[1] In any discussion of constitutional transformation, Matike Mai o Aotearoa (the
Independent Iwi Working Group) accepts the importance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. Like other documents such as the Mataatua Declaration it provides
an international benchmark against which the exercise of rangatiratanga may be
defined and measured.
The rights it espouses, and
particularly the right of self determination, are living rights that inhere in
humans as peoples, not as subjects of some political order. The UN Declaration is therefore an absolutely
appropriate baseline to be considered in the development of a new and inclusive
constitution.
It
is an international mirror of rights and authority that Māori have always had, and is thus an adjunct to Te
Tiriti and what it should mean in terms of self
determination as both a human right and a capacity to once again make our own
decisions.
Most
of all the Working Group acknowledged the mana that Māori accord the Declaration –
“We are now
trying to use the UN Declaration whenever we can. I remember when James Anaya (the
former UN Special Rapporteur on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples) was here he said something like, ‘It’s your
rights. It’s your Declaration. Make it
work for you.’ And it does recognise all
those things we talk about in the treaty.”
“We wanted it
(the Declaration) in our Deed of Settlement, but the Crown
refused. But we still see it as a kind
of supplement to Te Tiriti and He Whakaputanga … It’s an
international statement of the things our people have been saying since 1835,
and can be another benchmark for what we are talking about now.”
Although
the Declaration is concerned with existing relationships with States that are
quite different to those contemplated in this constitutional transformation
process, it is nevertheless relevant because it is the sum of what literally
thousands of Indigenous Peoples have regarded as a minimum international set of
human rights.
Symbolically
it is also important because the inclusion of the right to self determination
was only achieved after years of struggle by Indigenous Peoples against
governments (including the government
of New Zealand) that sought to deny it.
The
success of that struggle can give hope and reassure people that the
difficulties involved in constitutional transformation can be overcome.
Next
week we will begin considering indigenous constitutions in practice.
[1] Twentieth
edited extract from pp. 62 – 63 of He Whakaaro
Here Whakaumu Mō Aotearoa – The Report of Matike Mai o Aotearoa
No comments:
Post a Comment