Barsh, R. (1995). Indigenous Peoples and the Idea of Individual Human Rights. Native Studies Review, 10(2), 35-55.

Many Indigenous leaders have argued that international human rights norms should not be applied to Indigenous self-government. Like independent African nations thirty years ago, they dismiss the International Bill of Human Rights as individualistic and Eurocentric. It is true that Indigenous peoples have inherited notions of “rights” that are based on relationships and responsibilities among kin, as opposed to the European conception of rights as negotiated limitations on state power. As Indigenous peoples embrace bureaucratic models of self-government, however, they will experience the same internal conflicts that led to the emergence of a new, individualistic theory of rights in modern Europe.

ISSN: 0831585X