Plural Governance: When Do Indigenous Rights Prevail?

Date/Time: 25 August 2022, 16:15-17:15
Venue: Kulturhuset and Zoom

Minority protection is a central element of constitutional democracy – and vulnerable minorities are particularly at risk when populists mobilize against liberal-democratic constraints on power.  Rights and legal norms of indigenous peoples and other traditional communities are recognized by countries in all regions of the world, and at international level. These hard-fought legal victories center around rights to self-governance, and to natural resources. Yet, in many cases these protective legal regimes are rendered ineffective and are easily – and in many cases increasingly – trumped by other concerns, often helped by countervailing legal provisions. In this roundtable, researchers on plural legal regimes from different regions discuss the challenges of making indigenous rights and autonomy last.

Participants: Nathalia Sandoval (Getulio Vargas Foundation), Namita Wahi (Centre for Policy Research), Tatiana Alfonso (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México – ITAM)
Moderator: Jackie Dugard (Columbia University / Witwatersrand University) 

This Roundtable is part of the CMI/LawTransform project PluriLand: Theorizing Conflict and Contestation in Plural Land Rights Regimes (RCN grant 2020–25)