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Forty-seventh General Assembly GA/8450
Plenary 10 December
1992 Resumed 82nd Meeting (PM)
REPRESENTATIVES OF WORLD'S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
ADDRESS ASSEMBLY AT START OF INTERNATIONAL YEAR
Human Rights, Self-Determination,
Protection of Natural Resources Among Issues Raised
For years, indigenous people had been "mysterious minority
populations", forgotten until their natural resources were needed,
William Means, of the United States, President of the
International Indian Treaty Council, told representatives of the
world's indigenous people this afternoon as they continued the
special ceremony to mark the launching of the International Year
of the World's Indigenous People.
Speaking on behalf of the Indian people of the Western
Hemisphere, he said that when their natural resources were needed,
that meant additional loss of land for indigenous people. "We are
the Palestinians of the Western Hemisphere", he declared.
Several speakers emphasized the importance of the
International Year which, they said, sent a powerful message to
those attempting to erase the indigenous identity in their own
nations. A number of speakers called for the United Nations to
establish a permanent high-level mechanism that would help to
promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples, particularly
the right to self-determination.
Bimal Bhikku, a Buddhist monk from the Chakma tribes of the
Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh asked that the Working Group
on Indigenous Populations be made a permanent body, to travel
freely and report its findings to the world media as well as to
the United Nations.
Many speakers emphasized the respect and understanding that
indigenous people had for the land, nature and its conservation.
Although it was the habitats of the indigenous people that were
being destroyed by deforestation, hydroelectic power stations and
flooding, the overall effects were felt by the world at large.
Representatives of indigenous communities from the Arctic;
Western and Eastern Europe; North, Central and South America;
Asia, Africa, and Australia and the Pacific also addressed the
ceremony. They were Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Onondaga
Nation; Marcial Arias Garcia, President of the Kunas Unidos por
Nabguana; Evdokia Gaer, Secretary-General, International League of
Indigenous Nations and Ethnic Groups; Lars Emil Johansen, Premier,
Greenland Homerule Government; Poka Laenui, President, Pacific
Asia Council of Indigenous Peoples; and Chief Ovide Mercredi,
Assembly of First Nations.
Other indigenous speakers who made statements were Jose
Santos Millao, First Director, National Organization of the
Mapuche People; Giichi Nomura, President, Ainu Association of
Hokkaido; Lois O'Donoghue, Chairman, Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Commission; Moringe L. Parkipuny, Korongoro Integrated
Peoples Oriented to Conservation; Noeli Pocaterra, Movimiento
Indio por la Identidad Nacional; Tamati Reedy, National Maori
Congress; Donald Rojas, President, World Council of Indigenous
Peoples; Irja Seurujarvi-Kari, President of Nordic Sami Council;
Mary Simon, Inuit Tapirisat of Canada; Anderson Mutang Urud,
Sarawak Indigenous Peoples' Alliance; Davi Yanomami, Yanomami
leader; and Thomas Banyacya, Hopi Elder.
Tomorrow at 3 p.m. the Assembly will continue its observance
of the inauguration of the Intenational Year with statements from
Member States and action on a 40-Power draft resolution
proclaiming the International Year.
When it meets at 10 a.m. tomorrow, the Assembly will take
action on the question of equitable representation on, and
increase in the membership of, the Security Council, the question
of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East.
Launching of International Year of Indigenous People
Representatives of the world's indigenous people met this
afternoon to
continue the special ceremony marking the launching of the
International Year of the World's Indigenous People.
OREN LYONS, Faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation, speaking on
behalf of the indigenous people of North America, said the current
quest for peace of the indigenous people was an attempt to renew
the previous way of life of the native people of North America --
the way in which they had lived before the people came from "over
the sea". Freedom had been a way of life. Ceremonies had been
held to honour the life-giving forces of the world. Generosity
and equal sharing, respect, care and love for elders and children
had been the basic teachings. They had been taught that there
would come a time when the world would be covered with smoke and
the water would no longer be clean. The issue of nuclear and
toxic waste dumps was a great concern to the people he
represented, he said. Over 300 treaties between the indigenous
people and the United States and Canada had been violated.
