• A Charles Sturt Professor in political science has been invited to speak at a seminar held by the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Professor Dominic O’Sullivan will discuss the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Sustainable Development Goals
• The seminar will be held on Thursday 8 February in Vancouver, Canada

A Charles Sturt University political expert has been invited to share his knowledge of indigenous political rights at a United Nations’ seminar in Canada.

Professor Domonic O’Sullivan, who specialises in indigenous politics and public policy in the Charles Sturt School of Social Work and Arts, will speak at the event in Vancouver on Thursday 8 February.

The seminar is being held by the United Nations (UN) Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was established in 2007 by the UN Human Rights Council, and will inform a report on ‘Indigenous peoples’ right to traditional economies, sustainable development and food security in an age of climate change’.

Professor O’Sullivan said there is an obvious connection between human rights and sustainable development.

“I will be examining this connection through the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Sustainable Development Goals, with the declaration ensuring indigenous peoples can enjoy the same human rights as everybody else, and the goals’ overarching aim being to ‘leave no one behind’,” he said.

As a New Zealand Maori researcher and the only indigenous scholar in the world to have published books on both the Declaration and Goals, Professor O’Sullivan will offer unique insights on the topics addressed.  

“There are 17 goals and 232 indicators to help UN members keep track of their progress towards things like No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions,” he said.

“Just two indicators refer to indigenous peoples. One in relation to subsistence farming, and one as people whose vulnerability demands the education system’s special attention.”

Professor O’Sullivan will use the Declaration to discuss politics and policies of greater ambition and agency. He will examine the scope of human rights policy and democratic citizenship in liberal democracies like Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The political expert will join members of the Human Rights Council secretariat and indigenous academics from Canada, New Zealand, Tanzania, Uganda, Guatemala, Denmark, Norway, Russia, the United States and the Philippines at the Vancouver event.

“The seminar is an important opportunity to contribute to international thinking on relationships between human rights and sustainable development and how indigenous peoples’ policy leadership can help make people’s lives better,” Professor O’Sullivan said.

“That, after all, is the purpose of politics.”

ENDS