ABSTRACT

The paper describes the participatory mechanisms granted to minorities or indigenous groups in Europe and in the Arctic Region.

The first part analyses various legal instruments approved in Europe (and more specifically by the Council of Europe and by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) to protect and safeguard the status and the participatory rights of minorities and indigenous groups at international, regional and national level.

The second part explores the initiatives undertaken by the Arctic Council and then more specifically by Norway as an example of Arctic State, that grants to the Arctic indigenous peoples an active role as decision makers and participants in environmentally-related decisions.

The scope of such a dual analysis is to show that only an inclusive approach can offer an effective restoration to the injustice of marginalisation. The inclusive stance has a dual meaning: first, it allows to apply legal restorative provisions to the widest extent of groups, no matter what formal category they fall into; second, it orientates such provisions to the common scope of fulfilling the substantive equality principle.

The inclusive approach does not foresee any contrast between the international instruments that provide restorative rights to minorities and indigenous groups and the regional provisions that grant an official status to the indigenous groups, as well as other effective mandatory tools to engage them in decision-making processes; it rather encourages the application of minimum standards for responding to the needs of vulnerable groups.

KEYWORDS

Arctic; Environmental decision making; Europe; Indigenous peoples; Minority groups; Participatory rights

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

This work offers a dual analysis of different legal regimes that aim to restore and protect the indigenous peoples’ substantive and procedural rights: a regional overview of the indigenous rights’ protection in Europe (with a focus on the international conventions approved by the European Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE) and an analysis of the state-of-the-art of the indigenous peoples’ protection in the Arctic Region (Arctic Council at regional level; Norway at national level). The scope is to show that only an inclusive approach can offer an effective restoration to the injustice of marginalisation.