Indigenous people call for self-determination

Leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous people are calling for the UN General Assembly to recognize their right to self-determination. The call came on Aug. 9 as UN agencies and civil society groups across the world arranged seminars and art exhibitions to mark the International Day of the Indigenous People. The demand for recognition of the principle of self-determination is the most significant part of the proposed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a document put together by the world body's Permanent Forum on the Indigenous People. Already endorsed by the Geneva-based UN Human Right Council, the Declaration, which was debated for more than a decade, now awaits the approval of the 191-member General Assembly, which is due to meet in New York next month. "It's not perfect, but it's an important start," Wilton Littlechild, a leader of the Cree Nation in Canada and a member of the forum, told a select gathering at the world body's headquarters in New York on Aug. 8. Mindful that the Declaration is not binding to governments, Littlechild hoped that it would put some pressure on governments to observe such principles as justice, democracy, respect for human rights and equality. While a vast majority of the UN member states have signaled their support, a handful of countries continue to be dismissive of the Declaration. The US, Australia and New Zealand, for example, have consistently voiced their opposition to the demand for self-determination and informed consent by arguing that it violates democratic values and individual property rights. "Only by respecting cultural diversity and indigenous peoples' right to self-determination can our work together truly be called partnership," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement to mark the International Indigenous Peoples Day. "It is a moment to acknowledge the critical challenge they face," he added. "Much remains to be done to protect them from massive human rights violations, to alleviate the poverty they face and to safeguard against many discriminations that, for example, forces many indigenous girls to drop out of school." The Declaration urges the world's developed countries to take into account the concerns of indigenous communities living within their bodies while implementing the Millennium Development Goals, a series of targets set by world leaders to make drastic cuts in poverty and fight disease, illiteracy and environmental degradation by the year 2015. The International Day of the World's Indigenous People was first observed on Aug. 9, 1994, at the start of the First International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. In December 2004, the General Assembly proclaimed the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People from 2005 to 2015. The first objective of the Second Decade program is meant to promote "nondiscrimination and inclusion of indigenous peoples," according to UN officials. "This objective has not been reached," said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairperson of the permanent forum. "Systematic racism and discrimination is still the lot of many indigenous people not only in the developing countries, but also in the richest and most powerful countries." Juan Somavia, director general of the International Labor Organization (ILO), shared her judgment by saying that research by the ILO clearly showed that indigenous people were much more vulnerable to forced labor, trafficking and employment discrimination than others. "Their land and livelihood is under threat everywhere," he said. "Wherever they live they are the most disadvantaged and excluded groups."