INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ PROCEDURAL ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS AND TRANSNATIONAL INDIGENOUS ADVOCACY NETWORKS

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the central question: whether, by engaging with states and extractive multinational corporations (MNCs) within the international system, transnational Indigenous advocacy networks (TIANs) can promote the development and implementation of international legal norms relating to the rights of Indigenous peoples to participate and access information in environmental decision-making. It examines Indigenous peoples’ leadership and contributions to the development of international Indigenous rights norms and their continued roles in advancing the development and realization of their procedural environmental rights. For context, this thesis examines Indigenous peoples’ collaborations that shaped the development of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to exemplify Indigenous peoples’ influence in international law. It identifies and responds to some of the shortcomings of Indigenous rights movements and organizations without discounting their efforts and achievements. Thus, by modifying and adapting Keck and Sikkink’s analysis of transnational advocacy networks, this thesis introduces and explores a structure I term TIANs. TIANs will comprise webs of established Indigenous rights organizations operating internationally and seeking to initiate or maintain connections with domestic groups. Constructivist international relations insights on the norm life cycle inform this thesis’ analysis of the potential roles of TIANs as norm entrepreneurs with the requisite organizational platform. International legal norms on Indigenous peoples’ procedural environmental rights have not been established in specific international rules, and domestic pressure is still being asserted for these rights to be respected. Hence, this thesis argues that these norms are at the first stage of the norm life cycle, and establishes the need for an international law instrument that unequivocally affirms and protects these rights. It analyzes four distinguishing and interrelated potential characteristics of TIANs that respond to the particularities of Indigenous rights advocacy: spheres of operation, shared principled ideas, advocacy strategies, and information strategies. These attributes will make TIANs well-positioned to bridge the gap between international and domestic Indigenous rights advocates, optimize transnational Indigenous alliances, and foster the actualization of international Indigenous environmental rights principles domestically. Essentially, TIANs are suitable to engage with states and MNCs to shape their actions regarding developing and implementing the emerging norms.