Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T22:05:58.222Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Disentangling the conundrum of self-determination and its implications in Greenland

Part of: International Law for Sustainability in Arctic Resource Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

Dorothée Céline Cambou Open the ORCID record for Dorothée Céline Cambou [Opens in a new window]
Dorothée Céline Cambou*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Arts & Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
*
Author for correspondence: D. C. Cambou, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 2009, the Act on Greenland Self-Government was adopted. It recognises that “the people of Greenland is a people pursuant to international law with the right of self-determination”. Within this framework, the people of Greenland have gained significant control over their own affairs and the right to access to independence. Yet, the extent to which this framework ensures the right of self-determination in accordance with fundamental human rights can still be questioned. From a human rights perspective, the right of self-determination is not a one-time right. It is fundamental human right that applies in different contexts beyond decolonisation and which has implications not only for colonial countries and peoples but also for the population of all territories, including indigenous and minority groups. From this perspective, this contribution seeks to disentangle and analyse the different facets of self-determination in Greenland while considering the implications of the right based on the multifarious identity of the peoples living in the country as colonial people, citizens, indigenous and minority groups, including their claim to control mining resources.

Keywords

GreenlandInuitSelf-determinationIndigenous peoplesIndependenceUNDRIPMining activitiesInughuit
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 56 , 2020 , e3
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Act on Greenland Self-Government, Act no. 473 of 12 June 2009.Google Scholar
Ackrén, M. (2016). Public consultation processes in Greenland regarding the mining industry. Arctic Review on Law and Politics, 7(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.17585/arctic.v7.216CrossRefGoogle Scholar
African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights. 276/03 Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group (on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council)/Kenya, (African Commission 2009).Google Scholar
Alfredsson, G. (1982). Greenland and the law of political decolonisation. German Yearbook of International Law, 25, 290–308.Google Scholar
Alfredsson, G. (2013). International law status of Greenland. In Current developments in arctic law (Timo Koivurova Waliul Hasanat, Vol. 1, pp. 1–3). Rovaniemi, Finland: UArctic Thematic Network.Google Scholar
Anaya, J. (2011). The Situation of Kanak People in New Caledonia, France: UN Doc. A/HRC/18/35/Add.6.Google Scholar
Boldt, M., & Long, J. A. (1984). Tribal philosophies and the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 7(4), 478–493. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.1984.9993463CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cambou, D. (2019). The UNDRIP and the legal significance of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination: a human rights approach with a multidimensional perspective. The International Journal of Human Rights, 0(0), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2019.1585345Google Scholar
Cassese, A. (1995). Self-Determination of Peoples: A Legal Reappraisal. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caulfield, R. A. (1997). Greenlanders, Whales, and Whaling: Sustainability and Self-Determination in the Arctic (1st edition). Hanover, NH: Dartmouth.Google Scholar
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (2018). List of issues in relation to the sixth periodic report of Denmark, UN Doc. E/C.12/DNK/Q/6.Google Scholar
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. (2010). Concluding Observations, UN Doc. CERD/C/DNK/CO/18-19.Google Scholar
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. (2015). Concluding Observations, UN Doc. CERD/C/DNK/CO/20-21.Google Scholar
Cultural Survival. (2015). Observations on the State of Indigenous Human Rights in Denmark in Light of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Denmark.Google Scholar
Daes, E. (2000). The spirit and the letter of the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples: Reflections on the making of the United Nations Draft Declaration. In Aikio, P. & Scheinin, M., Operationalizing the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination Turku/Åbo (pp. 67–84), Finland: Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University.Google Scholar
Egede Lynge, A. (2006). The best colony in the world, Paper for Rethinking Nordic Colonialism Conference. http://rethinking-nordic-colonialism.org/files/pdf/ACT2/ESSAYS/Lynge.pdfGoogle Scholar
Franck, T. M. (1992). The emerging right to democratic governance. American Journal of International Law, 86(1), 46–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerhardt, H. (2011). The Inuit and sovereignty: The case of the Inuit circumpolar conference and Greenland. Politik, 14(1) 6–14. https://doi.org/10.7146/politik.v14i1.27469CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Göcke, K. (2009). The 2008 referendum on Greenland’s autonomy and what it means for Greenland’s future. Zeitschrift Für Ausländisches öffentliches Recht Und Völkerrecht (ZaöRV) Zeitschrift Für Ausländisches öffentliches Recht Und Völkerrecht, 69(1), 103–121.Google Scholar
Gunter, C. (2015). The case for Uranium mining in Greenland. Cornell International Law Journal, 48(2), 423–479.Google Scholar
Human Rights Committee. (2008). Concluding Observations, UN Doc.CCPR/C/DNK/CO/5.Google Scholar
International Court of Justice. Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965. 25th February 2019, Advisory Opinion, ICJ GL No 169, ICGJ 534.Google Scholar
