Climate Relocation of Arctic Indigenous Peoples: How Can They Freely Decide Their Future?
Taking the indigenous communities of the North American Arctic as an example, we analyze the legal and institutional gaps in the recognition of indigenous particularities in displacement. In addition to the lack of a legal and institutional framework for the recognition of indigenous status in displacement, these gaps reflect the difficulties of collaboration between government agencies and communities, linked to the partial application of indigenous rights. To address it, establishing a governance based on a clear organizational structure to balance power between the different stakeholders (federal government, Alaska state, Native communities) is a prerequisite. The reinterpretation of the right to self-determination makes it possible to envisage community-driven climate relocation, based on community aspirations for the future, which would make it possible to move beyond a static approach to indigenous identities and the reproduction of historical patterns of marginalization.