Transboundary communities in general, and Indigenous transboundary peoples in particular, occupy a unique legal space under international law. These communities are spatially located between two or more States and are thus neither internal to the State nor external to it. Due to their geographic position on the margins of States these communities often fall between the cracks of domestic and international law. Anchored on Article 36 of UNDRIP, the Chapter introduces transboundary Indigenous rights as a category of rights. Relevant sources of international law are discussed, and the case of the Sami peoples is drawn upon. Other examples of transboundary communities include inhabitants of the Irish border areas, Abyei, Kashmir, Kurdistan, and fishing communities in the Red Sea. The Chapter highlights the gap in international law governing rights of communities between two or more States and the diagonal obligations incumbent on those host States.
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