International Labour Organisation. Report of the Committee set up to examine the representation alleging non-observance by Denmark of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), made under article 24 of the ILO Constitution by the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Greenland (Sulinermik Inuussutissarsiuteqartut Kattuffiat-SIK). (ILO 2001).Google Scholar
International Law Association. (2010). The Hague Conference (2010) Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Interim Report. International Law Association.Google Scholar
Inuit Circumpolar Council. (2009). A circumpolar Inuit declaration on Sovereignty in the Arctic.Google Scholar
Kleist, K. (2009, June 21). Celebration speech by Premier Kuupik Kleist on inauguration of Greenland self-government. Retrieved from http://naalakkersuisut.gl/~/media/Nanoq/Files/Attached%20Files/Engelske-tekster/Celebration%20speech.pdfGoogle Scholar
Kleist, K. (2010). Statement by Mr. Kuupik Kleist, Premier of Greenland, 2nd Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Geneva, 10–14 August, 2009. In Charters, C. & Stavenhagen, R. (Eds.), Making the declaration work: The United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (1st Edition). Copenhagen : New Brunswick, N.J.: IWGIA.Google Scholar
Kleivan, H. (1984). Contemporary Greenlanders. In Damas, D. (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 5, pp. 700–717). Washington: Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Kuokkanen, R. (2017a). The pursuit of Inuit sovereignty in Greenland. Northern Public Affairs. Retrieved from http://www.northernpublicaffairs.ca/index/volume-5-issue-2-innovations-in-community-health-and-wellness/the-pursuit-of-inuit-sovereignty-in-greenland/Google Scholar
Kuokkanen, R. (2017b). ‘To see what state we are in’: First years of the Greenland self-government act and the pursuit of Inuit sovereignty. Ethnopolitics, 16(2), 179–195CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, F. B. (1992). The quiet life of a revolution: Greenlandic Home Rule 1979-1992. Études/Inuit/Studies, 16(1/2), 199–226.Google Scholar
Loukacheva, N. (2007). Arctic Promise: Legal and Political Autonomy of Greenland and Nunavut (1st edition). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ngiviu, T. (2014). The Inughuit of northwest Greenland: An unacknowledged Indigenous people. The Yearbook of Polar Law Online, 6(1), 142–161. https://doi.org/10.1163/1876-8814_006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nuttall, M. (1992). Arctic Homeland: Kinship, Community and Development in Northwest Greenland (1st edition). Toronto ; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Nuttall, M. (1994). Greenland: Emergence of an Inuit homeland. InGroup, M.R. (Ed.), Polar peoples self-determination and development. London: Minority Rights Group.Google Scholar
Nuttall, M. (2008). Self-rule in Greenland: Towards the world’s first independent Inuit state? Indigenous Affairs, (3/4) 64–70.Google Scholar
Pelaudeix, C., Basse, E. M., & Loukacheva, N. (2017). Openness, transparency and public participation in the governance of uranium mining in Greenland: A legal and political track record. Polar Record, 53(6), 603–616. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247417000596CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Permanent Court of International Justice, Legal Status of Eastern Greenland General List No.s43, Judgment No. 20, 5 September 1933.Google Scholar
Scheinin, M., & Åhren, M. (2017). Relationship to human rights, and related international instruments. In Oxford commentaries on international law. The UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples: A commentary (Jessie Hohmann, Marc Weller) (pp. 63–86). Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shohat, E. (1992). Notes on the ‘post-colonial’. Social Text, (31/32), 99–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/466220CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Social Impact Assessment (SIA). Guidelines on the process and preparation of the SIA report for mineral projects, Government of Greenland, 2016.Google Scholar
Sowa, F. (2013). Relations of power & domination in a world polity: The politics of Indigeneity & National Identity in Greenland. In Arctic Yearbook, 184–198.Google Scholar
Thomsen, M. L. (2013). Greenland and the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. In Loukacheva, N. (ed.), Polar law textbook – II, Tema Nord (pp. 241–267). Retrieved from https://www.nordic-ilibrary.org/environment/polar-law-textbook-ii/greenland-and-the-united-nations-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples_9789289329408-16-enGoogle Scholar
The Greenland Home Rule Act, Act No. 577 of 29 November 1978.Google Scholar
Thornberry, P. (2002). Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights. Manchester: Manchester University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations. Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, UN Doc. A/RES/1514(XV), 1960.Google Scholar
United Nations. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Doc. A/61/L.67 and Add.1, 2007.Google Scholar
United Nations. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, New York, 16 December 1966 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 999, p. 171 and vol. 1057, p. 407.Google Scholar
United Nations. International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, New York, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 993, p. 3Google Scholar
United Nations. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes on his mission to Denmark and Greenland, 14 November 2018, UN Doc. A/HRC/39/48/Add.2, para. 74.Google Scholar
United Nations. The rights of peoples and nations to self-determination, 16 December 1952, UN Doc. A/RES/637.Google Scholar
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. (2006) Who are indigenous peoples? Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/5session_factsheet1.pdfGoogle Scholar