Did the doctrine of discovery have any impact on human rights? is the doctrine still part of international law?
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In the religious context, the doctrine is connected to religious justification of occupation.
The Papal Bull "Inter Caetera," issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, played a central role in the Spanish conquest of the New World. The document supported Spain’s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands discovered by Columbus the previous year. It established a demarcation line one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and assigned Spain the exclusive right to acquire territorial possessions and to trade in all lands west of that line. All others were forbidden to approach the lands west of the line without special license from the rulers of Spain. This effectively gave Spain a monopoly on the lands in the New World.
The Bull stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be "discovered," claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that "the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself." This "Doctrine of Discovery" became the basis of all European claims in the Americas as well as the foundation for the United States’ western expansion. In the US Supreme Court in the 1823 case Johnson v. McIntosh, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in the unanimous decision held "that the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands." In essence, American Indians had only a right of occupancy, which could be abolished.
The Bull Inter Caetera made headlines again throughout the 1990s and in 2000, when many Catholics petitioned Pope John Paul II to formally revoke it and recognize the human rights of indigenous "non-Christian peoples."
Overtime, the doctrine acquired a "legal" character.
The doctrine of discovery refers to a principle in public international law under which, when a nation “discovers” land, it directly acquires rights on that land. This doctrine arose when the European nations discovered non-European lands, and therefore acquired special rights, such as property and sovereignty rights, on those lands. This principle disregards the fact that the land oftentimes is already inhabited by another nation. In fact, this doctrine was used in order to legitimize the colonization of lands outside of Europe.
Developed centuries ago and still used in some legal systems, including US legal reasoning, the Doctrine of Discovery is a legal and religious conceptual framework and legal and religious systems deployed for centuries to justify Christian colonial conquest. It formalized the ideas that privileged European peoples, culture and religion over all other peoples.
In the context of the Americas, the Doctrine of Discovery has led to the seizure of Indigenous lands and the displacement of Indigenous peoples. In Canada, many Indigenous peoples were forced to accept treaties with the colonizers who were backed by the absolute political power and religious authority expressed by the Doctrine. Throughout, Canadian law interpreted these agreements as surrendering title and control, despite these concepts being largely alien to Indigenous cultures.
From these examples, it is clear that many of the human rights of indigenous peoples were violated and the outcome of these violations have never been remediated in fair and meaningful ways.
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