Native Peoples Renew Call for U.N. Recognition
UNITED NATIONS - Leaders of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples are reiterating their calls for the 192-member U.N. General Assembly to recognise their sovereignty over ancestral lands and resources.
“It is now time for the General Assembly to adopt the declaration by vote, if necessary,” Les Malezer, chairman of the U.N.-based Indigenous Peoples Caucus, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. 
The proposed declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples was due to be adopted by the General Assembly last year, but due to fierce objections from certain countries it was set aside for further negotiations.
In addition to the United States, the countries that refused to endorse the declaration included Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Columbia, Russia, Surinam, Guyana and a few African nations led by Namibia.
Those unwilling to sign on to the declaration have expressed strong reservations about parts of the text calling for recognition of the indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and control over their natural resources.
Those in opposition describe the draft declaration as “fundamentally flawed,” and thus have refused to accept the indigenous representatives’ assertion that their people have the right to self-determination.
Indigenous leaders, who have been struggling for the international recognition of their peoples’ rights for more than 20 years, have repeatedly said that they would not accept any watered down version of the text.
“We are distinct people by every definition of the term. We are the people who were colonised after Columbus found his way to the Americas and the European merchants and rulers conspired to dominate and exploit the rest of the world,” said Malezer.
Speaking on behalf of the world’s first peoples, Malezer, who is an Australian aboriginal, told reporters: “We have our own societies, laws and languages, and a unique relationship with the natural world.”
Many among the scientific community seem convinced that without the cooperation of indigenous peoples, there is no way to reverse the loss of biodiversity.
“Nature conservation is at the heart of the cultures and values of traditional societies,” according to Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biodiversity. “The link between biodiversity and traditional knowledge is evident.”
The biodiversity treaty, which has been endorsed by 190 countries, not only recognises the significance of traditional knowledge, but also calls for the need to “respect” and maintain indigenous innovations.
The treaty also calls for “fair and equitable share” for indigenous peoples in the benefits that are derived from natural resources by commercial enterprises.
Yet, threats to indigenous lands and resources, continue to go on in the form of mining, logging, toxic contamination, privatization and development projects, as well as the use of genetically modified seeds.
“There has been some progress in the area of legal recognition of our right,” said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “In practical terms, this recognition has not translated into reality.”
In response to a question from IPS, Malezer said there were private commercial interests involved in the political opposition to the declaration of the indigenous peoples’ rights.
“It has a lot to do with the existing economic order and multinational interests,” he told IPS.
In the recent past, there have been many cases in which the indigenous people challenged the governments that allow private corporations engaged in unlawful, but profitable exploitation of their lands and resources.
Both the United States and Canada have been castigated by various U.N.-based human rights bodies for violating indigenous peoples’ rights.
Indigenous leaders said apparently the U.S. has kept silent in the diplomatic discourse on the declaration, but added they had no doubts about that Washington played a key role in orchestrating a negative campaign.
Some two weeks ago, the U.N. released a “non-paper” representing the views of the governments that oppose the declaration. The so-called non-paper calls for amendments in the original text of the declaration, particularly the wording on self-determination and intellectual property rights.
The document does not mention the names of the countries seeking changes in the text, but indigenous leaders told IPS that its the “wording and positions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States are recognisable amongst the jumble of false concerns.”
At the news conference, Malezer accused Canada of severely “politicising indigenous peoples”, saying it has lost its “credibility” among countries concerned about the principled protection of human rights.
Canada happened to be one of the countries that helped draft the declaration, but altered its position as a result of political change in Ottawa.
Indigenous leaders say both the U.S. and Canada, as well as others in opposition to the declaration, must be held accountable for violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights.
“Canada is a leader in opposing the draft declaration,” Arthur Manuel, a leader of Canada’s first nations, told IPS. “They are doing so because the draft declaration is inconsistent with Canada’s getting away with the indigenous land claims.”
