Protection of indigenous peoples on the african continent: concepts, position seeking, and the interaction of legal systems

American Journal of International Law

Volumn 104, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 29-65

  Van Genugten, Willem ^a  

^a TILBURG UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77951535824     PISSN: 00029300     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5305/amerjintelaw.104.1.0029     Document Type: Article

References (239)

1. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, GA Res. 61/295, annex (Sept. 13, 2007) [hereinafter Declaration].
2. Report of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2005/WP.3 (Apr. 22, 2005) [hereinafter Working Group Report].
3. Id. at 23.
4. Id.
5. Id. at 23-24.
6. Id. at 27.
7. Id. at 32-33.
8. Id. at 33.
9. Id.
10. Id.
11. Id.
12. Id. at 34.
13. Id.
14. Id. at 36-37.
15. Id. at 37.
16. African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, June 27, 1981, 1520 UNTS 245 (Eng.), 21 ILM 58 (1982) [hereinafter African Charter].
17. Working Group Report, supra note 2, at 40.
18. Id.
19. Id. (footnote omitted).
20. Id. at 41.
21. Id. at 12.
22. Id. at 13.
23. Id.
24. Id.
25. Id.
26. Felix Mukwiza Ndahinda, Victimization of African Indigenous Peoples: Appraisal of Violations of Collective Rights Under Victimological and International Law Lenses, 14 INT'L J. MINORITY & GROUP RTS. 1, 9 (2007) (quoting PATRICK THORNBERRY, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND HUMAN RIGHTS 214 (2002) (footnotes omitted)).
27. See, e.g., PATRICK MOLUTSI & JOHN HOLM, DEMOCRACY IN BOTSWANA (1990);
28. Asbjørn Eide, Rights of Indigenous Peoples-Achievements in International Law During the Last Quarter of a Century, 2006 NETH. Y.B. INT'LL. 155, 194-96;
29. Kenneth Good, The State and Extreme Poverty in Botswana: The San andDestitutes, 37 J. MOD. AFR. STUD., June 1999, at 185;
30. Willem van Genugten & Camilo Perez-Bustillo, The Emerging International Architecture of Indigenous Rights: The Interaction Between Global, Regional, and National Dimensions, 11 INT'LJ. MINORITY & GROUP RTS. 379, 401-06 (2004).
31. For an inside view, see Eide, supra note 27.
32. Human Rights Council, Res. 1/2 (June 29, 2006), UN Doc. A/C.3/61/L.18/Rev.1, annex (Nov. 20, 2006) available at http://www.un.org/ documents/[hereinafter Draft Declaration].
33. Id.
34. UN Doc. A/C.3/61/L.57/Rev.1, para. 2 (Nov. 21, 2006).
35. The quotes are taken from the extensive summaries and reproductions of the debates in the Third Committee's sixty-first session, fifty-third meeting. UN Doc GA/SHC/3878 (Nov. 28, 2006).
36. See, e.g., Eide, supra note 27, at 192-196
37. UN Doc. GA/SHC/3878, supra note 32.
38. Id.
39. Id.
40. AU Doc. Assembly/AU/Dec. 141 (VIII) (Jan. 30, 2007).
41. Advisory Opinion of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 41st Ordinary Session (May 16-30, 2007), available at http:// www.achpr.org/english/ Special%20Mechanisms/Indigenous/Advisory%20opinion-eng.pdf [hereinafter Advisory Opinion]. The Commission had asked its Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities for advice on the various concerns expressed by African states about the draft Declaration. It was able to do so, since the Working Group had already presented an extensive report on the issue in 2003. The latter report had been adopted at the 34th Ordinary Session of the Commission in November 2003. It was later authorized for publication by the 4th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, held in January 2005. AU Doc. Assembly/AU/Dec.56 (IV) (Jan. 30-31, 2005).
42. Group of African States, Draft Aide-Mémoire: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (Nov. 9, 2006), available at http://www.iwgia.org/sw21505.asp [hereinafter Draft Aide-Mémoire];
43. see also Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: "Draft Aide Mémoire" of the African Group: A Brief Commentary (Jan. 16, 2007), available at
44. Id.
45. Draft Aide-Mémoire, supra note 39, para. 2.2.
46. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 10.
