The Treaty of Waitangi: Some International Law Aspects

The Treaty of Waitangi: Some International Law Aspects

Description

A remarkable upswell in international activity concerning the position of indigenous peoples has occurred since the beginning of the 1980s. The contemporary New Zealand debate concerning the meaning and significance of the Treaty of Waitangi increasingly draws on international and comparative material, not least in the work of the Waitangi Tribunal. The New Zealand Government is now often called upon to discuss the position of the Māori people in international forums. The Chairman Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations paid a fact-finding visit to New Zealand in 1988, and Māori representatives addressed the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations for the first time, later that year. The purpose of this chapter is to survey briefly some of the relevant international legal material which may have a bearing on issues related to the Treaty of Waitangi. The chapter is in three sections. The first briefly examines the status of the Treaty of Waitangi in international law as a treaty of cession. The second discusses the international law principles of good faith, estoppel, and treaty interpretation in relation to Treaty issues. The third section alludes to a few of the many other areas of international law which may be relevant to Māori concerns, focusing specifically on international law aspects of rights to land, to development, and to cultural identity.

Source Publication

Waitangi: Māori and Pākehā Perspectives of the Treaty of Waitangi

Source Editors/Authors

I. H. Kawharu

Publication Date

1989

The Treaty of Waitangi: Some International Law Aspects

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