As Session Continues, Speakers Voice Concern over Implementation of Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Forum’s Future
Indigenous representatives today called upon States to implement the provisions of international instruments and their national legislation guaranteeing their rights, and sought assistance from the Permanent Forum as that body concluded debate on several topics.
Participants noted that despite being signatories to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention No. 169, the States in which they lived often violated those guarantees or had laws counter to their provisions.
The topics of today’s session included: “human rights: implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People”; “dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people and the Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”; and “future work of the Permanent Forum, including issues of the Economic and Social Council and emerging issues”.
The representative of Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara, an organization representing 2,349 indigenous communities comprising 15 million indigenous individuals in Indonesia, said that despite their diverse cultural and geographic backgrounds, they faced common issues.
As an example, she cited an “historic” ruling by the Constitutional Court in 2013 recognizing the customary forest of indigenous peoples. Noting that the Government was creating “one single map” of the country at the time, she said that integrating the maps of indigenous territories was a key part of that process. Although her organization had mapped up to 8 million hectares of indigenous territories, of which 4.8 million had been submitted to the Government for inclusion in the “One Map” policy, no concrete action had been taken to legally recognize those lands. Instead so-called “development” projects had violated them without free, prior and informed consent from indigenous communities.
Along similar lines, a representative of the Shimin Gaikou Centre said most Ainu people in Japan continuously suffered from hate speech and discrimination, while the Government, despite its legal obligation to take effective measures to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination, had failed to do so. An Aymara communicator from Peru, speaking for the International Indigenous Women’s Forum, expressed concern about a recent law on economic investment in her country that endangered indigenous lands. Her people had been trying to protect those lands through a court case that was ongoing since 2011, she said, seeking the Forum’s support.
Maria Eugenia Choque, Forum member from Bolivia, urged all communities to work together to ensure the implementation of ILO Convention No. 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Traditional knowledge that indigenous people had developed must be protected and empowered owing to its potential for natural resource management and the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
The representative of the Native Women’s Association of Canada asked the United Nations Special Rapporteur to host a hearing in the indigenous territory of North Dakota towards redressing the physical and sexual violence against women resulting from the extreme mineral extraction in the region. There was a connection between extreme fossil fuel extraction and the ongoing epidemic of sexual violence against native and First Nations women in North America’s Great Plains and Great Lakes regions, she said. The relationship between oil booms and sex trafficking booms should be seen within the broader historical processes of colonization and genocide. There was an urgent need for United Nations intervention in the Bakken shale formation of western North Dakota and eastern Montana and attendant violations of the human rights of indigenous women in the tar sands region of Alberta.
Several speakers stressed the right to self-identify as indigenous, with the representative of the Association “Ellay” de Tombouctou stressing that the Tuareg people of northern Mali suffered injustices against their cultural identity, while a number of States cautioned against the abuse of self-classification for political ends. The representative of Mali said that the country had no indigenous peoples and cautioned that a “small group of radicals” in the north called themselves indigenous as they tried to grab territory and held the larger population of that area hostage. Another speaker pointed out that the Tuareg were recognized as indigenous by the African Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
A number of themes emerged during the discussion of future work, with proposals for future agenda items ranging from a renewed exploration of the use of traditional indigenous knowledge to a focus on the use of military force against indigenous peoples.
The representative of the organization Land is Life, Inc., who stressed that deep seabed mining continued to impact indigenous peoples around the world, proposed that the International Seabed Authority address the Forum in a future session. In addition, the Forum should extend an invitation to the Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures for Engagement with Indigenous Peoples, which could offer assistance in dealing with the large number of issues before the Forum.
In that connection, the representative of the Asia Caucus cited a number of examples in which Asia’s indigenous people were suffering from the results of militarization and were deprived of their right to self-determination. Military personnel often behaved like an army of occupation and were used to secure corporate interests, such as extractive industries. She urged the Forum to focus further on the militarization of indigenous peoples and lands, including by adopting it as an agenda item in a future session.
Seven years after he had delivered an apology to the “stolen generations” of Australian indigenous people, Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia, joined the Forum to discuss the process of apology and reconciliation in the country. Apology required humility and a commitment to end the brutal treatment that had damaged a proud people and proud culture, he said. Acknowledging the past was necessary for a future based on mutual respect, resolve and responsibility.
It was vital to close the gap between Australians in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity. To that end, the Government had created a national “Close the Gap” strategy. Each year, on the anniversary of the apology, a progress report was issued on its measures, some of which were on track to be met, while other would require much more progress. Reconciliation was possible if there was political will. It required facing the past, having the courage to say “I am sorry” and a commitment to address the damage through concrete action.
The Forum also concluded its discussion of its “Draft agenda for the fifteenth session of the Permanent Forum”.
Also participating in today’s discussions were representatives of: Association of Russian-language Indigenous People of Latvia (AKORNLV); Consejo de la Nacion Charrua; Coordinadora de Organizaciones Indigenas Campesinas y Comunidades Interculturales de Bolivia; Pacific Caucus; Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation; Khmer Kampuchea Krom Temple; International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs; Forest Peoples Programme; Indigenous World Association and Saami Council; Cordillera Peoples Alliance; International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs; Confederacion Nacional de Mujeres Indigenas Originarias de Bolivia “Bartolina Sisa”; School Systems in Notre Dame; Organismo Indigena para la Planificacion del Desarrollo Naleb; El Fondo para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y El Caribe (Fondo Indígena); Gabooye Minority Organisation Europe and North America; Conselho Indigenista Missionario; Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum; State University of New York and related organizations; and Consejo de la Nacíon Charrua.
The representatives of Ecuador, El Salvador and Viet Nam also spoke, as did other members of the Forum.
The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will next meet at 3:00 p.m. on 1 May to consider “Adoption of the report of the Permanent Forum on its fourteenth session”.