47. International Labour Organization, Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (No.169), Art. 1(a) & (b), June 27, 1989, available at http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/ [hereinafter ILO C. 169]. On defining indigenous peoples,
48. see ANNA MEIJKNECHT, TOWARDS INTERNATIONAL PERSONALITY: The POSITION OF MINORITIES AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW 72-76 & passim (2001);
49. Luis RODRÍGUEZ-PINERO, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, POSTCOLONIALISM, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW 150-172 (2005).
50. ILO C.169, supra note 42, Art. 1(2).
51. See Max van der Stoel, Conflictvoorkoming in Europa [Conflict Prevention in Europe], INTERNATIONALE SPECTATOR, Mar. 1994, at 104.
52. See the report of the Working Group on its first session, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1996/2, at 19.
53. UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Factsheet: Who Are Indigenous Peoples? (2008), available at http://www.wipce2008.com/.
54. Working Group Report, supra note 2, at 49.
55. Id.
56. Id. at 49 -50, 72.
57. Id. at 54.
58. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 13;
59. see also Rachel Murray & Steven Wheadey, Groups and the African Charter on Human and Peoples'Rights, 25 HUM. RTS. Q. 213 (2003).
60. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 13.
61. That question is central to the PhD thesis of Felix Mukwiza Ndahinda, which was supervised by the present author at Tilburg University and successfully defended in December 2009.
62. See FELIX MUKWIZA NDAHINDA, INDIGENOUSNESS IN AFRICA: A CONTESTED FRAMEWORK FOR EMPOWERMENT OF "MARGINALIZED" ETHNO-CULTURAL COMMUNITIES (forthcoming 2010).
63. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 16 (quoting Draft Aide-Mémoire, supra note39, para.3.1, in a slightly different version from the one cited here).
64. Working Group Report, supra note 2, at 71.
65. Id. at 58.
66. Id.
67. Id.
68. Id.
69. Draft Declaration, supra note 29, Art. 46(1).
70. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 18.
71. East Timor (Port. v. Ausd.), 1995 ICJ REP. 90, para. 29 (June 30).
72. See Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, para. 5, GA Res. 1514 (XV) (Dec. 14, 1960);
73. Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation Among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, GA Res. 2625 (XXV), annex (Oct. 24, 1970);
74. Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), Advisory Opinion, 1971ICJREP. 16(June21);
75. Western Sahara, Advisory Opinion, 1975 ICJ REP. 12(Oct. 16);
76. East Timor, supra note 62;
77. see also Report of the Secretary-General, Universal Realization of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination, UN Doc. A/62/184 (Aug. 2, 2007);
78. UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination [CERD Comm.], General Comment No. 21: The Right to Self-Determination (Mar. 8, 1996), UN GAOR, 51st Sess., Supp. No. 18, Annex VI, at 125, UN Doc. A/51/18 (1996);
79. MODERN LAW OF SELF-DETERMINATION (Christian Tomuschat ed., 1993);
80. T. M. Franck, Postmodern Tribalism and the Right to Secession, in PEOPLES AND MINORITIES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW 3 (Catherine Brölmann, René Lefeber, & Marjoleine Zieck eds., 1993);
81. Jan Klabbers, The Right to Be Taken Seriously: Self-Determination in International Law, 28 HUM. RTS. Q. 186 (2006).
82. For reflections on these and other legal and quasi-legal sources, see ANTONIO CASSESE, SELF-DETERMINATION OF PEOPLES: A LEGAL APPRAISAL ( 1995);
83. JAMES CRAWFORD, THE INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION'S ARTICLES ON STATE RESPONSIBILITY 38, 242, 246-47 (2002);
84. ALEXANDRAXANTHAKI, INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND UNITED NATIONS STANDARDS: SELF-DETERMINATION, CULTURE AND LAND, ch. 4 (2007);
85. WILLEM VAN GENUGTEN, KEES HOMAN, NICO SCHRIJVER, & PAUL DE WAART, THE UNITED NATIONS OF THE FUTURE: GLOBALIZATION WITH A HUMAN FACE §4.3 (2006).
86. Katangese Peoples' Congress v. Zaire, Communication No. 75/92, 2000 AfY. Hum. Rts. L. Rep. 72 (ACHPR 1995), available at http://www.achpr.org/.
