About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

15 Int'l J. Hum. Rts. 1 (2011)

handle is hein.journals/ininllh15 and id is 1 raw text is: The International Journal of Human Rights gj Routledge Vol. 15, No. 1, January 2011, 1-10 INTRODUCTION Indigenous rights in southern Africa: international mechanisms and local contexts Jennifer Haysa* and Megan Bieseleb 'Department of Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Tromso, Norway; bKalahari Peoples Fund, Austin, Texas, USA The San are the indigenous peoples of southern Africa, numbering approximately 100,0001 and representing three linguistic families.2 Once living throughout the southern part of the continent, today the San live primarily in Botswana and Namibia, to a lesser extent in Angola and South Africa, with very small numbers also residing in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Like indigenous peoples worldwide, San communities are currently facing drastic social change, extreme marginalisation and poverty.3 Hitchcock and Garcia-Alex emphasise the starkness of indigenous peoples' deprivation, noting that 'they tend to have the lowest health and nutritional standards, the highest rates of unemployment, illiteracy, and mor- tality, the shortest life spans, the lowest incomes, and the lowest degrees of political partici- pation of the various categories of people in the countries in which they reside'.4 This description fits for the San of southern Africa, who have played an important role in the collective global imagination about human ancestry, and have been a prime focus of much anthropological research. Despite all this attention, the standards of living have con- tinued to deteriorate. Can a rights-based approach help? Will the signing of the UN Declara- tion on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have any impact? How do local, national and regional contexts come into play? What do anthropologists have to contribute to a discus- sion of indigenous rights in southern Africa? The papers included in this volume were presented at the American Anthropological Association conference held in San Francisco in 2008, in a panel entitled: Southern Africa and the UN Declaration on the Rights ofindigenous Peoples: How Can International Mech- anisms Work in Local Communities and Contexts? This conference was held the year after the signing of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (September 2007), and there was much interest at the conference in this historic event. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (referred to in this volume also as UNDRIP, or in some places simply The Declaration) is one of the most deliberated and consultative documents in the history of the UN; it is also the only declaration which the rights-holders themselves - represented by leaders of indigenous organisations - helped to draft. The Declaration is thorough, comprehensive, and addresses the concerns of indigenous peoples and govern- ments. Despite the time and care taken in constructing it, implementation of the UNDRIP poses many challenges stemming from political, economic, legal, social and cultural differ- ences and barriers; the shape that these challenges take varies greatly from place to place. *Corresponding author. Email: jennifer.hays@uit.no. ISSN 1364-2987 prinISSN 1744-053X online © 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13642987.2011.529686 http://www. informaworld.com

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most