6.4 Right to Self-Determination and Rights of Indigenous Population

Self-determination — the common Article 1 of both Covenants: all peoples have the right of self-determination — by virtue of which they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. The two faces: internal self- determination (participation, autonomy, self-governance within the state — the federalism connection: Nepal's federal structure as internal self-determination's institutionalization) and external self-determination (independence — the decolonization engine; the remedial-secession debate for peoples under grave oppression). The tensions: territorial integrity (the Charter's Art 2(4)) vs. the peoples' rights; the "peoples" definition; the salt-water thesis (self-determination for colonized territories, not for the states' minorities — the classical reading). The Chagos opinion (Unit 3.6.4) as self-determination's modern high-water: the free-and-genuine-will standard at decolonization. The rights of indigenous peoples: the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP 2007) — self-determination's internal face (autonomy and self-governance; participation); the lands-and-resources core (the traditional lands' recognition — the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) standard for measures affecting indigenous lands and institutions); the culture, language and knowledge protections; the distinct-identity rights. The status question: a declaration, not a treaty — but the key provisions' customary crystallization debated (the FPIC's practice). The Inter-American jurisprudence (the Awas Tingni line — communal property of indigenous lands) as the strongest judicial face. Nepal's stakes: the indigenous peoples' (Adivasi Janajati)…