.
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 32 (4).
pp. 379-407.
ISSN 2214-7357
Abstract
Having been neglected by the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights (UDHR), minority
rights, and even more so, the rights of indigenous peoples, have developed in quite an
ad hoc and indolent manner. The rights of minorities were recognised in Article 27 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1966, but as yet
no binding UN instrument on minorities exists. Indigenous peoples fared worse under
the UN system as their rights, apart from labour rights, were not codified in a legal
instrument until the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
(UNDRIP) in 2007. Over the years a complex framework of mechanisms was established
within the UN to support the rights of these groups, but their concerns and entitlements
were still sidelined to an extent due to the lack of binding instruments and the absence of
comprehensive and compulsory State reporting requirements on these issues. However, in
2007 the newly created Human Rights Council developed a novel method of overseeing the
implementation of universal human rights standards in the form of the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR). The UPR allows for discussion on all human rights issues and is not bound by the subject matter limitations of the UN treaty body regime, thus encompassing
minority rights and indigenous peoples' rights within its rubric. This article seeks to
analyse how the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples were dealt with during the
first cycle of the UPR and to assess the impact of this mechanism on these rights.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Human Rights Council; indigenous peoples' rights; minority rights;
universal periodic review; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Law |
| Item ID: |
11815 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1177/016934411403200404 |
| Depositing User: |
Noelle Higgins
|
| Date Deposited: |
21 Nov 2019 18:04 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights |
| Publisher: |
SAGE Publications |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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