Like many other indigenous leaders, both Malezer and Arthur hope that despite opposition from a handful of countries, a vast majority of member states in the U.N. General Assembly would vote for the adoption of the declaration this year.
“We call upon those states without indigenous peoples to vote in support,” Malezer said, even if the only criterion is to protect and integrity of the Human Rights Council.”
Copyright © 2007 IPS-Inter Press Service.
It’s the least we could do. As Midnight Oil sings: “let’s give it back”!
“Many among the scientific community seem convinced that without the cooperation of indigenous peoples, there is no way to reverse the loss of biodiversity.”
I bet we won’t hear that in msm!
Is there justice? Is there liberty? Is there freedom?
I’m willing to bet there is only the tyranny of monied-men, and that’s a bet I’ll unhappily win.
Free Leonard Peltier.
Peace to you and yours.
The more money you have the more you can converse (transact) the more you converse the more you meet your agenda, of course for the poor this means silence. the tyranny of monied-men yes indeed!
“Free Leonard”
a man was killed named Joe Stuntz at the same time the 2 invading FBI agents were killed by whom ever in Oglala (Leonard Peltier is serving 2 life sentences for this), I believe by a by FBI sniper Gerard Waring. For these monied-men and indian named Joe Stuntz is of no importance. No one cares about the dead indian of the Incident at Oglala, yet peltier sits falsely convicted of killing two invading foreign law enforcement officers, monied-men indeed.
If the Catholic Church- the “Holy See”- is recognized by the United Nations as a Sovereign Nation, and they are actually a part of the UN, then Native Peoples deserve an actual vote. The Catholics supposedly do not have a vote- their choice- yet we all KNOW what their just being there, and being involved means- they have POWER, INFLUENCE…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_See
As for the The Catholic Church- that ancient institution is responsible for some of the most heinous crimes of WWII- they were deeply involved with the atrocities against the Serbs, Jews and others, in Croatia (they used their own flock there to perpetuate these crimes)- and then, after the war, helped the “ratlines”, which helped those Croatian war criminals (the worst monsters you can imagine- the German Nazis even complained about how monstrous they were) out of Croatia, and eventually into hiding in places like S. America- and the United States (the worst one, Brzica, was sent somewhere in the US). At first our government investigated the Church- but during their “investigation” they became allies with the Church,which helped facilitate the US efforts to use these same war criminals as spies, and informants. This is TRUE- and not “conspiracy theory”.
So, hell yes, if that foul organization has a place in the UN- let’s PLEASE give them a voice, for alot of reasons, but to also help balance out the Church’s evil deeds and intentions (I am not generalizing about all Catholics here, as a former hoodwinked Catholic myself, I am well aware, the people are not the heirarchy).
Indigenous Peoples can teach the rest of us quite a lot, about how to appreciate the planet, ourselves, and each other. Like a sweet, refreshing breeze, this group can help purify the tainted United Nations.
YES! FREE PELTIER!
http://www.freepeltier.org/
Cankpe Opi, it doesn’t matter to the American plutocracy who is punished, as long as someone is. To the fascist racists, one Indian is as good as another, as long as vengeance/revenge is carried out.
It’s why Iraq was attacked. They are Muslims, and although they had absolutely no ties to 9/11, the Nazis in charge of the U.S. government had it attacked and occupied. The 9/11 terrorists were Muslims, and one Muslim is as good as another to them. War profiteering and Iraq having vast reserves of oil was the #1 reason. The fact that they are Muslims was just icing on the cake.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the criminal Bush cabal was behind 9/11. At the very least, they ignored the many warnings for months before it happened. They allowed it to happen so Bush could use it as an excuse for his many abuses of power, to keep people fearful, and to attack Iraq.
They could have ordered all airplanes to install impenetrable cockpit doors and placed armed security officers on every jet, but they chose to let 9/11 happen.
Step one: you have to get rid of the veto. As long as the US and Russia have the veto, you’re wasting your time.
collidingrivers July 19th, 2007 2:16 pm
And the Vatican is a rather odd “nation” of only males.
