Energy, Environment and Indigenous Rights: Arctic Experiences Compared
Indigenous peoples of the Arctic are currently faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, the preservation of their customs, the traditional lifestyles and cultural values is closely related to the maintenance of the environmental characteristics of the territories inhabited since time immemorial. On th...
| Published in: | The Yearbook of Polar Law Online |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
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Brill
2015
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2211-6427_013 https://brill.com/view/journals/yplo/7/1/article-p317_13.xml https://data.brill.com/files/journals/22116427_007_01_s013_text.pdf |
| Summary: | Indigenous peoples of the Arctic are currently faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, the preservation of their customs, the traditional lifestyles and cultural values is closely related to the maintenance of the environmental characteristics of the territories inhabited since time immemorial. On the other hand, the needs of the development of economic activities, represented primarily by the extraction of minerals and exploitation of energy resources, pose new challenges with respect to which the decisions are not taken – as is obvious – only by Arctic indigenous communities, and that may also be important for the natives as a chance to better their overall living conditions (in terms of labor, employment and education, for example). Arctic states have addressed these issues with different legal tools. The latter range from US land claims settlements to recognition of ‘ancestral’ and treaty rights in the constitutional order of Canada, to the creation of Sámi Parliaments in the Nordic countries, or the peculiar rules for the county of Finnmark in Northern Norway, approved in 2005, which give broad powers to the indigenous communities. In turn, the Greenlandic statute of autonomy in force since 2009 did not prevent tensions between the Inuit communities in Greenland and the Danish central authorities regarding the exploitation of natural resources and energy, including uranium. Less adequate, in comparison with the other Arctic states, appears the protection of Sámi in northern Russia, not so much in terms of regulation, but from the point of view of the effective application of existing rules. Anyway, useful legal instruments for effective protection of specific minorities represented by Arctic indigenous peoples can come also from the provisions of the international law of human rights, both that specifically dedicated to the natives and the rules of general human rights. In the light, therefore, of the tensions, but also the opportunities, offered by the exploitation of natural resources, the article examines ... |
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