25 May 2007
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| Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York |
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Sixth Session
16th & 17th Meetings (AM & PM)
UNITED NATIONS FORUM CALLS FOR ‘FREE, PRIOR AND INFORMED CONSENT’ BY INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES FOR PROJECTS ON THEIR LANDS, AS TWO-WEEK SESSION ENDS
Urges General Assembly Adoption of Indigenous Rights Declaration;
Approves Texts on Anti-Poverty Goals, Human Rights, Urban Migration
Expressing the strong
belief that indigenous peoples’ right to access and manage communal
lands and natural resources was central to their collective survival,
the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recommended
today that Governments adopt, in relevant national legislation, the
principle of “free, prior and informed consent” of indigenous peoples
regarding potential development projects or other activities carried out
on their lands.
“It is […] clear that most
local and national indigenous peoples’ movements have emerged from
struggles against policies and actions that have undermined and
discriminated against their customary land tenure and
resource-management systems, expropriated their lands, extracted their
resources without their consent and led to their displacement and
dispossession from their territories,” the Forum stated in one of eight
sets of draft recommendations and three draft decisions approved by
consensus at the close of its sixth session.
The Permanent Forum, a
16-member subcommittee of the Economic and Social Council, is mandated
chiefly to provide expert advice on indigenous issues to the Council and
the United Nations system; raise awareness and promote the integration
and coordination of activities relating to indigenous issues with the
United Nations system; and prepare and disseminate information on
indigenous issues.
Permanent Forum
Chairperson Victoria Tauli-Corpuz from the Philippines acknowledged
that, while the issues associated with indigenous lands and natural
resources were complex, representatives of tribal and native peoples and
their groups during the past two weeks had shown they were not victims;
they had not come to new York to complain; rather, they could come
together and had presented sound advice to Governments and
intergovernmental organizations about how to meet their needs for
survival.
In the text focusing on
the session’s theme, “territories, lands and natural resources”
(document E/C.19/2007/L.2), approved as orally amended, the Permanent
Forum strongly urged the General Assembly adopt during its sixty-first
session the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the fate of
which remains unclear some six months after it was approved by the
Geneva-based Human Rights Council. Talks on the Declaration have
sputtered in New York, in the wake of initial opposition from
Australia, Canada and New Zealand. A package of amendments floated
earlier this week by the Africa Group was roundly rejected by indigenous
groups as “unacceptable and inconsistent with international human
rights law”.
Reiterating relevant
articles of the Declaration, the Forum recognized the fundamental
importance of indigenous peoples’ security of land use and access, and
the importance of land rights for broader processes of poverty
reduction, good governance and conflict prevention and resolution,
stressing that indigenous peoples are entitled to effectively
participate in drafting policies and laws related to resources
management and development processes (article 14). Further, indigenous
peoples have a central role in decision-making and implementation of
lands and resources-related projects, [and] such projects shall not be
implemented without [their] free, prior and informed consent (article
28).
In that same vein, the
Permanent Forum recommended that the Human Rights Council and the
Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights investigate the
possibility of the development and acceptance of general recommendations
relating to the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination by
securing their access to their ancestral lands, territories and natural
resources.
By its text on the status
of implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and other targets
for economic and social development, environment, health, education,
culture and human rights (documents E/C.19/2007/L.3 and Add.1), the
Permanent Forum expressed its concern that relevant reports presented
during the session by many States, as well as Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers still did not adequately include and address indigenous peoples,
nor did they include the participation of native and tribal peoples.
The experts called on States “to rectify this weakness and on United
Nations agencies to support their efforts”
In a related measure,
while recognizing that the Millennium Goals provided an important
international framework for addressing extreme poverty and health and
social outcomes, the Permanent Forum, nevertheless, recommended that it
was vital that further work be undertaken to ensue that plans and
programmes related to implementation of the Goals fully appreciated and
respected the rights and aspirations of indigenous peoples.
That text also recognized
the “deep spiritual relationship indigenous peoples have with water and
the great respect they have for the natural laws governing the health
and sanctity of water”, and recommended that States review, with the
direct participation of indigenous people, their laws on water
regulation and the treaties, land claims and self-government agreements
they have with indigenous peoples, and present those reviews to the
Forum in 2009.
Many
of the recommendations underlined the Forum’s concerns about the human
rights situation of the world’s indigenous peoples. To that end, it
welcomed increased cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on indigenous
peoples’ human rights and fundamental freedoms, and strongly
recommended that the Human Rights Council maintain the mandate of that
top expert. It also decided to invite the Special Rapporteur, along
with the Special Rapporteurs on the right to education and the right to
health, to participate in its seventh session (document
E/C.19/2007/L.4).
