Media.Knet.Ca

The Seventh Session of the United Nations Forum on Indigenous Issues
is being held at United Nations Headquarters in New York
from 21 April to 2 May 2008

http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_seventh.html

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doCip has the pleasure to forward the message below.

Audio recordings for Monday's sessions and the Tuesday AM session of the 8th UNPFII are now online :

http://www.dialoguebetweennations.com/N2N/PFII/English/09MediaCoverage.htm

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AFNQL - FNEC press release

Canada's Assimilation Policy Denounced at the UNO

NEW YORK, NY, May 20 - In front of the representatives of Aboriginal peoples throughout the World, the First Nations Education Council (FNEC) and the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL), Ghislain Picard, have demonstrated that the policy of assimilation is still very present in Canada. "There is an urgent need to develop criteria allowing the identification and denunciation of different forms of assimilation existing in numerous countries, including Canada," declared Chief Ghislain Picard in the scope of a side event held by the FNEC on the occasion of the 8th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in New York.

Lise Bastien, Director General of the FNEC, has also made the clear demonstration that the Canadian government is deliberately maintaining the First Nations education system in a situation of under-funding, thus imposing "the integration" of First Nations students into the provincial education system, and in the same stride ensuring the assimilation of Native peoples into the dominant society.

"The strategies of assimilation, hidden behind speeches of good will, have to be severely denounced and condemned on the international scene; it's a question of survival for our peoples," stated Chief Picard, highlighting the necessity of implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This statement echoed his earlier intervention today during the regular session of the Permanent Forum.

The AFNQL will also hold a side event tomorrow (May 21), under the theme "Our Lands, Our Rights" in the scope of the Permanent Forum.

For further information: Eric Cardinal, Communication advisor, Cell.: (514) 258-2315; Alain Garon, Communication agent - AFNQL, Cell.: (418) 956-5720

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Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2009/090518_Indigenous.doc.htm

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES ON EIGHTH SESSION

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues had an urgent mandate to activate the 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples through national legislation around the world, members said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon on today’s opening of the Forum’s eighth session.  (See Press Release HR/4980)

“The Declaration is now the shining star for navigation of all indigenous issues,” said Carsten Smith of Norway, an expert on the legal rights of the Arctic Saami people, adding:  “Unfortunately, there is a very huge implementation gap in the world”, in reference to the advancement of all such human rights declarations.

Joining him at the press conference, were Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the Permanent Forum and an indigenous activist from the Cordillera region of the Philippines, and Lars Anders Baer of Sweden, a member of the Saami Council.

Ms. Tauli-Corpuz said there had been some progress in making the Declaration national law, noting that it had been embedded in Bolivian domestic law and in the Constitution of Ecuador.  It had also been used as the basis of court opinions in Belize and Suriname.

However, quicker progress was needed in implementing the Declaration, she said, partly because much of the world’s untapped oil, gas and mineral wealth lay beneath indigenous lands, a topic that would be a main focus of the eighth session.  The Forum would consider the effects of extractive industries on indigenous peoples and discuss mechanisms that could get corporations to comply with the Declaration in terms of respecting the rights of indigenous peoples, seeking their consent and negotiating with them.  In a recent workshop on the issue, almost 90 per cent of indigenous groups had said that consent for mining operations in their areas had never been obtained from them.  To make their case, international venues were the only recourse because they could not rely on national courts.

Mr. Baer pointed out that those considerations were particularly important in the Arctic region, where possibly 40 per cent of the world’s gas and oil resources remained.  It was becoming more accessible to exploitation owing to the melting of the ice sheets induced by climate change.

Among countries with claims to parts of the Arctic, Canada and the United States had voted against the Declaration, the Russian Federation had abstained, while Denmark and Greenland were reshaping their relationship.  As in the cold war, indigenous peoples had once again become “cards in a political game”.

Asked about the involvement of various companies in deep-sea mining, the panellists stressed that it was crucial to clarify the transboundary obligations of corporations working abroad.

In response to a question about Saami fishing rights, Mr. Baer pointed to a freshwater fishing case brought in the Swedish courts because the political and legislative systems did not wish to deal with it.

Asked if there had been outreach to see whether the new Obama Administration would reverse the stance of the United States on the Declaration, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz said she had spoken to State Department officials about indigenous control over forests in relationship to climate change and there had been some positive movement on that issue.

She went on to say that the objections of the United States concerned fears that it would incur liabilities due to conflicting obligations under the Declaration and the International Tobacco Convention, as well as potential problems arising from its imports of softwoods from Canada.

