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ecognised international right of all peoples to self-determination. Self-determinationis a collective right exercised by peoples. States preferred to describe their Indigenouspopulations as minorities, reserving the term ‘peoples’ to describe nations andemerging post-colonial nations. However, according to the Chairperson of the UnitedNations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Professor Daes, ‘Indigenousgroups are “peoples” in every political, social, cultural and ethnological meaning ofthis term’ (quoted by Coulter 1995 on page 131). Indigenous leaders in Australia havealso argued that Indigenous peoples in Australia are ‘peoples’ within the meaning ofthe term (Dodson 1993).Once it is accepted that Indigenous peoples have a right of self-determination,debate surrounds the question what that right involves. Article 1 of the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights defines the right of self-determination asinvolving the free choice of political status and the freedom to pursue economic,social and cultural development. The Covenant is binding on Australia.Article 27 of the Covenant provides that ‘persons belonging to ... minorities shallnot be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoytheir own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their ownlanguage’. Many international legal scholars consider that article 27 implicitlyrecognises a right to self-government or autonomy for Indigenous peoples and otherminorities when that is necessary to protect their cultural distinctiveness. Somescholars have gone further and argued that customary international law recognises aright of cultural self-determination for Indigenous peoples (Iorns 1996 page 8). Oneaspiration Indigenous peoples have for the draft Declaration on the Rights ofIndigenous Peoples is that it will put beyond doubt their right of self-determination.‘[The] free choice of political status carries no necessary implications’ (Dodson1993 page 41). Self-government, regional autonomy and integration into an existingnation state are all possible exercises of the right. Coulter summarises what selfdeterminationmeans for some Indigenous peoples.It is clear that Indigenous leaders mean self-determination to include freedom from politicaland economic domination by others; self-government and the management of all their affairs;the right to have their own governments and laws free from external control; free and agreeduponpolitical and legal relationships with the government of the country and othergovernments; the right to participate in the international community as governments; and theright to control their own economic development (Coulter 1995 page 131).Self-determination is only likely to involve secession from an existing nationstate in exceptional circumstances. Professor Daes has stated that self-determinationfor Indigenous peoples,... means that the existing State has the duty to accommodate the aspirations of Indigenouspeoples through institutional reforms designed to share power democratically. It also meansthat Indigenous peoples have the duty to try to reach an agreement, in good faith, on sharingpower within the existing State, and to exercise the right to self-determination by this meansand other peaceful ways, to the extent possible ... Furthermore, the right of self-determinationof indigenous peoples should ordinarily be interpreted as the right to negotiate freely theirstatus and representation in the State in which they live (quoted by Iorns 1996 on page 13).The Working Group developed the draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous