Indigenous peoples right to self-determination and the principle of state sovereignty over natural resources: A human rights approach and its constructive ambiguity

The chapter revisits the evolution of international law concerning the development of the principle of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and its interaction with the rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination. In this light, the analysis describes how international law concerning the right to natural resources shifted from a state-centred interpretation of the right to dispose of natural resources towards a human rights-centred approach, which includes the rights of Indigenous peoples and the correlative duties of states to guarantee these rights. In this regard, this chapter posits that international law supports a human rights approach to the right to control natural resources, which seeks to conciliate Indigenous peoples' rights to self-determination with state sovereignty over governance of land and resources. This chapter concludes that this development is based on a constructive ambiguity that mediates the conflicting relation between Indigenous peoples and states, but which does not resolve all conflicts.Peer reviewe