When a correspondent noted that the notion of specific indigenous rights contravened Canada’s constitutional framework by appearing to trump the rights of other groups, the panellists stressed that that was a mistaken notion.  The Declaration, like the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, was merely an interpretation of international human rights law, but as it applied to indigenous peoples.

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UN News Centre UN News service

Widespread abuse against indigenous peoples persists, warns Migiro

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30830&Cr=indigenous&Cr1=

18 May 2009 – Indigenous peoples around the world continue to suffer from prejudice and marginalization, Deputy Secretary-General Asha Rose-Migiro told the opening session today of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

“Powerful forces continue to take land from indigenous peoples, denigrate their cultures, suppress their languages and even directly attack their very lives,” warned Ms. Migiro.

“These acts violate every principle enshrined in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” she added.

Some 2,000 participants from around the world converged on UN Headquarters in New York to discuss furthering the implementation of the landmark 2007 Declaration, which gained momentum last month when Australia officially endorsed the document after being one of four countries to vote against it along with Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

The non-binding text sets out the individual and collective rights of the world’s almost 400 million indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues.

It also prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them, and their right to remain distinct and to pursue their own visions of economic and social development.

“The General Assembly solemnly proclaimed that the Declaration is a standard of achievement to be pursued in spirit of partnership and mutual respect,” said Ms. Migiro.

The Deputy Secretary-General stressed that just raising living standards for indigenous peoples is not enough. “Protecting indigenous communities and their wealth of wisdom will not only enhance their lives, it will serve the interest of all people concerned about a healthy future for our planet.”

She warned that the world ignores “indigenous peoples at our peril but if we listen to them society as a whole will benefit.”

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chair of the Permanent Forum, told reporters in New York that most of the remaining oil, gas and mineral resources “are now found in indigenous peoples’ territories because we have been struggling against these kinds of [mining] operations.”

She said that this was fortunate as the resources are still in the ground but also a “curse” because “it brings all these unaccountable corporations to come and exploit it without the permission of indigenous people.”

Discussions at the two-week gathering will focus on the relationship between indigenous peoples and industrial corporations and the need to promote corporate social responsibility, in particular a report noting that mining for minerals, oil and gas disproportionately impacts indigenous peoples.

Other issues on the Forum’s agenda, which concludes on 29 May, include climate change, the Arctic region and land tenure.

May 18 2009 
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For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

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Summmary of INAC's report to the assembly

FRED CARON, Assistant Deputy Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada, said Canada was committed to an integrated, strategic and targeted approach to address the unacceptable socio-economic gaps of indigenous peoples there. That approach was founded on the protection and promotion of aboriginal and treaty rights in an atmosphere of reconciliation and renewed relationship. It focused on economic development; education; empowering First Nations citizens and protecting the vulnerable; resolution of land claims; and reconciliation, governance and self-government. In January, the Government had launched the Economic Action Plan of Canada, which included strategies to provide indigenous people with employment and training assistance, as well as $1.4 billion over the next two years for aboriginal-specific projects in housing, educational facilities, skills and training, health, water and wastewater systems, and child and family services.

He said Canada was helping to create conditions for responsible and sustainable developing affecting indigenous peoples in other countries. In March, the Government had announced its Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy for the Canadian extractive sector operating abroad. Economic and social development required that indigenous people had the land, resources and tools for effective governance and self-determination. The Tsawwassen First Nation treaty, the first urban treaty in British Columbia’s history, took effect on 3 April. On 18 June, the Specific Claims Tribunal Act created an independent tribunal with binding power to resolve specific land claims. Since the Government launched the Plan of Action for Drinking Water in First Nation Communities in 2006, the number of First Nation communities with high-risk water systems had been reduced by two thirds. In June 2008, Canada’s efforts to address the socio-economic needs of aboriginal Canadians had been reinforced when the Prime Minister issued an apology to the survivors of Indian Residential Schools.

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United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 8th Session
New York, May 18-29, 2009
Opening Statement by the Participants at the Global Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus meeting from May 16-17, 2009
Presented by Miki’ala Catalfano, Native Hawaiian, 7th Generation Fund

Indigenous Peoples and Nations from all regions of the world who participated in the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus meeting for the Permanent Forum 8th session reflected on a range of serious considerations and situations presented in our meeting.

This years’ Permanent Forum session places special emphasis on implementation and detailed review of the Permanent Forum’s previous recommendations. In this regard, we urge the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 8th Session to take note of the following critical concerns of Indigenous Peoples of the world.

Agenda Item 3. Follow-Up to the Recommendations of the Permanent Forum on (a) Economic and Social Development

1.     We reaffirm support for the call to reduce the number of recommendations (E/C.19/2009/7 paragraph 56).

2.     We urge the development of a mechanism to support indigenous peoples’ incorporation of distinct indicators of human development that would include legally recognized access to land and territory.

