Abstract

Since 1995, indigenous peoples from around the world and United Nations (UN) member states have been meeting once a year for two weeks to discuss the UN Drafted Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DDRIP). The DDRIP is a proposed document that defines the human rights of indigenous peoples including indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, and collective rights to land and natural resources. Since it was first tabled in 1995, the DDRIP has generated much debate. In the past nine years, only two of the forty-five articles in the DDRIP have been passed by the UN Working Group on the Drafted Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This thesis explores the process of the DDRIP negotiations and the meaning it has for First Nation peoples (specifically Mohawks of Kahnawake), the Canadian government and Canadian/First Nation relations. My research was conducted over a two year period and consisted of participant observation, archival and newspaper research, and formal and informal interviews. As my theoretical framework, I used Risse and Sikkink's (1999) "spiral model" on the socialisation of international human rights norms into domestic practice and Sherry Ortner's theory (1999) on power and resistance. I argue that the indigenous peoples' experience at the Working Group on the DDRIP has theoretical significance for the study of globalisation, state control and civil resistance. New political opportunities and relationships are being created and contested across national and international boundaries as indigenous peoples seek recognition of their human rights, and negotiate a place within the world's political process.