Human rights violations and confiscation of peoples' land had
occurred within the violation of treaties. Also religious sites
had been violated. Land was and had always been the issue for the
indigenous people, he continued. All of the problems had come
from across the sea and had worked to crush the nations of the
indigenous people. Laws had been created to justify such
actions.
He said he stood for the spirit of his people and declared
their will to survive. The current generation had the
responsibility of choosing a path of regeneration. Common sense,
responsibility, brotherhood and peace must guide a way to
regeneration.
MARCIAL ARIAS GARCIA, President of the Kunas Unidos por
Nabguana, said the problems of his people should acquire the same
significance as any of the other items on the agenda of the
General Assembly. Moreover, indigenous people themselves should
be active in that discussion. Instead they had been underrated,
colonized and manipulated.
He called for the establishment of a United Nations office
for indigenous affairs. Indigenous peoples in El Salvador and
Nicaragua had been involved in peace negotiations to seek calm and
order but no one had recognized their efforts or contribution. He
also called for a special session of the General Assembly during
1993 to discuss sovereignty and self-determination for indigenous
people. He called for a permanent seat at the United Nations for
the indigenous people to be established.
After 10 years, he said the declaration on indigenous people
had not been approved perhaps because of colonialist Governments.
He then said the United Nations had not yet decided to establish a
frank dialogue with indigenous people.
BIMAL BHIKKHU, a buddhist monk from the Chakma tribes of the
Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, said his mother tongue was
really the only thing left to him. He had already lost his land,
his traditional way of life, family and friends. Today, 10
December, was a day that marked a resurrection of hope for
millions of people designated as indigenous or tribal. Throughout
Asia, the lives of indigenous and tribal peoples had become a
daily nightmare, an ocean of suffering. It was only the intensity
which varied from one country to another, from one moment to
another. The problems had the same roots: non-respect for human
beings and their rights. There was no respect for their culture,
religions or traditions. The present situation of the indigenous
and tribal peoples of Asia was not just a "problem": "It is a
drama which dishonours the human condition, and changes must be
made." He had not come to complain, he said, nor to seek out the
guilty but to propose four actions to lessen suffering and to
build peace.
The Working Group on Indigenous Populations should be made a
permanent part to the human rights bodies of the United Nations,
he continued. Its members should be able to travel freely to see
the reality and to make their findings public to the world's media
as well as to the United Nations. Currently, the truth of the
situation was too often hidden. The only force available to
indigenous peoples was truthful information.
Precise territory must be set out for indigenous and tribal
peoples, he said. They did not want to be a "museum for
anthropologists" but to be able to choose their own style and
speed of development. The Working Group should encourage each
parliament in Asia to guarantee through laws the right to land.
The Working Group should also monitor the respect for those laws.
The most precious resource was the human person. And the
indigenous people wished to see the harmonious development of the
human potential. In order to avoid armed conflicts, there should
be training in non-violence as taught and practised by Mahatma
Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The Working Group should organize
such training.
For indigenous people, he said, children were their only
hope. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) should help
implement the rights of the children of indigenous and tribal
peoples -- especially the right to education. Most of their
children were currently deprived of that right, through lack of
schools, teachers and equipment. The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) should mark 1993 by
giving scholarships for higher education to indigenous and tribal
youth. He went on to say: "We have so many many things to learn
from others in the human community, and we can also share our
values. We have to realize that we are interdependent: what you
do has an impact on us; what we do has an impact on you."
He also said the children among the indigenous people were
already carrying a very heavy burden: a financial "debt" to the
richest countries. That burden was an injustice against those
children. Indigenous and tribal peoples must also recognize their
own past mistakes. For instance, they had not fully respected the
dignity and rights of the women in our communities. The UNESCO
should help to promote the rights of women in those societies. His
society shared a planet with other societies and all must learn to
live together in harmony. Ignorance, fear, hatred and violence were
the common enemies. The path of reconciliation between peoples must
involve respect for justice. There was no way to peace. Peace was
the way. The United Nations must promote a new human culture -- that
of non-violence based on the respect of the person, truth and the
rule of law.
