Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2021 3(1) ethnic origin, language and cultural habits’. 47 ‘Community’ rights are, therefore, a set of powers that give an individual greater participation in the management of the society. Fatash Ouguergouz contends that, as part of its rights to economic development, peoples’ rights mean those of ‘populations’ within the state. He argues that the concept of ‘populations’ in French is closer to that of ‘communities’ in the English language. 48 In fact, the terms ‘populations’ and ‘communities’ are now increasingly used interchangeably in African human rights circles such as in the ‘Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa’ of the Commission, created in 2000. 49 The term ‘community’ might be increasingly preferred over ‘peoples’ for three main reasons. Firstly, it implies the idea of a cultural bond, living together, sharing common values and being willing to preserve a certain way of life. Secondly, ‘community’ is less politically charged than ‘peoples’. It could be appropriate for building confidence between indigenous communities and their states since most African indigenous communities do not claim statehood, but autonomy, selfgovernance, and control over their lands and resources. Thirdly, the term ‘community’ is most likely to include any aggregate of individuals, similar to the concepts of ‘minorities’ and ‘groups’. D Peoples’ Rights and Nationality Rights According to James Minahan, a nation is ‘a body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or possess a government particularly its own’. 50 Paul James also holds that a nation is a stable community of people formed on the basis of a common language, territory, history, ethnicity, or physiological make up manifested in a common culture. 51 From these definitions, it is clear that people are at the center of a nation. The rights of a people are therefore largely the rights of a nation. Ethnic nationalities also describe a people who share a common identity, language, culture, lineage, history, and so on. In his study on the right to self-determination in 1981, the UN Special Rapporteur on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Aureliu Cristescu, stated that ‘peoples’, ‘nations’ and ‘States’ are holders on the right to self-determination because ‘the term “peoples” applies not only to States, but also to other entities’. 52 ‘Nationality’ is often considered to be the legal identification of a person in international law recognising a person as a subject of a recognised sovereign state; in order to make sense of the concept of nationality, it must be discussed with the 47 48 49 50 51 52 See Ingange-wa-Ingange, ‘The African Human Rights System: Challenges and Prospects’ (n 13) 223; Legal Resources Foundation v Zambia (African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Comm 211/98, 29th ord sess, 7 May 2001). See Fatsah Ouguergouz (ed), La Charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples: Une approche juridique des droits de l’homme entre tradition et modernité (Genève: Graduate Institute Publications 1993) ch 5. Indigenous Peoples in Africa: The Forgotten Peoples? The African Commission’s Work on Indigenous Peoples in Africa (Report, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and IWGIA 2006). Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (online at 28 April 2021) ‘nation’, quoted in Minahan, Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups around the World (n 39) xii. See generally Paul James, Nation Formation: Towards a Theory of Abstract Community (Sage Publications 1996). Cristescu Aureliu, Special Rapporteur, The Right to Self-determination: Historical and Current Development on the Basis of United Nations Instruments, UN Doc E/CN4/Sub2/404/Rev.1 (1981) 39. 42