87. Id., para. 6.
88. Id., concluding declaration.
89. ANTONIO CASSESE, INTERNATIONAL LAW 119 (2d ed. 2005). The moment when internal self-determination might turn into external self-determination (the "tipping point") is the topic of a PhD thesis in progress at Tilburg University by Simone van den Driest.
90. GA Res. 63/3 (Oct. 8, 2008), adopted by 77-86, with 74 abstentions. The resolution was proposed by Serbia.
91. See in this regard Advisory Council on International Affairs, Advisory Letter [to the Dutch Government]: The Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, From Deadlock to Breakthrough? (Sept. 2004), available at http://www.aiv-advies.nl/ContentSuite/upload/aiv/doc/AIV-adv.letter.08(2).pdf. The letter, prepared by a committee chaired by the present author, called upon the Netherlands, which at that moment held the presidency of die European Union, to "use its status as 'concerned third party' to launch proposals that are consistent with international law and politically feasible."
92. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 19.
93. Id., para. 26.
94. Id.
95. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination [CERD], Mar. 7, 1966, S. EXEC. DOC. NO. 95-C (1978), 660 UNTS 195. 74 See CERD, Status of Ratification, Reservations and Declarations (Dec. 3, 2009), available at http:// www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/index.htm.
96. CERD, supra note 73, Art. 1(4).
97. General Recommendation No. 14: Definition of Discrimination, para. 2 (Mar. 17, 1993), Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, UN GAOR, 48th Sess., Supp. No. 18, at 115, UN Doc. A/48/18 (1993).
98. Id.
99. CERD Comm., Thematic Discussion on "Special Measures/Affirmative Action" (Aug. 4 -5, 2008), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/ bodies/cerd/discussions.htm (undated announcement by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the issue);
100. Constance De la Vega, The Special Measures Mandate of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Race Discrimination: Lessons from the United States and South Africa (U. San Francisco Law Res. Paper No. 2009-08, Jan. 31, 2009), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract = 1317934. For a critical note on the second meeting,
101. see CERD Comm., 74th Sess., Thematic Discussion on Special Measures (Feb. 20, 2009), available at http://www.ishr.ch/treaty-body-monitor/cerd?task=view. On special measures in relation to UN supervisory work in the broader field of human rights,
102. see UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Working Paper, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/5 (June 3, 1998).
103. Guidelines for the CERD-Specific Document to Be Submitted by States Parties, UN Doc. CERD/C/2007/1 (June 13, 2008).
104. See, e.g., CERD Comm., Concluding Observations: South Africa, UN Doc. CERD/C/ZAF/CO/3, paras. 10, 19 (Oct. 19, 2006) (commenting on Third Periodic Reports of States Parties Due in 2004, Addendum: South Africa, UN Doc. CERD/C/461 /Add.3 (May 19, 2005), and referring to the special measures taken by South Africa for the benefit of indigenous peoples, especially in relation to their freedom of movement and their right to participate in decisions affecting them).
105. CERD Comm., General Recommendation No. 23: Indigenous Peoples (Aug. 18, 1997), Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, UN GAOR, 52d Sess., Supp. No. 18, Ann. V, at 122, UN Doc. A/52/18 (1997).
106. Id., para. 4(c).
107. Draft Aide-Mémoire, supra note 39, para. 7.0.
108. Id.
109. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 34 (quoting African Charter, supra note 16, Art. 21(1)).
110. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, 999 UNTS 171.
111. Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 23: The Rights of Minorities (Art. 27), UN Doc. CCPR/ C/21/Rev.l/Add.5, para. 7 (Apr. 8, 1994) [hereinafter General Comment 23];
112. see also, e.g., Länsman v. Finland, Communication No. 511/1992 (Oct. 26, 1994), 2 Report of the Human Rights Committee at 66, UN GAOR, 50th Sess., Supp. No. 40, UN Doc. A/50/40 (1995).
113. General Comment 23, supra note 87, para. 6.2.
114. M. Nowak, Comments, in PEOPLES AND MINORITIES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW, supra note 63, at 103, 106 (commenting on N. Lerner, The Evolution of Minority Rights in International Law, in id. at 77).
