Claire Charters
Ngāti Whakaue, Tainui, Tuwharetoa, Ngā Puhi
Dr Claire Charters is a Professor at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law, specialising in Indigenous peoples’ rights in international and constitutional law. She studied at the University of Otago and at New York University as a Fulbright Graduate Scholar, before undertaking a PhD at the University of Cambridge. She has published and spoken widely on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, comparative indigenous constitutional rights in New Zealand, Canada and the United States, and tino rangatiratanga and tikanga Māori in New Zealand. She combines her research with advocacy for Indigenous rights nationally and internationally. She has represented her iwi in Tiriti negotiations, worked in the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and advised the President of the United Nations General Assembly.
Claire is also the Rongomai Taketake at Te Kahui Tika Tangata|the NZ Human Rights Commission.
The overlapping rights of Indigenous people
Claire will argue for constitutional transformation grounded in te Tiriti o Waitangi, including the rights of TangataTiriti. She will illuminate foundational and specific flaws in the existing constitution, and creative options for realisation of tino rangatiratanga inspired by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and insights into models of Indigenous self-determination around the globe.