Vatican has females. The Pope has a woman as an advisor or something like that.
Gee, if the Native American Indians get reconized we’ll all be immigrants.
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.”
John Kenneth Galbraith
We are immigrants, whether from the days of the Mayflower or more recently. This isn’t our land. We stole it. Even if you and I didn’t directly steal the land, we go through our everyday lives living on it, and far too few of us ever lift a hand to help bring justice to the people whose ancesters lived here thousands of years before any of ours did.
Regrettably, we still live in the shadow of the doctrine of discovery, the papal bulls, manifest destiny. We need to join Indigenous efforts to get the Pope to recind these horrific papal bulls. This goes hand in hand with supporting the declaration described above.
Issues over land rights are being fought in every corner of the world where there are still Indigenous peoples. The battle is always the same — they fight for survival while multinationals pull in the profits.
You can help by offering to host a screening of the documentary that debutted at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples last May. It’s called “Our Land, Our Live” by Beth Gage and Geroge Gage. It’s a wonderful film about how two amazing Western Shoshone grandmothers, Carrie and Mary Dann, battle with the US government to keep their ranch. The reason why the US has spent millions of dollars to prosecute and persecute these two elderly women will amaze you and ties in incredibly with the themes presented in this article.
To find out how you can host this event, contact the Western Shoshone Defense Project. www.wsdp.org
Within 20yrs of Columbus landing in the Western Hemisphere the 2,000,000 people that made up the Taino Nation were eradicated-TOTALLY. Hitler could only dream of such efficiency. These kind,hospitable,and very religiously dedicated people fed,sheltered and taught these Whitemen how to hunt wild food and herbs that were used for medicine. As a matter of fact the Black Robes(Priests)were astounded that these people PRAYED from the time they awoke and before bathing,eating,planting,hunting/fishing-virtually every activity. The Black Robes called them “The People In With God”. The Tainos reward was their TOTAL EXTERMINATION. 500yrs+ later the history/story remains much the same. And globally it has been repeated ad naseum. HAVE WE NO SHAME? Apparently not.
I agree that the indigenous people were given a raw deal by European invaders. Of course, Europeans were given a raw deal by Romans and Mongols. Each tribe has always given a raw deal to anyone they could in a fight for resources.
Similar things go on today when black people claim that Asian store owners are giving them a raw deal.
It plays right into the hands of the wealthy elite, mega corporations, and tin pot dictators to keep one group of abused people fighting another over history that can’t be changed.
There needs to be changes from now on in these conflicts. Reparations to decedents of former slaves will do much less good than making sure that all the children now get good health care and education regardless of current or past circumstances.
When the Earth gurgles,shakes and spews-regurgitating the toxic treatment of just a couple of hundred years of the White Man’s technological abuse we will once again seek out the Maori,Aborigini,Apache,Hopi,Innuit and the surviving Indigenous Elders of every Continent and seek their aid and teachings for survival. They WILL remember how they have been treated and they will know from how you come to them whether you are worth their time. Most will not make the cut. Return the lands and resources to the Indigenous Peoples NOW and humbly ask if you can stay.
………and people can only stay if they honor the land, water and sky and all life in it! If they don’t they are OUT!
I think it was Vine Deloria who pointed out in “Custer Died For Your Sins” that the red man will eventually return and justice, based on a sustainable relationship between human and nature, will again be restored. It seemed 30 years ago such an audacious claim, but I now wonder if such an outcome is inevitable. In other words, the modern lifestyle is out of balance with natural law and therefore doomed to give way to the balance that only indigenous peoples have ever been able to achieve.
It just goes to show that it’s impossible to win an occupation. 500 years later, and Native Americans (and I speak of all the Americas, and first peoples of all lands) are still pissed off and fighting back. And rightly so!
I agree, we have much to learn from our First Nation brothers and sisters. I am reminded of this piece - worth the read in these crazy times.
