Advancing Indigenous Rights at the United Nations: Strategic Framing and Its Impact on the Normative Development of International Law

Within the past 30 years, indigenous peoples have emerged as legitimate subjects of international law with rights to exist as distinct peoples. This shift in international law is the result of activity over the last few decades that has involved hundreds of indigenous leaders, community representatives, and lawyers. Indigenous peoples have become actively engaged in efforts to transform the disposition and direction of international law in order that it might become a supportive force of change in the relations between indigenous peoples and the states in which they live. This article explores those efforts on the part of indigenous peoples. Specifically, it examines the ways in which indigenous peoples have articulated strategic ‘frames’ that engender support for their aspirations within the international legal system. In doing so, it contributes to an understanding of why and how these rights have emerged. It also contributes to the framing literature, which has not yet been used to explain social movements’ outcomes. In this article, however, I demonstrate that framing can also make an impact on the development of law and policy.1