The paper demonstrates how the evolution of international law on colonial and indigenous peoples, in particular evolving rights to sovereignty over natural resources, shaped the changing relationship between Greenland and the rest of the Danish Realm. Greenland today is in a unique position in international law, enjoying an extremely high degree of self-government. This paper explores the history, current status and future of Greenland through the lens of international law, to show how international obligations both colour its relationship with the Kingdom of Denmark and influence its approaches to resource development internally. It considers the invisibility of the Inuit population in the 1933 Eastern Greenland case that secured Danish sovereignty over the entire territory. It then turns to Denmark’s registration of Greenland as a non-self-governing territory (colony) in 1946 before Greenland’s-purported decolonisation in 1953 and the deficiencies of that process. In the second part of the 20th century, Denmark began to recognise the Greenland Inuit as an indigenous people before a gradual shift towards recognition of the Greenlanders as a people in international law, entitled to self-determination, including the right to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. This peaked with the Self-Government Act of 2009. The paper will then go on to assess competing interpretations of the Self-Government Act of 2009 according to which the Greenland self-government is the relevant decision-making body for an increasing number of fields of competence including, since 1 January 2010, the governance of extractive industries. Some, including members of the Greenland self-government, argue that the Self-Government Act constitutes full implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP 2007), but this view is not universally shared. The paper also considers the status and rights of two Greenland minorities: the North Greenlanders (Inughuit) and the East Greenlanders, each of whom has distinct histories, experiences of colonisation, dialects (or languages) and cultural traditions. While the Kingdom of Denmark accepts the existence of only one indigenous people, namely, the Inuit of Greenland, this view is increasingly being challenged in international fora, including the UN human rights treaty bodies, as the two minorities are in some cases considered distinct indigenous peoples. Their current position in Greenland as well as in a future fully independent Greenland is examined, and the rights that they hold against the Greenland self-government as well as the Kingdom of Denmark explored. Greenland’s domestic regime for governance of non-renewable natural resources (principally mining and hydrocarbons) is briefly analysed and compared with international standards, with a particular emphasis on public participation. The paper assesses the extent to which it complies with the standards in key international instruments.

中文翻译：

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国际法对格陵兰自然资源治理的影响

该文件展示了关于殖民地和土著人民的国际法的演变，特别是自然资源主权权利的演变，如何塑造了格陵兰岛与丹麦王国其他地区之间不断变化的关系。今天的格陵兰在国际法中处于独特的地位，享有极高的自治程度。本文从国际法的角度探讨格陵兰的历史、现状和未来，以展示国际义务如何影响其与丹麦王国的关系，并影响其内部资源开发的方法。它考虑了 1933 年因纽特人的隐身性东格陵兰确保丹麦对整个领土拥有主权的案件。然后转向丹麦在 1946 年将格陵兰岛注册为非自治领土（殖民地），然后再到 1953 年格陵兰岛声称非殖民化以及该过程的缺陷。在 20 的第二部分th世纪以来，丹麦开始承认格陵兰因纽特人是土著人民，然后逐渐转向承认格陵兰人是国际法上的一个民族，享有自决权，包括对其自然资源享有永久主权的权利。这在 2009 年《自治法》中达到顶峰。然后，本文将继续评估对 2009 年《自治法》的相互竞争的解释，根据该法，格陵兰自治政府是越来越多领域的相关决策机构自 2010 年 1 月 1 日起，包括对采掘业的治理。包括格陵兰自治政府成员在内的一些人认为，《自治政府法》构成了对《联合国土著人民权利宣言》（UNDRIP 2007）的全面实施，但这种观点并未得到普遍认同。该文件还考虑了两个格陵兰少数民族的地位和权利：北格陵兰人（因纽吉特人）和东格陵兰人，他们每个人都有不同的历史、殖民经历、方言（或语言）和文化传统。虽然丹麦王国承认只有一个土著人民，即格陵兰因纽特人的存在，但这一观点在包括联合国人权条约机构在内的国际论坛上越来越受到挑战，因为这两个少数民族在某些情况下被认为是不同的土著人们。他们目前在格陵兰以及未来完全独立的格陵兰的地位受到审查，并探讨了他们反对格陵兰自治政府和丹麦王国的权利。对格陵兰国内不可再生自然资源（主要是采矿和碳氢化合物）治理制度进行了简要分析，并与国际标准进行了比较，特别强调了公众参与。该文件评估了它在多大程度上符合主要国际文书中的标准。