” A HOPI ELDER SPEAKS”
“You have been telling the people that this is the
Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the
people that this is the Hour. And there are
things to be considered…
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.”
Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said,
“This could be a good time! There is a river flowing
now very fast. It is so great and swift that there
are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold
on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn
apart and will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination. The elders say we
must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of
the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above
the water. And I say, see who is in there with you
and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing
personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment
that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to
a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your
vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a
sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Oraibi, Arizona
Hopi Nation
AMEN MA_Matriarch/aldous/funeocons-AMEN
This is one of those ideas that sound good, but have no practical way of being implemented. Trying to have one organization represent All indigineous people that have had land appropriated by others would be unworkable. For one thing, who do you include? Would the Welsh count? They were the original Britains, before the Germans invaded. Or the Cook Islanders that had their land seized by the Maoris. Or the Bushmen that lost South Africa to Bantus from the North. Since a good many people are of mixed race, how would they be included? I worked with a gentleman that was trying to fund a Casino on tribal land, of which he was the Chief. The Chief told me that he was 1/4 Native American, about the same as my wife. Does this mean that my children deserve their share ?
I would think a better solution would be to work with countries to make sure that their indigineous population was afforded full rights of citizenship, with access to free education and good healthcare. The world cannot be set back to the year 1000.
I agree with sigma, these issues with the natives should be worked out locally. Here in MN, in recent decades the Native Americans have it pretty good. They only are allowed to own and run the casinos. As of Oct. they’ll be the only public place you can legally smoke. I’m sure there is some corruption with their own tribal leaders, just like anything else. They also can get a free education and even make money just going to school and are given preference in obtaining employment. They can hunt and fish year round and no limits. Actually they have many advantages over the general population. I realize this isn’t the way it is in most other places.
“Native Americans have it pretty good. They only are allowed to own and run the casinos. As of Oct. they’ll be the only public place you can legally smoke. I’m sure there is some corruption with their own tribal leaders, just like anything else. They also can get a free education and even make money just going to school and are given preference in obtaining employment. They can hunt and fish year round and no limits. Actually they have many advantages over the general population. I realize this isn’t the way it is in most other places.”
Having it pretty good would mean having exactly the same rights as any other American, not just having the right to own a Casino, smoke, hunt and fish. This is the 21st century not the 18th.
Basic Human Rights are a right, not something given out by your average white man.
Indigenous people deserve representation at the UN, and the veto is essential to prevent the USA as a super power from ramming its BS down everybody else’s damn throat. But the uniting for peace provision of the UN Charter allows for a bypass of the security council in a time of a direct threat to peace to take the case to the general assembly where a majority of the members can make a decision to invoke sanctions against those causing the problem. But the Vatican having representatiion is an outrage, with its Hitler Youth revealed Pope who covers up for peverted priests who sexually abuse nuns and alter boys. He is a swine and a fascist scum.
“The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your
vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a
sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Incredibly inspiring wisdom.
Cheers funeocons
The Welch tribe, and I say that as one of the European tribes, weren’t the original inhabitants of the island of Britain, they were called Britons, but the the Welch were a one of the Celtic tribes that came over and became dominant in Wales, not all the island. Oh, and the Picts were likely the indigenous people of what is now Scotland, later settled by another Celtic tribe, today dominant among the Scotch tribe which is the dominant tribe in Scotland. But the below the border the first Britons as they should be called were the indigenous people of what is today England and Wales. The Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came later as did the Vikings from Scandinavia, and later came the Normans what is today France.
But in most non European countries the indigenous people are much more clearly known and distinct from other peoples, and should be treated as sovereign nations, as to some extent in US law and pretense is made of doing just this otherwise why would the USA have treaties with various Indian nations?
There is a mentality in powerful circles here in the US that the weak should be crushed and subjugated. This applies to all peoples that are designated as losers. As Ayn Rand terms them, “parasites.” The perception is that some folks are never going to get with the program, or are incapable of getting with the program because they are weak.