EVDOKIA GAER, General Secretary of the International League
of Smaller (Indigenous) Peoples and Ethnic Groups of the Russian
Federation, said there were 34 indigenous peoples in the European
and Asian parts of the Russian Federation alone. Their total
population in Russia, according to census, exceed 440,000. In the
last decade the natural growth of indigenous peoples amounted to
only 16 per cent, and the number of Orochi, Enets, Oroki, Kets,
Selcups, Sami, Nivkhi, Khanty, Chukchi remained practically the
same. More than 17 per cent of the total population of smaller
peoples of the Russian Federation were still living in yarangas
and tents. Small population and low rates of its growth had put
many indigenous peoples of Russia on the brink of biological
disappearance.
At the same time, she continued, areas inhabited by
indigenous peoples were rich in unique minerals and raw materials,
fuel and energy as well as biological resources. With balanced
use of those resources, not only could indigenous peoples have
lived in the wealth of a modern civilization, but the strength of
Russia in general could have been increased by the plenitude of
those resources.
For example, territories inhabited by 0.2 per cent of smaller
peoples of the Russian Federation accounted for 6 per cent of the
gross national product (GNP) and substantial proportions of total
national output of oil, gas and timber. Resources of territories
inhabited by smaller peoples played a special role in the
formation of the national hard-currency fund. Those territories
supplied the world market with cooper, nickel, timber, cellulose,
fertilizers, furs and deer breeding products.
She said planning the development of the economic habitat of
smaller peoples of Russia on the basis of the "descending
strategy" concept had resulted in their economic impoverishment.
The effect of the implementation of that policy had been
especially ruinous for the indigenous peoples because they were
small in numbers, greatly dispersed, and underrepresented in the
State legislative body and the executive agencies. To avoid that
tragedy in the life of the smaller peoples the Parliament of the
Russian Federation had, for the first time in the history of the
State, examined at its 1992 meeting the problems of social and
economic situation in the regions of habitation of the indigenous
peoples. It had unanimously adopted a decision on the urgent
elaboration of a concept of the development of the indigenous
peoples' territories, giving the highest priority to their will
and desires.
She welcomed the establishment in Russia, this year, of the
International League of Smaller Peoples and Ethnic Groups as a timely
and important step. The charter of the League was based on the
principles of sovereign equality of all its members, unanimity of
smaller peoples and ethnic groups, voluntary implementation by all
members of the League of all obligations assumed by them, the
peaceful settlement of emerging disputes, and rendering collective
assistance to each other. The League would strictly observe the
principles of the United Nations Charter.
She hoped 1993, which had been proclaimed by the United
Nations as the International Year of Indigenous People, would give
a strong impetus to the adoption by the Government and Parliament
of the Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent
States countries, of several legislative acts which would define,
in specific terms, the legal status of smaller peoples.
Premier LARS EMIL JOHANSEN, of Greenland, said that he spoke
as leader of the Greenland Home Rule government and as
representative of the collective Inuit communities in Greenland,
Canada, the United States and Russia. Since 1980 they had worked
closely together with the non-governmental organizations, the
Inuit Circumpolar Conference, to ensure that their views could be
heard in the international society. He had played an active part
to establish Greenland as a home rule territory in a free
partnership with the other part of the kingdom to which it
belonged. It was possible to change the world so that indigenous
people -- without dissolving the national States to which they
belonged -- could take their independent and rightful place on the
world scene, which in current years was changing and intensifying
democracy, freedom and international cooperation.
The greatest threat to that progress today was racism, he
went on. The struggle for the indigenous peoples' rights was at
the same time a fight against the fundamental evils of racism and
ethnic cleansing. Even though those in the Arctic had been
spared, the indigenous people were all too well acquainted with
the concept of ethnic cleansing. It was a prerequisite for the
fulfilment of the slogan of the year -- A New Partnership -- that
all combat their own racism and learn to understand the beauty of
the differences.
