Indigenous Collective Rights to Consultation and Representative Speech

Abstract Indigenous participatory rights, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ( undrip ), are collective rights for Indigenous Peoples to have a say in decisions affecting them – something these communities are envisaged as doing “through their own representative institutions” (Article 19). However, the conditions of group representation are not clearly spelled out in the undrip or in commentaries on its provisions. Our article addresses this in two inter-connected ways. First, we distinguish genuine spokesperson speech from three other kinds of representative speech ( speaking about the group, speaking as a group member , and speaking in behalf of a group ). Second, we identify two minimal conditions of genuine spokesperson speech: that the spokesperson be authorised by the group in whose name they speak, and that the spokesperson speaks for the group willingly and knowingly. While relatively simple in theory, each of these conditions throws up a number of questions, such as who gets to authorise a spokesperson and how individuals might be compelled into acting as spokesperson. We conclude the paper by turning briefly to the issue of how states and the law ought to better ensure that Indigenous Peoples are able to have a say through their proper spokespersons.