Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis analyses the concept of indigenous peoples’ right to self–determination within the international human rights system and explores viable avenues for the fulfilment of indigenous claims to self–determination through the design, implementation and evaluation of development policies. The thesis argues that development policy plays a crucial role in determining the level of enjoyment of self–determination for indigenous peoples. Development policy can offer an avenue to bypass nation states’ political unwillingness to recognize and promote indigenous peoples’ right to self–determination, when adequate principles and criteria are embedded in the whole policy process. The theoretical foundations of the thesis are drawn from two different areas of scholarship: indigenous human rights discourse and development economics. The indigenous human rights discourse provides the articulation of the debate concerning the concept of indigenous self–determination, whereas development economics is the field within which Amartya Sen’s capability approach is adopted as a theoretical framework of thought to explore the interface between indigenous rights and development policy. Foundational concepts of the capability approach will be adopted to construct a normative system and a practical methodological approach to interpret and implement indigenous peoples’ right to self–determination. In brief, the thesis brings together two bodies of knowledge and amalgamates foundational theoretical underpinnings of both to construct a normative and practical framework. At the normative level, the thesis offers a conceptual apparatus that allows us to identify an indigenous capability rights–based normative framework that encapsulates the essence of the principle of indigenous self–determination. At the practical level, the normative framework enables a methodological approach to indigenous development policies that serves as a vehicle for the fulfilment of indigenous aspirations for self–determination. This thesis analyses Australia’s health policy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as an example to explore the application of the proposed normative and practical framework. The assessment of Australia’s health policy for Indigenous Australians against the proposed normative framework and methodological approach to development policy, allows us to identify a significant vacuum: the omission of Aboriginal traditional medicine in national health policy frameworks and, as a result, the devaluing and relative demise of Aboriginal traditional healing practices and traditional healers.

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis analyses the concept of indigenous peoples’ right to self–determination within the international human rights system and explores viable avenues for the fulfilment of indigenous claims to self–determination through the design, implementation and evaluation of development policies. The thesis argues that development policy plays a crucial role in determining the level of enjoyment of self–determination for indigenous peoples. Development policy can offer an avenue to bypass nation states’ political unwillingness to recognize and promote indigenous peoples’ right to self–determination, when adequate principles and criteria are embedded in the whole policy process. The theoretical foundations of the thesis are drawn from two different areas of scholarship: indigenous human rights discourse and development economics. The indigenous human rights discourse provides the articulation of the debate concerning the concept of indigenous self–determination, whereas development economics is the field within which Amartya Sen’s capability approach is adopted as a theoretical framework of thought to explore the interface between indigenous rights and development policy. Foundational concepts of the capability approach will be adopted to construct a normative system and a practical methodological approach to interpret and implement indigenous peoples’ right to self–determination. In brief, the thesis brings together two bodies of knowledge and amalgamates foundational theoretical underpinnings of both to construct a normative and practical framework. At the normative level, the thesis offers a conceptual apparatus that allows us to identify an indigenous capability rights–based normative framework that encapsulates the essence of the principle of indigenous self–determination. At the practical level, the normative framework enables a methodological approach to indigenous development policies that serves as a vehicle for the fulfilment of indigenous aspirations for self–determination. This thesis analyses Australia’s health policy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as an example to explore the application of the proposed normative and practical framework. The assessment of Australia’s health policy for Indigenous Australians against the proposed normative framework and methodological approach to development policy, allows us to identify a significant vacuum: the omission of Aboriginal traditional medicine in national health policy frameworks and, as a result, the devaluing and relative demise of Aboriginal traditional healing practices and traditional healers.