115. For a detailed overview, see EDUARDO RUIZ VIEYTEZ, THE HISTORY OF LEGAL PROTECTION OF MINORITIES IN EUROPE (XVHTH-XXTH CENTURIES) (1999).
116. See also Lerner, supra note 89.
117. UN Charter Art. 1(2).
118. GA Res. 217C (III) (Dec. 10, 1948), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Resolutions, at 77, UN Doc. A/810 (1948).
119. Id.
120. Lubicon Lake Band v. Canada, Communication No. 167/1984, para. 32.1, UN Doc. CCPR/C/38/D/167/ 1984 (Mar. 26, 1990), 2 Report of the Human Rights Committee, Annex IX, at 1, UN GAOR, 45th Sess., Supp. No.40, UN Doc. A/45/40 (1990).
121. This point of view has been repeated several times, among others in Mahuika v. New Zealand Communication No. 547/1993, UN Doc. CCPR/C/70/D/547/1993 (Oct. 27, 2000), 2 Report of the Human Rights Committee at 11, UN GAOR, 56th Sess., Supp. No. 40, UN Doc. A/56/40 (2001).
122. See MEIJKNECHT, supra note 42;
123. see also Marianne van de Bosch & Willem van Genugten, International Legal Protection of Migrant Workers, National Minorities and Indigenous Peoples-Comparing Underlying Concepts, 9 INT'L J. MINORITY & GROUP RTS. 195 (2002) (discussing this and other issues related to the locus standi of minorities and indigenous peoples).
124. Declaration, supra note 1, Art. 46(2).
125. Lovelace v. Canada, Communication No. R.6/24, UN Doc. CCPR/C/13/D/24/1977 (July 30, 1981), 2 Report of the Human Rights Committee, Annex XVIII, at 166, UN GAOR, 36th Sess., Supp. No.40, UN Doc. A/36/40 (1981).
126. B. G. Ramcharan, Individual, Collective and Group Rights: History, Theory, Practice and Contemporary Evolution, l INT'L J. GROUP RTS. 27, 42 (1993).
127. Draft Declaration, supra note 29, Art. 5 (virtually unchanged in adopted version).
128. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 40.
129. Id., para. 41.
130. Draft Declaration, supra note 29, An. 19 (unchanged in adopted version).
131. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 42.
132. Id., para. 43.
133. Southern African Development Community, Protocol on Culture, Information and Spon, Art. 1 (2) (Aug. 14, 2000), available at http://www.sadc.int/index/ browse/page/127, quoted in id.
134. Advisory Opinion, supra note 38, para. 44.
135. GA Res. 47/135, annex (Dec. 18, 1992).
136. ILO C.169, supra note 42, Arts. 2(1), 6(l)(b).
137. Declaration, supra note 1, An. 18.
138. Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations, Final Repon (Last Pan), UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1983/21/Add.8 (Sept. 30, 1983).
139. Id., para. 257.
140. Id., para. 261.
141. Proposed Amendments by die African Group to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Arts. 4, 8(2), 9 (May 8, 2007), available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/AGDraft0507.pdf.
142. Id., Art. 32(1).
143. Eide, supra note 27, Postscript;
144. Stefania Errico, The UN General Assembly Adopts the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ASIL INSIGHT, Oct. 9, 2007, at http://www.asil.org/insights-2007.cfm.
145. Declaration, supra note 1, pmbl. (emphasis omitted).
146. GA Res. 60/1, para. 121 (Sept. 16, 2005).
147. Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, pmbl. & para. 5, UN Doc. A/CONF. 157/23 (July 12, 1993).
148. [Netherlands] Advisory Council on International Affairs, Universality of Human Rights and Cultural Diversity, para. II(d) (June 1998);
149. see also Advisory Council on International Affairs, Universality of Human Rights: Principles, Practice and Prospects, ch. V (Nov. 2008).
150. UN Doc. A/61/PV.107, at 19 (Sept. 13, 2007). It is often reponed that 143 states voted in favor. However, Montenegro reponed afterwards that its vote in favor had not been registered.
