ABSTRACT
Indigenous expectations for a Declaration on the rights of indigenous people that would include a wide range of collective rights have sparkled lively debates between states, indigenous representatives and experts in the "United Nations working group on indigenous people". The liberal emphasis on the dichotomy between the individual and the state ignores the existence of any intermediate groups. The rejection of collective rights derives from a notion of "monotheism of the state", namely unlimited sovereignty of the state and the view that the state should be the only source of authority in each political system. International law adopts, in relation to the various groups and their cultures, a multicultural policy, namely a policy that leads to equality among the groups and equal treatment. Multiculturalism can exist only in a pluralistic society, where an array of choices and opportunities would maintain a marketplace of goods, ideas, cultural and political options.
