Treaty-Making and Its Limitations

Along with the issue of sovereignty, the request that a treaty be entered into between the Commonwealth and Indigenous people (either collectively or with separate Indigenous nations) has been the most frequently advanced claim during debates on Indigenous rightsRightsindigenous recognition. Unfortunately, debate on this issue has been marked by a lack of focus as to what end a treaty would serve and misunderstanding over what its legal status would be. Although there has been progress on treaty-making at state and territory level, the same is not true at Commonwealth level. This chapter examines what the legal effect of a treaty would be and concludes that the significant limitations of a treaty as a vehicle for securing legally enforceable rights means that a treatyTreatyNew Zealand would be of largely symbolic value. However, following the example of New ZealandSovereigntyNew Zealand, where an expectation has developed that the government will take into account the principles of theTreaty of Waitangi Treaty of WaitangiNew ZealandTreaty of Waitangi in drafting legislation and wielding executive power, the chapter suggests that an alternative avenue to achieving the objectives of a treaty would be to put into the constitution a rule that, where possible, legislation must be interpreted in a manner consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous PeoplesConstitutional reformUnited Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples, correlation with.