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:01:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4693.pdf: 2900732 bytes, checksum: 128fae6ab8e1a1299a8a5f2be405b029 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-06 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / The Brazilian State, in order to start a new political relationship with indigenous communities, implemented, in 1999, the National Policy of Attention to Indigenous Health (PNASPI), through the National Health Foundation (FUNASA) and 34 Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts (DSEIs) located in the national territory. The new health policy for the indigenous areas, structured within the differentiated attention Subsystem and integrated into the Unified Health System (SUS), proposed a participatory model of Civil Society-State comanagement, via council or public policy managers, cooperation agreements with NGOs and other participatory experiences. Just likeit probably occurred in other indigenous territories, the implementation of a new State Agency in the Xingu brought a creative process of political and cultural adaptationto local leaders, generating the possibility of an inter-ethnic negotiation field. It was therefore from this political scenario that the research proposed to understand the indigenous leaders' forms of practice and their representations. Thus, it sought to observe the strategies of the region s representatives who "make pacts" and "negotiate" with the various organizations responsible for the implementation of health public policies (FUNASA, City Halls and NGOs), oriented by constitutional principles that ensure (universal) rights and (differentiated) specificities regarding preventive health care to these and all other indigenous groups within the national territory. The analysis of these forms of organization and political activity also sought to observe how the implementation of the health policy and its institutional arrangements generated a redesigning of the policy practices established between indigenous peoples and the State. Thus, even though indigenous leaders have not articulated a homogeneous position regarding the State's "offer" of partnership through NGOs and management councils,many of which with goals to ensure recognition and political spaces both in the national scene and in their traditional systems of organization, they started a project that pursues the enlargement of the memberships and a change in the organizational structure of the State.The movement, conducted by the leaders of the Alto Xingu, involves a participatory model of comanagement, whose practice does not dispense a few moments of consummation of the identity among the actors who make up this participatory experience. / O Estado brasileiro, visando a ensaiar uma nova relação política com as comunidades indígenas, implantou, em 1999, a Política Nacional de Atenção à Saúde Indígena (PNASPI), através da Fundação Nacional de Saúde (FUNASA) e de 34 Distritos Sanitários Especiais Indígenas(DSEIs)localizadosao longo do território nacional. A nova política sanitária para as áreas indígenas, estruturada no Subsistema de atenção diferenciada integrado ao Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), propôs um modelo participativo de cogestão Estado-Sociedade Civil, via conselhos gestores ou de políticas públicas, convênios de cooperação com ONGs e outras experiências participativas. Assim como, provavelmente, ocorreu em outros territórios indígenas, a implementação de uma nova agência estatal na Terra Indígena do Xingu imprimiu aos líderes locais todo um processo político-cultural de adaptação criativa, gerando-se as condições de possibilidade de um campo de negociação interétnica. Portanto, foi a partir desse cenário político que a pesquisa propôs-se a apreender as formas de atuação dos líderes indígenas e suas representações. Procurou-se, assim, observar as estratégias dos representantes alto-xinguanos que pactuam e negociam junto aos diversos órgãos responsáveis pela implementação de políticas públicas em saúde (FUNASA; prefeituras; e ONGs), orientadas por princípios constitucionais que asseguram a esses e aos demais grupos aldeados no território nacional, ao mesmo tempo, direitos (universais) e especificidades (diferenciadas) nos cuidados preventivos e de atenção à saúde. A análise dessas formas de organização e de atuação política buscou, ainda, observar como a implementação da política sanitária, com seus arranjos institucionais,gerouum redimensionamento das práticas políticas estabelecidas até então, entre povos indígenas e o Estado. Portanto, mesmo que os líderes indígenasnão tenham articulado uma posição homogênea diante da oferta estatal de parceria por meio de ONGs e conselhos gestores, muitos com objetivos de garantir reconhecimento e espaços políticos tanto no cenário nacional quanto nos seus sistemas tradicionais de organização, deflagraram um projeto que persegue o alargamento das participações e uma mudança na estrutura organizativa do Estado.Esse movimento, realizado pelos líderes do Alto Xingu, envolve um modelo participativo de cogestão, cuja prática também não dispensa alguns momentos de consumação da identidade entre os atores que compõem essa experiência participativa.