Indigenous ‘property’ and the violence of property: can human rights law support decolonisation?

Vermeylen, Saskia, Gilbert, Jérémie and Kobei, Cindy (2024) Indigenous ‘property’ and the violence of property: can human rights law support decolonisation? In, Bevan, Chris (ed.) Research Handbook on Property, Law and Theory. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 312-325. (doi:10.4337/9781802202069.00029).

Abstract

This chapter highlights how, for many Indigenous peoples, property is rooted in a history of violence, colonisationand forced dispossession and how property, as understood by most mainstream legal systems, is based on underpinning normative framings that have seen Indigenous peoples repeatedly deprived of their lands. By focusing on Indigenous laws and ways of relating to territoires, the chapter shows how Indigenous jurisprudence differs from Western-centric legal theories and property law and argues that it is inappropriate to conceive Indigenous relations to territory in a classical property conception. Based on this analysis, and drawing on the lived experiences and example of the the Ogiek community of Kenya who have fought for the recogntion of their rights to lands and territory, the chapter explores if the language of human rights law might be deployed to both support Indigenous rights and decolonise this dominant Western and individualistic approach to property and property law.

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Contributors

Author: Jérémie Gilbert

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