[NYTr] UN: On the rights of Indigenous peoples

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Workers World - Oct 4, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/indigenous-1004

UN: On the rights of Indigenous peoples

By Stephanie Hedgecoke and Mahtowin Munro

After a decades-long struggle, the United Nations General Assembly on
Sept. 13 approved the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples. Among other points, the non-binding Declaration states that
Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain their cultures and remain
on their land.

Only four countries in the UN General Assembly—the United States,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all settler states—voted against the
Declaration.

Reaction from Indigenous peoples and their organizations around the
world was mixed, but most recognized it as a partial victory resulting
from a long struggle. A selection is reported on below:

The International Indian Treaty Council stated: “This is the first time
that Indigenous Peoples have been recognized as ‘Peoples’ without
qualification in an international instrument. [It] recognizes
Indigenous Peoples’ inherent rights to self-determination, traditional
lands, territories and natural resources, cultures and sacred sites,
means of subsistence, languages, identities as well as their
traditional life ways and concepts of development based on free, prior
and informed consent, among others.”

The IITC noted that Indigenous representatives were not allowed to
participate in the most recent negotiating process between
representatives of the co-sponsoring states—in particular, Mexico,
Peru, Guatemala and African states—during which there were nine
negotiated text changes in the Declaration language.

But, according to the IITC, the modifications “did not include any
changes to key provisions upholding self-determination, land and
natural resources, free prior informed consent, Treaties, and others.
On that basis, and to protect those essential provisions from being
undermined, most Indigenous Peoples either expressed their support for
adoption of the modified text, or stated, as did IITC, that they would
not oppose it under the circumstances.”

IPS news service reported criticism from Indigenous leaders Manuel
Castro of Ecuador and Luis Andrade of Colombia. “Twenty years of debate
to produce this document, and we end up with a non-binding declaration
that does not force governments to do anything; this is a disgrace,”
said Castro, spokesperson for the Confederation of Indigenous
Nationalities of Ecuador. “Very few Indigenous people are even aware of
the existence of this document.”

Andrade, president of the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia,
said that “the level of representation of most Indigenous peoples was
extremely low.” He criticized Colombia’s abstention, the only one in
Latin America. “The administration [of right-wing President Álvaro
Uribe] threatens the right of Indigenous people and is their enemy.”

Rigoberta Menchú Foundation spokesperson Elmer Erazo said the
Declaration is an advance “to the extent that Indigenous people make
use of it. It’s nothing to jump up and down about.” He said it is “a
weapon to be used by the people.”

In recent years, Indigenous struggles in the countries of Latin America
have gained substantial ground, especially in Ecuador and Bolivia.
Indigenous movements played a role in removing President Jamil Mahuad
in Ecuador in January 2000 and President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in
Bolivia in October 2003.

Bolivia’s first Indigenous President, Evo Morales, said he welcomed the
vote. “These standards will help ensure that everyone has the same
rights and that we will stop being marginalized.”

Settler states vote against the Declaration

All four countries that voted against the Declaration are founded on
the historic and ongoing dispossession of their Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous populations in these countries are the most impoverished
segments of the population and are in the poorest health.

CBC News widely reported First Nations condemnation of Canada’s refusal
to support the Declaration. Mary Simon, president of the Inuit
organization Tapiriit Kanatami, worked with other Indigenous groups at
the United Nations to draft the declaration during the mid-1980s and
early 1990s. She described Sept. 13 as a proud day for Inuit and
Indigenous peoples around the world, but said the negative votes
reflects badly on Canada and the other three dissenting governments.

Western Arctic Member of Parliament Dennis Bevington accused Canada of
selling out to multinational businesses that want access to resources
on aboriginal lands around the world.

Native Women’s Association of Canada President Beverley Jacobs said, “I
think they’re afraid of Indigenous people having some measure of
control of our own processes, of our own institutions, and dealing with
our own laws within our own territories.”

An IITC statement also criticized Canada’s vote.

“This day will be a red-letter day for Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa
and the globe,” said New Zealand’s Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia.
“How can this government oppose a declaration which promotes and
protects what is meant to be merely a minimum standard of human rights
for Maori?”

The Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Commissioner, Tom Calma, welcomed the Declaration as a “milestone for
the world’s Indigenous peoples” and said it was “a matter of great
regret” that it was opposed by the Australian government.

Robert “Tim” Coulter, director of the Indian Law Resource Center in
Helena, Mont., was at the United Nations in New York City for the vote
and was quoted in The Spokesman Review newspaper (Spokane, Wash.) as
saying, “It was not a good day for the United States, but it was a good
day for Indigenous peoples.”

Coulter referred to recent U.S. attempts to legalize torture and said,
“The Bush administration in particular is contemptuous of human rights
rulings.”

At a recent United Nations news conference about the vote, Joseph Ole
Simel, Coordinator of the African Regional Indigenous Caucus, recalled
why the text of the Declaration had not been adopted in 2006. “The
developed nations, in particular Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the
United States, had been dictating to African countries and developing
countries in general about human rights, accountability, democracy and
transparency.

“However, Third World countries have now taken a very progressive step
in terms of human rights and demonstrated a lot of goodwill and
commitment to the rights of Indigenous peoples, leaving the United
States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand behind.”

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