The United Nations had been the principal place where
liberation from colonialism had been made possible for many
peoples who today were called the "third world", he said. Through
the United Nations decolonization programme, political freedom,
justice and equality had been established for suppressed groups of
people the world over. Today was also the United Nations Human
Rights Day. Through various human rights instruments, the
individual's right to an independent, just and equal life,
regardless of race, religion or other affiliation had been
established. The time had come when the international system must
focus itself on establishing equality for those in the so-called
"fourth world". The new Year opened all possibilities focusing on
the untenable situation in which indigenous peoples the world over
found themselves, and establishing the will and energy required to
ensure a change towards justice, democracy and equality.
At a United Nations meeting in Greenland in September 1991, a
number of experts produced a document with conclusions and
recommendations about which rights States and the international
community should fulfil and guard for indigenous peoples -- the
so-called Nuuk Conclusions and Recommendations. That United Nations
document included all the required elements needed to reach the goals
of the United Nations Year. There was a necessity for indigenous
peoples -- regardless of being locked into other peoples' nation
States -- to become accepted as peoples in their own right. They did
not wish to break existing nations up. But, they also did not wish
to become assimilated into a culture, language or lifestyle, that was
not theirs. They were specific peoples, regardless of not having an
independent State.
He said the Year must emphasize indigenous people's right to
self-determination with as wide a scope as possible within a
united country. That required respect for their language,
culture, land areas and work skills. The Year must focus on
indigenous people's right to take part in the world economy with
the resources they had and the background of the culture they
represented. Most of them still had a hunter culture as their
basic identity and could not continue to be passive to the world
while their lifestyles were exposed to emotional and alienated
campaigns against their renewable harvest of wild animals that
nature provided for life's sustenance.
Indigenous people wanted their rightful place in the new
world order, and hoped the United Nations Year would focus on the
resources -- political, economic and commercial -- that could help
them to ensure that they, as the only peoples who, until now, had
been neglected -- received not just a new but also a true
partnership with the globe's other peoples, he went on. The key
word was "self-determination". The Inuit from Greenland, Canada,
the United States and Russia had emphasized that many times both
individually and collectively. One of the best ways the General
Assembly could support that was to back up the work that has been
done by the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous
Populations.
Indigenous peoples were therefore calling on all Member
States, United Nations organizations and non-governmental
organizations to support the very important declaration on
indigenous rights, which should be dealt with at the next General
Assembly meeting. That would give the Assembly an exceptional
opportunity to close the International Year of the World's
Indigenous People with a convention that would have meaning for
all indigenous people in the future.
POKA LAENUI, of the Pacific Asia Council of Indigenous
Peoples, said he took the call of the United Nations for a new
partnership as a sincere and hopeful sign of according indigenous
peoples a proper place in the common work for human progress. A
partnership could never work if there were no common values or
aspirations. The domination theme which had ruled the present
evolutionary period of humankind must now be questioned. The "tug
and pull" of forces under that theme had brought mankind no closer
to spiritual development. In the quest to dominate, man had
brought about rampant destruction of his immediate environment and
displayed an insatiable hunger for further destruction in lands
far from his own shores.
The new partnership must explore totally new modes of conduct
built on the respect of all things to be. In building a foundation
for a new partnership the elevation of property and economic values
above those of human values must also be rectified. Development
programmes must incorporate values of strong cultures, healthy
people, respect for the elderly and protection for the children, a
pristine environment, an ethic of human rights and compassion within
a society. Those values were important in the measure of the health
of a society.
He said the United Nations evoked such high principles and
yet included, within its membership, countries which consistently
committed gross violations of human rights. He said there were
atrocities occurring in East Timor, West Papua and Moluccas
Islands, in the Chittagong Hill tracts and in the territories of
the ethnic nationalities of Burma. There was insufficient action
to protect the rights of people in those indigenous territories.
