Indigenous Voices Being Stifled, Group Says
By Zahra Sethna, for the Chronicle
The United Nations’ Working Group on Indigenous Populations, an assembly of nearly 300 indigenous groups, held its annual meeting in Geneva this week, with delegates from around the world representing such peoples as Eskimos, Maoris, Aborigines and Native Americans.
At the meeting, some representatives accused western countries of trying to bring an end to the Working Group, which they consider their main forum in the United Nations. They believe that since a Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was created, some countries have been working towards shutting down the Working Group. In existence for 20 years, the Working Group promotes and protects the human rights of indigenous peoples and establishes values necessary for their physical and cultural survival.
A caucus of the groups at the Geneva meeting issued a statement, in which they stated that “contrary to the Working Group, the Permanent Forum does not have the mandate to develop international standards, such as codes of conduct for multinationals exploiting natural resources on territories of indigenous peoples”.
The Permanent Forum, which was set up in 2000 and met for the first time in May of this year, has less power, the Group says, and only includes eight indigenous representatives.
“The big Governments are very obviously the ones that have been campaigning for this”, said Kenneth Deer, a representative of the Mohawk Indians in Canada. “The United States has been the large one; we believe Australia is involved, we think Canada is, probably a number of others”, Deer told reporters, adding that “many members of the European Union assume, without really thinking about it, that this working group would disappear”.
The issue is being discussed at the meeting of the Economic and Social Council.
|
