ABSTRACT
This chapter tackles the fundamental issues of whether or not indigenous peoples have an internationally accepted right to self-determination. It argues that questions of human rights and dissent within individual states must be linked to questions of human rights and dissent around the world. The chapter describes that new post-colonial forms of internal self-determination should be recognized, that is, where sub-state regional identities are given recognition and political control within their states with, in select instances, limited forms of international recognition. International law provides guidance to what is permissible and what is not with respect to claims for 'legitimate' self-determination. The United Nations Charter and many other UN documents include statements on self-determination. The UN pronouncements stress 'national unity' and 'territorial integrity', however, rather than a genuine concern for 'people' freed from a geographical context. Indeed an overriding primacy is retained for the centuries-old foundations of international law and the system of states: recognition, state sovereignty and territorial integrity.