Agenda Item 3(c) Second International Decade of World’s Indigenous Peoples

1.     We propose that the Permanent Forum call upon the Economic and Social Council to present to the United Nations General Assembly that the title, which currently reads “2nd International Decade of World’s Indigenous People,” be corrected to read “2nd International Decade of World’s Indigenous Peoples.”

2.     We urge the Permanent Forum to join the “Global Stop TB Partnership” and to support the  Global Indigenous STOP TB Strategic Plan to address the tuberculosis crisis in Indigenous communities.

3.     We reiterate that the rights affirmed in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples be applied as the operative framework and criteria for carrying out the Programme of Action for the 2nd International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, in particular its objective calling for Free, Prior and Informed consent by indigenous peoples.

4.     We recommend that the Permanent Forum carry out a study assessing the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals recognizing and respecting the principles of Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, notwithstanding the global economic crisis, to be presented at its 9th session in 2010.

5.     We urge the Permanent Forum to call upon the United Nations General Assembly to declare 2010 the year of Food Sovereignty with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples.

6.     We urge member states that any and all Free Trade Agreements must recognize, respect and implement mechanisms for the protection of the rights contained in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

7.     We recognize and commend Colombia and Australia for changing their positions by endorsing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We call upon the three remaining states that oppose, as well as those abstaining, to reverse their positions and move to endorse the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples for full consensus.

8.     We urge the Permanent Forum to call upon the member states to respect the rights to land and territory for nomadic, uncontacted, and displaced indigenous peoples, as well as those indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and those facing extinction.

9.     We reiterate our call to the United Nations to create an official United Nations archive of treaties, agreements and constructive arrangements between indigenous peoples and nation states. We also urge indigenous peoples to bring all treaties to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples 9th session to begin the process of compiling the archives.

Agenda Item 4. Human Rights

1.     We call upon the Permanent Forum 8th session to urge all state parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as Indigenous Peoples, to apply the CRC General Comment #11 (2009) as a guide in implementing their obligations.

2.     We call upon the Permanent Forum 8th session to endorse and adopt the attached proposed resolution that we respectfully submit [Annex 1] on the rights of the indigenous child to health and education pursuant to the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly 63rd session March 13, 2009 [A/Res/63/241].

3.     We request that the Permanent Forum 8th session recommend the United Nations Human Rights Council authorize and request the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to conduct a study on the right to health of indigenous peoples, to be initiated at its 2nd session in August 2009.

4.     Recognizing the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, we urge the Permanent Forum to call upon the Human Rights Council to expand the mandate to work with the United Nations Environmental Program for an international study on water that extends beyond drinking water to include spiritual sustenance and cultural livelihoods.

5.     We call upon the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of indigenous peoples to conduct an investigation on Human Rights impacts of mega/development projects, including the desecration of sacred sites and militarization, upon the request of the affected indigenous peoples.

6.     That the chewing of coca leaf be removed from the United Nations Vienna Convention against Illicit Drug Trafficking, because this is an integral part of the culture of various Indigenous Peoples and serves positive therapeutic, sacred and social functions.

7.     We recommend that the Permanent Forum urge the Human Rights Council to address the Human Rights violations of Indigenous Peoples impacted by international borders and immigration laws and enforcement policies.

8.     We strongly endorse the recommendations made to the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP 15 and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in the Anchorage Declaration of April 24, 2009, along with the recommendations submitted on May 8, 2009 to the high level Stockholm Convention COP 4 by the Indigenous Peoples Caucus to increase and ensure Indigenous Peoples’ formal participation in those processes.

9.     We recommend that the Permanent Forum urge member states to present their plans of action for the full implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at each session of the UNPFII.

10.  We commend the General Assembly on their declaration of April 22, 2009 as the International Day of Mother Earth. We call upon member States to begin negotiations on a Convention on the Rights of Mother Earth with the full participation of indigenous peoples.

11.  We urge the Permanent Forum to call upon member States to decriminalize indigenous peoples struggling for their rights and justice and to discontinue labeling them as terrorists.

12.  Finally, we endorse the Declaration and Plan of Action from the Third Indigenous Leaders Summit of the Americas held in Panama April 14 – 15, 2009, and call for their implementation.

Madame Chair, in conclusion, we affirm that the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples establishes a new framework of evaluation for the work of the Permanent Forum and all initiatives of the United Nations system. It is a necessary instrument to address the global crisis as a mechanism of world peace. Thank you.