We have to attempt to bring this thinking out into the light and root it out. We have to make an active attempt to avoid electing public officials that buy into this type of thinking. The first step in this process is to eliminate corporate funding of elections, and return civility, humanity, dignity and honor to our public officials.
Once that happens, justice will become possible again for the dispossessed. Until that happens, I’m afraid indigenous peoples are in the same boat with all other Americans that are afflicted with the great scourge — lack of extreme privilege.
Another way to accomplish this would be to try to get a grassroots campaign going to empower the public to enact legislation directly, and not through elected officials. It should be posssible to bypass the corrputed intermediaries and reclaim the power of the majority in our democracy.
The good news is there seems little doubt that most Americans are decent and fair and would support increased sovereignty for indigenous peoples.
The bad news is actually that most Americans aren’t all that good, but they think they are, but have almost never been throughout their history, and aren’t at all willoing to back increased sovereignty for indigenous peoples, and sure as hell haven’t done it, and after the 9/11 attacks were quite willing, had it been put to a vote to put absolute power in the hands of W and his tight circle of neo cons, just as Germany following the Reichstag fire, those people were quite willing to put all their faith in the Nazis, and we see the result of the favorable 1934 direct vote on giving all power to the Nazi gangsters. “Direct democracy” handed this world the worst tyranny of all time, and the price sure as hell wasn’t worth paying for, but thanks to blind faith in direct democracy, we had to.
On not major issue in US history has the clear majority, as it should be called, been right, rather a very distinct often small minority was right, but be thankful we didn’t have direct democracy or things would never have worked out as we would have had a “tyranny of the majority,” as that one Frenchman writing about the USA in 1830s talked about.
ALDOUS, FUNEOCONS & LIBIDO BANDIDO raise important points about the Indigenous, their gifts and prophetic understanding. SUN BEAR also said that a time would come when the white man and his children would revert back to the indigenous ways, and require some help in learning how to harmonize with the earth and her complex ecosystems. SUN BEAR also related that it was given in prophecy that once the white man dug into the earth (uranium) to obtain the “fire” it would speed up the earth changes that inevitably would draw the white man’s surviving children back to the indigenous.
EVERYTHING comes full circle and all things circle… what we call progress, is an accelerated capacity to destroy our own collective nest. I have always admired many indigenous teachings, particularly that of conservation, and considering how one’s present actions will impact the lives of future generations. Wouldn’t it be great if ONE indigenous representative was legally required to sit in on EVERY major corporate board and bring the VOICE of the EARTH MOTHER to bear on all the decisions these mammon-worshippers would face? Sure, ONE is not a majority, but it plants the voice of conscience in those corporate “leaders” who still have enough semblance of a soul to be moved by the higher, inviolate Truth. Sounds like a plan to me, starting with the U.N!
I too think that most Americans are fair minded most of the time. I think the idea that we would knowingly toss the constitution and hand absolute power to one individual is highly unlikely, the closest it has ever come is with Lincoln during the Civil War. As far as the indigenous peoples, I think that the current sovereignty of the native american tribal lands has been carried about as far as It can be, without creating a bunch of little “Bantustans” within our borders. I do believe that people would be willling to extend extra rights and set aside additional lands, as long as its not of the “give us Ohio” variety.
nonoo and sigma… I’m like, “where do I even begin with these two?”. They both use the same bent logic that perpetuates more social and political marginalization and disenfranchisement for Native peoples.
As a Native American, I believe we should take these guys on by using the same way certain others have done. The good old “USA” is GUILTY of genocide, just like others in the world. They conspired and nearly killed off the Native Americans who lived in our country. They should be bowing down and giving respect to the first Americans, not the other way around. From what I see right NOW in this country, NO other has been more wrong in the way they treat the original peoples of this land. Instead of protecting them, they exploited and tried to use them for the new settlers own greedy needs. Like they say, ” Admitting one has a problem” is half the battle. Not to worry, that will never happen. The powermongers just do NOT care, regardless of their locale.