151. Id.
152. UN Doc. GA/10612 (Sept. 13, 2007).
153. Id.
154. Id.
155. Id.
156. Id.
157. Commission on Human Rights, Report of the 18th Session, para. 105, UN ESCOR, 34th Sess., Supp. No.8, at 15, UN Doc. E/CN.4/832/Rev.1 (1962) (quoting memorandum of the Office of Legal Affairs, para. 3, UN Doc. E/CN.4/L.610 (1962)).
158. Id. (quoting memorandum, supra note 126, para. 4).
159. See Willem van Genugten, Rob van Gestel, Marc Groenhuijsen, & Rianne Letschert, Loopholes, Risks and Ambivalences in International Lawmaking; The Case of a Framework Convention on Victims' Rights, 2006 NETH. Y.B. INT'L L. 109 (applying that notion to victims' rights).
160. Declaration, supra note 1, An. 38.
161. Id., Art. 18.
162. UN Doc. GA/10612, supra note 121.
163. Id.
164. Id.
165. Id.
166. Id.
167. Id.
168. Id.
169. Id.
170. Quoted in text at note 102 supra.
171. This will be done by the Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the International Law Association, of which the present author is a member. The committee, chaired by Prof. Siegfried Wiessner, is drafting an extensive expert commentary on the Declaration, to be presented at the ILA biannual meeting in The Hague in 2010. On the customary law character ofparts of the Declaration,
172. see S. JAMES ANAYA, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (2d ed. 2004);
173. Siegfried Wiessner, Indigenous Sovereignty: A Reassessment in Light of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 41 VAND. J. TRANSNAT'L L. 1141, 1156 (2008);
174. Siegfried Wiessner, Rights and Status of Indigcnous Peoples: A Global Comparative and International Legal Analysis, 12 HARV. HUM. RTS. J. 57 (1999);
175. see also Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People, S. James Anaya, UN Doc. A/HRC/9/9, ch. 3 (Aug. 11, 2008) [hereinafter Special Rapporteur Report].
176. Cal v. Attorney General, No.171 (Sup. Ct. Belize Oct. 18, 2007), 46 ILM 1022 (2007) (Conteh, C.J.), available at http://www.elaw.org/node/1620.
177. Id., para. 2.
178. Id. para. 8.
179. Id.
180. Id., para. 130.
181. Id., pan. 131.
182. Id.
183. Id., para. 132.
184. Id., para. 133.
185. Saramaka People v. Suriname, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No.172 (Nov. 28, 2007), available at http://www. coneidh.or.cr/.
186. Id., para. 2.
187. Id., para. 131.
188. Declaration, supra note 1, Art. 32(2).
189. See, e.g., United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Report on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Doc. A/HRC/10/51 (Jan. 14, 2009);
190. see also Special Rapporteur Report, supra note 140.
191. Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Canada, UN Doc. A/HRC/11/17 (Mar. 3, reissued Oct. 5, 2009).
192. Id., para. 13.
193. Id., Conclusions and/or Recommendations, No.52.
194. African Charter, supra note 16, Art. 27(1).
195. S. AFR. CONST. 1996, §211 (Recognition of Traditional Leadership). Note that the 1996 Constitution speaks of "customary law," while its 1993 (interim) predecessor still spoke of "indigenous law." Customary law, however, is meant to include indigenous law, avoiding the need to identify which traditional communities are indigenous and which are not. For other examples of (processes of) constitutional recognition of indigenous peoples, see Working Group Report, supra note 2, at 27-29. On the interaction between traditional customary law and national South African law, as well as international (human rights) law,
196. see Christa Rautenbach, Some Comments on the Status of Customary Law in Relation to the Bill of Rights, 2003 STELLENBOSCH L. REV. 107;
197. Christa Rautenbach, Therapeutic Jurisprudence in the Customary Courts of South Africa: Traditional Authority Courts as Therapeutic Agents¿'21 S. AFR. J. HUM. RTS. 323 (2005);
198. see also J. C. Bekker & C. C. Boonzaaier, Traditional Leadership and Governance, in INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL PLURAUSM IN SOUTH AFRICA 113 (J. C. Bekker, C. Rautenbach, & N. M. I. Goolam eds., 2d ed. 2006) [hereinafter LEGAL PLURAUSM].