Further, the Permanent
Forum expressed concern at allegations brought to its attention on
continuing violations of human rights of indigenous peoples in various
parts of the world, and called upon all States to fully implement their
obligations under the international human rights and humanitarian
instruments. The Forum reiterated its call on States to strengthen
their institutions for the promotion and protection of the human rights
of indigenous peoples and to enhance efforts of awareness-raising and capacity-building for Government officials (document E/C.19/2007/L.3/Add.1)
In a text on
recommendations that emerged from its half-day discussion on Asia
(document E/C.19.2007/L.5), the Permanent Forum stressed that,
irrespective of their legal status or the different terminologies used
for them, Asian indigenous peoples experienced non-recognition of their
cultural identity, exclusion and marginalization. With that in mind,
the Forum recommended that, among other things, Asian States recognize
indigenous peoples constitutionally and legally as peoples, and promote
legal reform, particularly regarding their land rights and recognition
of their customary laws and institutions, which promoted diversity and
plurality.
The Forum, in its text on
its half-day session on urban indigenous peoples and migration (document
E/C.19/2007/L.6), recommended, among other things, that relevant States
provide mechanisms for forcibly, legally or involuntary displaced
indigenous people to be able to return to their original communities,
including appropriate forms of compensation and restitution and
provision for sustainable livelihoods of displaced indigenous people.
The Permanent Forum noted
that 2008 had been designated the International Year of Languages and,
among the draft decisions approved and forwarded to the Economic and
Social Council for adoption, was a text by which the Council would
decide to convene a three-day international expert group meeting on
indigenous languages and request the results of that meeting be
submitted to the Forum at its next session (document E/C.19/2007/L.8).
Another
text recommended that that the Economic and Social Council would decide
that the seventh session of the Permanent Forum shall be held at United
Nations Headquarters in New York from 21 April to 2 May 2008
(document E/C.19/2007/L.9). It also adopted the draft report of its
current session (document E/C.19.2007/L.12).
By the final draft
decision forwarded to the Economic and Social Council for adoption, the
Permanent Forum approved the draft provisional agenda for its seventh
session and decided that its special theme would be on “climate change,
bio-cultural diversity and livelihoods; the stewardship role of
indigenous peoples and new challenges”. It also decided that its
traditional half-day session would next year be devoted to respective
discussion on the Pacific region and on indigenous languages (document
E/C.19/2007/L.11).
The Forum’s reports and
recommendations, including oral amendments, were presented by Rapporteur
Michael Dodson of Australia, and Wilton A. Littlechild of Canada.
Summing up the Permanent
Forum’s work this year, Johan Schölvinck, Director of the Division for
Social Policy in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs called
the Forum a “celebration of the world’s cultural diversity”, in that it
had seen extremely rich participation from some 1,500 representatives
from indigenous peoples’ organizations, non-governmental organizations
and academia, some 30 United Nations system and other intergovernmental
organizations, about 70 Member States and some 30 indigenous
parliaments. The Permanent Forum was not just an event; rather “a
tribute to our human efforts of partnership” that offered the
opportunity for inspiration, he said.
The meeting was opened
sombrely this morning by Liam Ridgeway, who, on behalf of all Australian
Aboriginal delegations that had participated in the Forum’s work,
called for a moment of silence to commemorate the fortieth anniversary
of Australia’s 27 May 1967 national referendum affecting the Australian
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.
While that referendum had
been a “fantastic win” for the Aboriginal movement, it had not delivered
all that was hoped to Australia’s indigenous peoples. Most
importantly, it had not given them Australian citizenship and neither
had it given them the right to vote in federal elections. Australia’s
indigenous people “still have a long way to walk in our struggles to be
treated as equal”, he said, calling for a moment of silence to honour
the anniversary, as well as all indigenous people who suffered from the
adverse impacts of colonization and Government policy.
In closing remarks, Ms.
Tauli-Corpuz said she was happy to finish the sixth session without any
major crises. “Because we trust each other and have worked well
together”, the Forum had shown that it could resolve any problem, no
matter how difficult, she said.
The Forum had gathered at
an historic moment of the imminent adoption of the Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, she continued. Despite difficulties, the
energies brought to bear on the Forum’s topics by indigenous peoples had
shown that they would do whatever it took to create success. She hoped
the Human Rights Council version of the Declaration would be adopted.
The number of participants present was an indication that problems at
home remained.
She expressed deep
appreciation to all Forum members and other colleagues for their
tireless efforts in ensuring that the session ended in a successful
manner, and urgently appealed to Governments to pass the Declaration
before the end of the sixty-first session. She closed her remarks with a
traditional Igorot chant.
Adelard Blackman, the Special Emissary for the Buffalo River Dene Nation, ended the session with a prayer for unity and a song.
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