Some Members of the United Nations even acted in partnership with
the violators by continuing trade, military training and other
support. There must be an end to such hypocrisy and firm action
must be taken by the United Nations to end such atrocities.
Indigenous people, he went on, were anxious to participate in
many areas of work with the United Nations. He asked that
necessary steps be taken to facilitate their entry. Indigenous
representatives should also have permanent places within the
General Assembly to raise the special concerns from the various
regions of the world.
WILLIAM A. MEANS, President of the International Indian
Treaty Council, also speaking on behalf of the Indian people of
the Western Hemisphere, explained that he came from the Oglala
Band of the Lakota Nation, also known as the Sioux, a people of
the Black Hills in the upper Great Plains of what was now the
United States. His nation's legal relation with the United States
was governed by a bilateral international treaty signed in 1868,
which was similar to the other 370 existing bilateral treaties
between the United States and Indian nations.
The International Indian Treaty Council was a
non-governmental organization in Category II status with the
United Nations Economic and Social Council, representing 98 Indian
nations and communities throughout the Americas. He said the
emptiness of the Assembly Hall was significant in view of the long
journey of the indigenous people to that place. This was the
first time that Indian people of the Americas, and indigenous
people throughout the world, stood before the Assembly to talk
about their history, philosophy and their own contributions to the
development of world civilization. The only voice, the only
color, absent from the community of nations was the Red Man of the
Western Hemisphere.
Until now, he said, the Indian people of the Americas had had
their place in world civilization determined by the so-called
"modern", industrial nations and ranked by values which placed
indigenous people at the very bottom of the human family. Today, the
United Nations would begin to know them, not through the distorted
history of the colonizers, but by seeing indigenous peoples as human
beings with their own dreams and aspirations, their own value systems
and their yearning for international recognition of their human
rights, including the right of self-determination, which should now
be recognized by the international community. In the case of the
indigenous peoples of North America, he added that self-determination
was already addressed through existing bilateral treaties.
He said that for years, indigenous people had been the
"mysterious minority populations" scattered throughout the nations
of the world, forgotten until their natural resources were needed,
which in turn meant additional loss of land for indigenous
peoples. "We are the Palestinians of the Western Hemisphere", he
said.
Sovereign people of varying cultures had the absolute right
to live in harmony with Mother Earth so long as they did not
infringe upon that same right of other peoples. World concern
must focus on all colonial Governments so that sovereign peoples
everywhere should live as they chose. He said the indigenous
peoples of the world still clung to their own culture, origins and
indigenous roots, thus creating a new tension in the world. The
fear of a return to multiculturalism and even tribalism, grew from
a fear of the unknown by those who had been trained to fear that
it was a part of their dark, uncivilized past which must be erased
in the name of modernization and western civilization.
He said the International Year was even more vital because of
the threat to the very physical and cultural existence of the
indigenous people. It sent a powerful message to those attempting
to erase the indigenous identity in their own nations.
The indigenous people understood the earth and knew that
humans and other living things were related; that "the web of life
is woven together, and that injury to one part of the web does
injury to the whole". The Indians had never had missionaries.
"We have never tried to make an eagle out of a crow", he said.
He asked the General Assembly to grant observer status to one
or more Indigenous and Pan-Indian organizations so that they could
play a constructive role in world peace and in international
mediation, as well as contribute to the ongoing protection and
advancement of indigenous peoples throughout the world. He asked
that the Assembly give further study to the Treaty on Genocide and
the Declaration on Human Rights, which had both closed the door to
indigenous people. He further requested that the United Nations
support a process that would lead to an international convention
for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.
Indigenous peoples were in particularly vulnerable positions that
existing legal norms seemed unable to protect. Such legal
mechanisms would send a message to some existing Governments with
records of human rights abuses towards indigenous peoples.
In the Americas, he said, there were more than 80 million
Indian people. In at least six countries in Central and South
America the overwhelming majority was Indian. As democracy spread
around the world it was inevitable that an Indian nation would
finally take its rightful place in the family of nations.
