Travel and Learning Award for Claire Charters
Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award
Claire’s plan
Claire will travel to Sápmi to engage directly with Sámi governance institutions and legal scholars. She plans to attend sessions of the Sámi Parliaments in Norway and Finland, meeting with parliamentarians and members of the Sámi Council to better understand how these bodies operate within state systems while supporting Indigenous self-determination. She will also visit academic institutions including the University of Tromsø, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Oulu to connect with experts in Sámi law and governance. Through these engagements, Claire aims to examine how Sámi governance structures function in practice, including how representation is determined across different groups. This research will inform her broader work on constitutional transformation in Aotearoa, particularly in exploring how Indigenous governance models might be recognised and accommodated within the state.
About Claire
Claire is from Ngati Whakaue, Tuwharetoa, Nga Puhi and Tainui.
Claire’s research is in Indigenous peoples’ rights in international and constitutional law, often with a comparative focus, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, tikanga Māori and the state legal system, the relationship between human rights and Indigenous peoples’ rights and on the legitimacy of Indigenous peoples’ rights under international law.
Claire regularly speaks around the globe on international and constitutional law and Indigenous peoples. She has had visiting academic fellowships at LSE, Kansai University, the European University Institute, Yale, Osgoode Hall (York University), University of Toronto and the University of Arizona. She teaches a course at the UN in Geneva on Indigenous peoples’ law and policy.
Claire was a Royal Society Rutherford Discovery Fellow (2019 – 2025).
Claire typically combines her academic research and teaching with advocacy for the rights of Indigenous peoples at the domestic and international levels, including as an advisor to the President of the UN General Assembly (2016 – 2017, 2024), and worked for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section.
Claire co-directs the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law.
Grant Amount
$10,000 in 2026 to support travel
“The Saami Parliaments in Norway, Finland and Sweden are utterly fascinating as mechanisms to realise Indigenous peoples’ self-determination, even if they only do so imperfectly. There are so many lessons we can learn to apply in Aotearoa. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to undertake research on the Parliaments in situ.”