199. S. AFR. CONST. 1996, §39(3) (emphasis added).
200. D. S. Koyana, J. C. Bekker, & R. M. Mqeke, Traditional Authority Courts, in LEGAL PLURAUSM, supra note 159, at 131, 146.
201. S. AFR. CONST. 1996, §39(l)(b).
202. l63 Id. §231(4).
203. Id. §§232, 233.
204. Bhe v. Magistrate, Khayelitsha, 2005 (1) SA 580 (CC), [2004] ZACC 17, para. 41.
205. Id., para. 43 (footnote omitted).
206. Id., para. 45 (footnote omitted).
207. Id., para. 163 (Ngcobo, J., dissenting) (quoting S v. Makwanyane, 1995 (3) SA 391, para. 244 (CC) (Langa, D.C.J.)). In more detail, Judge Ngcobo noted in a dissenting opinion: [U]buntu... expresses itself in umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, describing the significance of group solidarity on survival issues so central to the survival of communities. While it envelops the key values of group solidarity, compassion, respect, human dignity, conformity to basic norms and collective unity, in its fundamental sense it denotes humanity and morality. Its spirit emphasises respect for human dignity, marking a shift from confrontation to conciliation.". . .Further,.. ."[t]he need for ubuntu expresses the ethos of an instinctive capacity for and enjoyment of love towards our fellow men and women; the joy and the fulfilment involved in recognizing their innate humanity; the reciprocity this generates in interaction within the collective community, the richness of the creative emotions which it engenders and the moral energies which it releases both in the givers and the society which they serve and arc served by."
208. Id., para. 163 n.28 (quoting Makwanyane, supra, paras. 308, 263 (Mokgoro, J., & Mohamed, J., respectively)). "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" can literally be translated as "a person is a person through other people."
209. See MEC for Education: Kwazulu-Natal v. Pillay, 2008 (1) SA 474 (CC), [2007] 2 ZACC 21, para. 53 n.31.
210. Bhe, supra note 165, para. 163 (Ngcobo, J., dissenting).
211. Bhe, para. 46 (Langa, C.J.).
212. Pillay, supra note 168.
213. Id., para. 53.
214. Id., para. 65 (quoting Minister of Home Affairs v. Fourie, 2006 (1) SA 524 (CC), 2006 (3) BCLR 355, para. 60 (CC)).
215. Id. (quoting Fourie, supra note 173, para. 60).
216. Christa Rautenbach, Willemien du Plessis, & Gerrit Pienaar, Is Primogeniture Extinct like the Dodo, oris There Any Prospect of It Risingfrom the Ashes? Some Comments on the Evolution of Customary Succession Laws in South Africa, 22 S. AFR. J. HUM. RTS. 99, 117 (2006).
217. Bhe, supra note 165, para. 77.
218. Id., para. 78.
219. Brian Z. Tamanaha, Understanding Legal Pluralism: Past to Present, Local to Global, 30 SYDNEY L. REV. 375, 384 (2008), available at http://ssrn.com/ abstract= 1010105.
220. Bhe, para. 80 (footnote omitted).
221. Id., para. 81 (quoting Alexkor Ltd v. Richtersveld Community, 2003 (12) BCLR 1301, para. 52 (CC)).
222. Id., (quoting Richtersveld, supra note 180, para. 53).
223. Id., para. 82.
224. Id., para. 86.
225. Id., para. 63 (quoting W. Cape Provincial Gov't: In re DVB Behuising (Pty) Ltd v. N. W. Provincial Gov't, 2001 (1) SA 500, para. 1 (CC)).
226. Id. (quoting T. W. BENNETT, A SOURCEBOOK OF AFRICAN CUSTOMARY LAW FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA 64 (1991)).
227. Id., para. 109.
228. Pillay, supra note 168, para. 153.
229. Id., para. 154.
230. Id. paras. 154-156 (footnote omitted).
231. Id. para. 156.
232. Law of Evidence Amendment ACT 45 of 1988 s. 1(1).
233. See, for instance, the dissenting opinion of Judge Ngcobo, Bhe, supra note 165, para. 150 n.10.
234. Id., para. 150.
235. Id., para. 152.
236. Bhe, para. 112 (Langa, C.J.).
237. Id., para. 113.
238. Id., pan. 115.
239. Id., para. 116.