OVIDE MERCEDI, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations,
speaking as the representative of 53 Indian nations in Canada,
said it was important to all of humanity to end colonization.
Land, resources and lives had been lost by indigenous people. He
denounced acts of violence against indigenous people, stating that
the Governments of Peru, Guatemala and Colombia had carried out
acts of genocide against the people of those nations.
While the Canadian Government had stated earlier in the day
that the indigenous people of Canada had been included, he said it
was not true that they had been consulted regarding the statement
made by the representative of Canada. In Canada, the many
treaties entered into between the Government and the indigenous
people had not been fully implemented. While the Government had
shown more interest than before, it had not taken complete action.
He called on the Canadian Government to meet the needs of the
indigenous people during the coming Year, to take direct action to
solve problems and to honour the treaties. The Government should
ensure that the indigenous people had the land, water and
resources needed to support their economy. It should honour the
indigenous people's right to self-determination and work to end
their poverty.
All Member States should support a draft resolution to create
a commission under the auspices of the Secretary-General to
monitor human rights violations and to support the development of
indigenous people. He called on Governments to meet directly with
the indigenous people to end the era of dominance. He made those
statements, he said, in a spirit of respect with the intention of
forming new relationships with the Canadian Government and other
Member States.
JOSE SANTOS MILLAO, First Director, National Organization of
the Mapuche People, Chile, said his people nourished the hope that
there would be a proclamation of a universal charter of the rights
of indigenous peoples. The coming into being of a democratic
system in Chile had enabled indigenous peoples to seek liberation
and solutions for their great problems. They also sought further
ratifications of Convention 169 of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO).
His people knew that the realization of the aspiration for
liberation was a universal task, he said. They valued the progress
made by mankind in the last decade in the advancement of human rights
and the protection of indigenous peoples. Since the adoption of
Convention 107 of ILO, there had been a move towards recognition of
the rights to self-government, land, cultures, a healthy environment
and peace. All those rights were today recognized by humankind.
The struggle had entered a new and profound stage, he
continued. Worldwide trends were emerging that affected the social,
cultural and economic development of indigenous peoples. In Latin
America, there was a growing recognition that democracy would
increase the rights of indigenous peoples. The Constitutions of
Latin America formally recognized the right to non-discrimination on
the grounds of race, religion or sex. Nevertheless, the rights of
indigenous peoples were being violated. In the last decade, ILO
Convention 169 had been adopted. Indigenous people saw a ray of hope
in that Convention, and Member States should ratify it immediately.
The indigenous peoples hoped that the coming year would
provide an international forum for them and conclude with their
liberation, he said. Mankind had a duty to recognize the vision
of indigenous peoples and to guarantee their peace and security.
The indigenous peoples of Chile hoped that the United Nations
would aid development programmes there. He requested the
appointment of a high-level commission to investigate the
hydroelectric power station which threatened the existence of
certain indigenous peoples in Chile. He wanted to pay tribute to
the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1992, Rigoberta Menchu of
Guatemala, who was herself a tribute to indigenous peoples, he
said.
GIICHI NOMURA, President of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido,
Japan, said the inauguration of the International Year of Indigenous
People, today would remain deeply engraved in the memory of
indigenous peoples. While the Ainu had formed a distinct society and
culture in parts of Japan from time immemorial, up until 1906 the
Government of Japan had denied its very existence. However, today
the existence of the Ainu was being clearly recognized by the United
Nations.
In the latter half of the nineteeth century, the land of the
Ainu people was unilaterally appropriated by the Government of
Japan, he said. Under the Japanese Government's assimilation
doctrine, the language of the Ainu was banned, then traditional
culture was denied, their livelihood was destroyed and the Ainu
people became the object of oppression, exploitation and severe
discrimination. They had been unable to continue their
traditional way of life in their ancestral lands. Unfortunately,
the Government in Japan had never taken the Ainu's rights as an
indigenous people into consideration.
