Individual and Collective Self-Identification as Indigenous in the European Arctic: International Legal Perspectives

Who is indigenous is a question which is often difficult to answer
from the perspective of non-indigenous law. Lovelace v. Canada is
one of the key cases of indigenous rights law. It forms an important
precedent but it does not establish an unlimited subjective right to
be indigenous within the framework of the ICCPR. The decision in
Lovelace v. Canada cannot be construed as requiring states which are
parties to the ICCPR to allow anybody to claim indigenous identity
without the consent of the indigenous people in question. ILO 169
strengthens the position of indigenous peoples in this regard. Self-
identification has multiple dimensions: collective self-identification
as indigenous, individual self-identification as indigenous, and
collective identification of the self through the identification of an
individual as indigenous. Only indigenous peoples can decide who is
a member. This decision is a sovereign right of the collective.