I don’t know who said Native-Americans have it made…..LOL……obviously the person has never lived on a reservation. I notice a lot of white people claim to be Native-Americans and go to the native clinics. Blonde, blue-eyed Native-Americans. I’m so old I can remember Native-Americans having black or dark brown hair and dark eyes.
The U.S. government has cut funding for Native-American schools. To begin with they had inferior schools and definitely not the best teachers. The care one gets at native clinics is nothing to brag about, either.
Right-wingers seem to be bothered that they run casinos. I guess they’d be happier if they lived in poverty, as many still do.
Maybe someone can explain why in Canada a higher percentage of tribal people/Native-North Americans are university graduates compared to their American counterparts.
Wow Indians Have it made?! Owning the land to living in slum conditions, were did we make it? where do we have it made? On Pine Ridge Reservation we have a 70 -85% unemployment rate. Our Casino makes enough to pay the debt acquired during financing the casino, some monthly assistance to the public for medical reasons(about 25$ for fuel to go to the nearest major hospital which is in Rapid City South Dakota), some money for propane and electricity in the winter (usually about 50 to 100$ per requesting household and there is never enough to go around), occasional help with school close etc… Not quite foxwoods casino type money, barely just enough to survive. To make matters even more problematic, the state of south dakota decides how many casino games we could have in our casino, while there gambling town of Deadwood is allowed to grow upon need based on economic factors. Appears to be some economic oppression going on here.
On the other hand, there are opportunities at enormous wealth yet we will not pursue these becuase of cultural and spiritual reasons, for instance; the Black Hills settlement money, money awarded through a supreme court decision in 1980 (originally about 127,000,000.00) has now reached over 800,000,000.00 (interest), yet the tribes will not touch it because it will require relinquishment of the right to the sacred black hills (although currently we do not have open and available access to all areas), we have the oldest fossil beds in the area and the most extensive (the badlands area), The best Zeolite in the world and the most abundant, one study shows 16,000,000,000.00 worth and last but not least, a company has approached the tribe unofficially about mining uranium under the same badlands, it is estimated at 90,000,000 ILB’s (Uranium is now at 126.00 per pound), do the math and you will see that wealth is at hand, yet we want none of these monetary opportunities.
Wow!
Thanks to all the commenters here!Light and harmony to you all.I don’t think i have read a more lucid and conscious bunch of ideas in a while.
What about the Saamis and Inuet and other humans with no homeland ,nomadic peoples.or envionmental refugees,who’s ice has melted? What government or NGO will recognise thier rights,culture or value to the enviornment?
peace
All indigenous peoples everywhere should have recognition and representation in the UN, and just because we can’t do it all at once is no excuse for just doing nothing and leaving things as bad as they currently are!
This is about uppidy coloreds having the audacity to mouth off to their masters. Nothing a real good whuppin wouldn’t take care of, right quick.
And, masters, how’d you let em get to the UN in the first place? If you keep goin soft on this, there’ll be no end to it, and you’ll deserve what you git.
PowerofLove-I don’t know if you’re trying to be sarcastic or blatantantantly racist/ignorant/and bigoted-but beware the energy you are drawing to your SPIRIT! There are many in this Blog who have a good Idea what is happening to our MOTHER,Earth.There are many who will never comprehend that we DO NOT OWN THE LAND,WATERS,AIR and CREATURES.I pity your ignorance.Whiteman is DESTROYING the Breast of Mother Earth,from which ALL OUR SUSTENENCE COMES.When this gets to the point of near TOTAL DESTRUCTION,the NEXT AGE OF HUMANKIND will come to be.The WISDOM of living in HARMONY with NATURE will be the ONLY chance of human survival and the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES will teach/lead the world how to accomplish this.Those who believe their armies,mansions and money will do the job shall perish-I GUARANTTEE IT!Humor yourself and GOOGLE “12/21/12″(w/out the quotations).
MITAKEYU OYASIN KOLA’