Academic literature on the topic 'Indigenous trusteeship'

AbstractTrusteeship is Gandhi's conceptualization of the contribution of business houses towards social well-being. Trusteeship is a theoretical construct seeking to redefine the relationship between indigenous business houses and the nationalist movement. That Gandhi succeeded in persuading the business men to participate in the freedom struggle, despite adverse consequences, suggests the extent to which Trusteeship was an effective mechanism in political mobilization. Besides elaborating the concept, this paper also argues that Gandhi was indebted to Andrew Carnegie and John D. Ruskin, amongst others, in his effort to articulate Trusteeship as a bridge between business houses and the freedom struggle; and that this Gandhian idea is a forerunner of the contemporary conceptualization of Corporate Social Responsibility.

This paper explores the prevalence of sleeping sickness in British Southern Cameroons and examines the various preventive measures implemented by the colonial administration to slow down the scourge of the disease in Southern Cameroons. The disease had a deep rooted impact on the indigenous population and was recognized as public health problem in the territory. Hence there was the need to implement preventive measures against the prevalence of the disease. The British were obliged by articles 2 and 10 of the mandate and trusteeship agreements respectively to ensure the social advancement of the people. It was in this context that the colonial administration and native authorities faced with the scourge of the disease engaged preventive measures to control the disease. This explains why preventive measures including population resettlement, travel restrictions fly depopulation and bush clearing was primordial in the fight against the disease. This paper argues that preventive measures succeeded to an extent in rolling back the scourge of sleeping sickness in British southern Cameroons. Preventive measures impeded the advancement of socio-economic activities in most disease prevalent areas.

AbstractWe explore two special challenges indigenous peoples pose to the idea of sovereigns as trustees for humanity. The first challenge is rooted in a colonial history during which a trusteeship model of sovereignty served as an enabler of paternalistic colonial policies. The challenge is to show that the trusteeship model is not irreparably colonial in nature. The second challenge, which emerges from the first, is to specify the scope and nature of indigenous peoples’ sovereignty within the trusteeship model. Whereas the interaction between states and foreign nationals is the locus of cosmopolitan law, the relationship between states and indigenous peoples is distinctive. In the ordinary cosmopolitan case, foreign nationals do not purport to possess legal authority. Indigenous peoples often do make such a claim, pitting their claim to authority against the state’s. We discuss how international law has attempted to come to grips with indigenous sovereignty by requiring states to include indigenous peoples in decision-making processes that affect their historical lands and rights. A crucial fault line in the jurisprudence, however, separates a duty to consult indigenous peoples from a duty to acquire their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). The latter but not the former recognizes that indigenous peoples possess a veto over state projects on their lands, in effect recognizing in them a limited co-legislative power. We focus on recent jurisprudence from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and consider whether either the duty to consult or FPIC are enough to dispel the shadow of the trusteeship model’s colonial past. We suggest that they are a move in the right direction, and that implicitly they represent international law’s recognition that states are no longer the sole bearers of sovereignty at international law. In limited circumstances, international law recognizes indigenous peoples as sovereign actors.

The current thesis seeks to examine the history of Aboriginal development policy and its correlation with the trajectory of an indigenous business class in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In particular, the study focuses on the period beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s when, following the large-scale social and economic upheaval caused by the collapse of the once dominant pastoral industry (previously the economic mainstay and largest employer of the region), the policy popularly known as self-determination - and termed indigenous trusteeship in this thesis) - came into play. The former policy of state trusteeship, in operation since colonial times, was devised in more prosperous times (as a means to, among other thing, facilitate land and labour to pastoral operations) but was unable to cope with the quickly changing economic conditions. In an attempt to resolve the growing economic and economic crisis - including rapidly increasing unemployment, impoverishment and social dislocation - the new policy of indigenous trusteeship transferred the responsibility for the provision of indigenous welfare to a nascent Aboriginal political and commercial leadership. To assist in ameliorating the escalating rates of Aboriginal unemployment and poverty much government subvention, including land, labour and finance, was transferred to Aboriginal control and specifically to those existing (albeit on a small scale) Aboriginal business operations. In doing so, much economic space was opened to Aboriginal commercial operations, which, during the previous policy regime of state trusteeship, had been purposefully stymied. This thesis aims to tackle some of the misconceptions concerning the history of Aboriginal economic development and the course of an indigenous commercial class. As well, there is recognition of the major contribution made by an emerging Aboriginal leadership to the evolving policy of indigenous trusteeship. In short, there is a critical re-evaluation of the origins of, and support for, successful indigenous owned business operations in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The current thesis seeks to examine the history of Aboriginal development policy and its correlation with the trajectory of an indigenous business class in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In particular, the study focuses on the period beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s when, following the large-scale social and economic upheaval caused by the collapse of the once dominant pastoral industry (previously the economic mainstay and largest employer of the region), the policy popularly known as self-determination - and termed indigenous trusteeship in this thesis) - came into play. The former policy of state trusteeship, in operation since colonial times, was devised in more prosperous times (as a means to, among other thing, facilitate land and labour to pastoral operations) but was unable to cope with the quickly changing economic conditions. In an attempt to resolve the growing economic and economic crisis - including rapidly increasing unemployment, impoverishment and social dislocation - the new policy of indigenous trusteeship transferred the responsibility for the provision of indigenous welfare to a nascent Aboriginal political and commercial leadership. To assist in ameliorating the escalating rates of Aboriginal unemployment and poverty much government subvention, including land, labour and finance, was transferred to Aboriginal control and specifically to those existing (albeit on a small scale) Aboriginal business operations. In doing so, much economic space was opened to Aboriginal commercial operations, which, during the previous policy regime of state trusteeship, had been purposefully stymied. This thesis aims to tackle some of the misconceptions concerning the history of Aboriginal economic development and the course of an indigenous commercial class. As well, there is recognition of the major contribution made by an emerging Aboriginal leadership to the evolving policy of indigenous trusteeship. In short, there is a critical re-evaluation of the origins of, and support for, successful indigenous owned business operations in the Kimberley region of Western Australia

This chapter studies the arrival of the Human Rights Council. The idea of a Human Rights Council was raised in 1976, as the Great Enterprise entered a new phase. The documentation in 1976 on this issue is comprehensive, consisting of no less than five informative reports. In addition, the Commission on Human Rights had before it the analysis of the observations received from some Member States. They included an analysis of the deliberations at the Assembly that had taken place in November of 1975, which covered a range of topics, including ‘the possibility of transforming the Trusteeship Council into a Human Rights Council’. In 2005, the Secretary-General announced his plans to propose the establishment of a Human Rights Council to the Commission. A few months later, the World Summit decided on the establishment of a Human Rights Council. The Human Rights Council inaugurated its work with the adoption of two international human rights instruments, which had reached completion in the Commission on Human Rights: the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It also extended the mandate of the Working Group formed under the Commission to elaborate an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and of the Commission’s Working Group on the Right to Development.