This contribution focuses on the three Nordic autonomous islands: the Aland Islands, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, and their path towards autonomy and the development of their own party systems. It focuses on the way mobilisation patterns have developed within the three jurisdictions and how the relationships towards their metropolitan states (Finland and Denmark, respectively) have evolved during a period of administrative and political devolution. The Aland Islands have experienced a slower process towards increasing autonomy than the Danish islands, which are now both heading towards independence. The reasons behind this are considered in the light of historical factors, the different models of autonomy and the existence of irredentist and/or secessionist movements.

Autonomy development, irredentism and secessionism in a Nordic context

From its very inception, the International Labour Organization
(ILO) has been a pioneer in addressing indigenous peoples' issues,
albeit initially from a culturally biased, integrationist perspective.
Its contributions have progressed from the preparation of studies
on the working conditions of indigenous peoples in the 1920s, to
the elaboration of recommendations and conventions on indigenous
 labour rights in the early 1940s and 1950s, and most recently to
the adoption of legally binding instruments recognizing a broader
range of indigenous rights, such as those pertaining to land and
resources, which are at the top of indigenous peoples' agendas.
This article reviews and assesses these developments with a particular
focus on ILO Convention nos. 107 (1957) and 169 (1989).The
author concludes that, setting aside its initially assimilationist orientation,
the ILO has made invaluable contributions in partial satisfaction
 of indigenous demands and has succeeded in establishing a
solid floor of basic, minimum prerequisites for the safeguarding of
the dignity and rights of these most disadvantaged, both historically
and presentIy, peoples.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/FEF9F81DCAB7377D3D20D8D569A78005/S006900580001033Xa.pdf/div-class-title-the-international-labour-organization-and-its-contribution-to-the-protection-of-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples-div.pdf

The International Labour Organization and its Contribution to the Protection of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

This article examines the implementation of the principles of openness, transparency and public participation in the decision-making regarding the conditions for uranium mining in Greenland from a legal and political perspective. The time frame covers the period from the exploration for minerals before World War II to 2016–2017 when the current Greenlandic authorities prepared a licence for a project of extraction of rare earth elements and uranium in Kvanefjeld. It is shown that the issue of openness, transparency and public participation in Greenland is a longstanding issue and that the current governance does not permit public access to a draft environmental impact assessment report, impairing public participation in decision-making, and preventing the environmental consequences of these activities from being considered as a public concern. It is argued that sovereignty–its consolidation and the accession to it–has impacted the design of governance in Greenland and that the constraints put on the full implementation of the legal principles of openness, transparency and public participation in the governance of uranium mining in Greenland, amongst other factors, point to a current hybrid political and legal order in the context of a political agenda of independence.

Openness, transparency and public participation in the governance of uranium mining in Greenland: a legal and political track record

/pdf/bibliography-on-secession-and-international-law-mgrgx59jvk.pdf

Bibliography on Secession and International Law

This article questions the assumption that nations either have states or seek them. In doing so, it is argued that the concept of nations and states were awkwardly joined and that increased access to and speed of communications has highlighted this. It will be argued that such change has led to the appeal of the politics of recognition and the use of flexible goals and means to achieve national agendas. The case of the James Bay Cree will be used to illustrate the argument.

National recognition without a state: Cree nationalism within Canada

Fourth Session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations

There may be uncertainty and difference of opinion about the extent and scope of the right to self-determination in international law, but I believe there is general agreement that at least overseas colonial and territorial entities are entitled to exercise this right. The name of the rule of law may be either external self-determination or decolonization, but the results are the same: that peoples in colonial countries have the right to decide on their own constitutional future and international status. It is in his context that I will discuss the question of whether the 1953 integration of Greenland into Denmark excludes the future application of this right by the Greenlanders.

Gudmundur Alfredsson

Papers

Fourth Session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations

Greenland and the Right To Self-Determination

Indigenous Rights in 1988