European court of human rights for the protection of arctic indigenous peoples’ land rights

Abstract

This study examines how indigenous peoples’ right to property of ancestral land has been interpreted by three international human rights courts; the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human rights, and the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. The study shows that the European Court is lagging behind the development of international law concerning indigenous peoples' rights, and in relation to its counterparts takes a more conservative position in their interpretation of indigenous peoples’ right property. In an Arctic context, this means that the only human rights court with the mandate to examine cases concerning indigenous peoples rights fails to take into account the progressive development of international law. However, based on the concepts of rights and property, through the history of the European human rights system, the author shows that the European system contains the necessary elements for the European Court to take into consideration the unique situation of the Arctic indigenous peoples in its interpretation of the indigenous peoples' rights to their ancestral land, under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention.