Guyana backs UN declaration on indigenous rights

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56528774

Guyana backs UN declaration on indigenous rights
Stabroek News, Friday, September 14th 2007

Guyana was among 143 UN member states which voted in favour of adopting
the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at
the UN General Assembly in New York yesterday.

Contacted on Guyana's voting, Director General in the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs Elisabeth Harper said Guyana voted in favour of the
declaration, which had the backing of other Caricom countries.

Two non-governmental organizations with large indigenous peoples
membership - the Amerindian People's Association (APA) and the Guyanese
Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP) - had called on the
government to support the declaration on the occasion of World
Indigenous People's Day observed on August 9.

At the time the government had expressed some reservations and urged a
redraft of some sections including a definition of who could be
considered an indigenous person. The Amerindian Action Movement of
Guyana (TAAMOG) had supported the government's position on a redraft.

Guyana's indigenous people account for some 10 per cent of the
population.

A Reuters report yesterday said that under negotiation for 20 years,
the document says that indigenous people, whose number has been put at
270 million worldwide as understood by the declaration, "have the right
to self-determination."

One of its most controversial articles, according to Reuters, states
that "indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and
resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise
used or acquired." That could potentially put in question most of the
land ownership in countries, such as those that opposed the
declaration, whose present population is largely descended from
settlers who took over territory from previous inhabitants.

A balancing clause inserted at a late stage in the text says nothing in
it can authorize or encourage "any action which would dismember or
impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political
unity" of states, Reuters noted.

That was not good enough for the four objectors, notably Canada, where
the issue has become a political football. Many of Canada's 1 million
aboriginal and Inuit people live in overcrowded, unsanitary housing and
suffer high rates of unemployment, substance abuse and suicide.

"The provisions in the declaration on lands, territories and resources
are overly broad, unclear, and capable of a wide variety of
interpretations," Canada's U.N. Ambassador John McNee told the General
Assembly, according to Reuters.

Cowardly

That stance was attacked by Canada's left-leaning opposition New
Democrats. "It's very disappointing. I think it's cowardly and very
un-Canadian ... we pride ourselves on being advocates for human
rights," legislator Jean Crowder told Reuters.

U.S. delegate Robert Hagen said the U.N. Human Rights Council, which
prepared the text, had not sought consensus. "This declaration was
adopted ... in a splintered vote. This process was unfortunate and
extraordinary," he said.

A release from the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples issued
yesterday said that 143 of the 192-member body voted in favour of the
declaration; four voted against; and eleven abstained.

Those voting against were Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United
States. Those abstaining were Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi,
Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, Samoa and
Ukraine.

The declaration, which outlines the rights of the world's estimated 370
million indigenous people and outlaws discrimination against them, has
been in the making for over 22 years with several drafts written and
rewritten.

The declaration sets out the individual and collective rights of
indigenous peoples. These include their rights to culture, identity,
language, employment, health, education and other issues. It emphasizes
the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their own
institutions, cultures and traditions and to pursue their development
in keeping with their own needs and aspirations. 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.

A release from the Indigenous Peoples Caucus said the declaration
represents a significant recognition of the basic rights and
fundamental freedoms of the world's indigenous peoples who belong to
more than 5,000 distinct nations and groups around the world. It
encourages harmonious and cooperative relations between nation states
and indigenous peoples and recognises a wide array of rights specific
to indigenous peoples around the globe.

The release noted that indigenous peoples continue to suffer human
rights abuses such as forced relocation and assimilation; seizure and
exploitation of their lands, territories and natural resources;
discrimination and a disproportionate amount of poverty. It said that
indigenous languages, cultures and ways of life continue to be
threatened without international legal protection.

A UN press release issued after the vote quoted General Assembly
President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
and High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour as welcoming the
adoption of the declaration.

Sheikha Haya said "The importance of this document for indigenous
peoples and, more broadly, for the human rights agenda, cannot be
underestimated. By adopting the declaration, we are also taking another
major step forward towards the promotion and protection of human rights
and fundamental freedoms for all."

But she warned that "even with this progress, indigenous people still
face marginalization, extreme poverty and other human rights
violations. They are often dragged into conflicts and land disputes
that threaten their way of life and very survival; and, suffer from a
lack of access to health care and education."

Painful

In a statement released by his spokesperson, Ban described the
declaration's adoption as "a historic moment when UN Member States and
indigenous peoples have reconciled with their painful histories and are
resolved to move forward together on the path of human rights, justice
and development for all."

He called on governments and civil society to ensure that the
declaration's vision becomes a reality by working to integrate
indigenous rights into their policies and programmes.

Arbour noted that the declaration has been "a long time coming. But the
hard work and perseverance of indigenous peoples and their friends and
supporters in the international community have finally borne fruit in
the most comprehensive statement to date of indigenous peoples'
rights."

The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues estimates there are more
than 370 million indigenous people in some 70 countries worldwide.
Members of the forum said earlier this year that the declaration
creates no new rights and does not place indigenous peoples in a
special category.

"This declaration is the least that could be approved to give us all
instruments recognizing the existence of indigenous people," Bolivian
Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, himself indigenous, told the
General Assembly, according to Reuters.

"It is an important step for indigenous people to do away with
discrimination, to strengthen the identity, to recognize our right to
land and natural resources, to be consulted, to participate in
decisions," the minister said.

Most U.S. allies, including Britain and Japan, also voted for the
declaration, saying last minute amendments had made it acceptable,
given that it did not have the force of international law.