TY - CHAP
T1 - Fiji and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
T2 - Indigeneity and the right to self-determination in a majority-Indigenous context
AU - O'Sullivan, Dominic
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Editor and Contributors Severally 2022. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - It is more than 40 years since the British colonial power withdrew from Fiji. The indigenous population's majority status was returned after coups in 1987 and a putsch in 2006 ostensibly in favour of paramount indigenous political authority. A 'coup to end all coups' in 2006 exposed the deeper complexities of indigenous Fijian politics and also the contested nature of the right to self-determination, enunciated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous in 2007, but not widely accepted as relevant to a people no longer a minority and no longer subservient to colonial authority. Demographic factors aside, there is an unresolved politics of class, personality and paramount military authority ensuring that indigenous Fijians remain subservient to colonial legacy. The Declaration, and its affirmation of the cultural, linguistic and resource rights that underly self-determination may help Fiji to achieve the political stability and certainty that is presently elusive.
AB - It is more than 40 years since the British colonial power withdrew from Fiji. The indigenous population's majority status was returned after coups in 1987 and a putsch in 2006 ostensibly in favour of paramount indigenous political authority. A 'coup to end all coups' in 2006 exposed the deeper complexities of indigenous Fijian politics and also the contested nature of the right to self-determination, enunciated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous in 2007, but not widely accepted as relevant to a people no longer a minority and no longer subservient to colonial authority. Demographic factors aside, there is an unresolved politics of class, personality and paramount military authority ensuring that indigenous Fijians remain subservient to colonial legacy. The Declaration, and its affirmation of the cultural, linguistic and resource rights that underly self-determination may help Fiji to achieve the political stability and certainty that is presently elusive.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137535647&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85137535647&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4337/9781788115797.00033
DO - 10.4337/9781788115797.00033
M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)
SN - 9781788115780
SP - 397
EP - 412
BT - Research handbook on the international law of Indigenous rights
A2 - Newman, Dwight
PB - Edward Elgar Publishing
CY - Cheltenham
ER -