The Ainu called upon the Governments of Japan and the Member
States to enter into "a new partnership" with indigenous peoples,
he said. It was not merely a domestic issue. The overseas
activities of Japanese corporations and the foreign aid efforts of
the Japanese Government were having serious effects on the
livelihood of indigenous peoples all over the world.
The Ainu requested that the United Nations move speedily to
set international standards that guarantee the rights of
indigenous peoples against various forms of ethnocide, he said.
The Ainu urgently requested that the United Nations set up an
international agency to clarify the situation of indigenous
peoples, and put in place a mechanism for positive financial
support of that agency by Member States.
The Ainu people hope to negotiate with the Japanese Government
in order to implement the rights of indigenous peoples, including the
right to self-determination, he said. The right to
self-determination was not a threat to the national unity or the
territorial integrity of Member States. What the Ainu sought was a
high level of autonomy based on the fundamental values of
"co-existence with nature" and "peace through negotiation". They did
not seek to create new States with which to confront those already in
existence. Their aim was to achieve, through their traditional
values, the development and realization of a society in which all
people could live together in dignity.
LOIS O'DONOGHUE, of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission, said that when, in 1770, Captain Cook sighted what was
then described as the great south land, the first Australians had
been there already for more than 50,000 years. In 1788, Australia
became a British penal colony, a dumping ground for the problems
of the British Empire. The British declared Australia terra
nullius -- "no one's land", and the indigenous people were deemed
to have no legal rights to the land on which they had lived and
cared for, for so long. There were no negotiations, there were no
agreements, there were no treaties.
She outlined the history of her people and said that after
204 years, Australian law had finally recognized that indigenous
people did own their land at the time of European settlement in
1788. That recognition was more than two centuries overdue. But
it remained to be seen what its practical effects would be.
The world must accept that the history of indigenous people
had been a history of oppression and the superiority of one race
over another. Indigenous peoples sought acknowledgement by the
international community that brutality had occurred, and its
recognition of the continuous vitality of indigenous cultures.
They asked no more than the basic human right of being given the
opportunity to determine their own future. Only through
self-determination could indigenous people begin to address the
devastating impact of dispossession and dispersal without consent
or compensation. In Australia, they were making progress. There
was a greater Government commitment to self-determination for
indigenous peoples.
She said the International Year of the World's Indigenous
People enabled them to embark on a new journey of discovery -- a
journey that could bring about an understanding of the fundamental
nature of history, and the key to a shared future in justice and
equality. It was a journey that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples of Australia wanted to share with their
indigenous brothers and sisters throughout the world.
MORINGE L. PARKIPUNY, of the Korongoro Integrated Peoples
Oriented to Conservation, said he spoke on behalf of the African
minority indigenous peoples. He was among the few who had
annually attended the Working Group's meetings. Through that
forum, he and others had learned a lot and had established crucial
links with the extended family of indigenous peoples.
Since the 1890s, colonial and independent African States had
fought to obliterate the culture of indigenous peoples and
dispossess them of their land. Land represented sustainable
survival for them. Further, indigenous people were looked upon as
backward and evolutionary relics, he said. Africa must abandon
the fallacy that issues of indigenous people did not apply to it.
European partitioners had carved up Africa without any regard
for indigenous nationalities. As an example, the Masai had been
split by both Germany and Britain into three different countries:
Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika.
The 1960s, he continued, when most African countries were
decolonized, promised great hope for the indigenous peoples. Yet
the post-colonial era had seen the official European borders
sanctified by the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Also,
respect for the human rights of indigenous peoples seemed to be
incompatible with aspirations of national unity. Indigenous
peoples were still subjected to prejudice, discrimination and
unilateral changes that affected their lives, and they were being
dispossessed of their land. Their rights were being violated with
impunity. Ironically, the abuses were being committed by Africans
in the name of national unity.
NOELI POCATERRA ULIANA (Venezuela) asked what mankind would be
without indigenous peoples and "blood ties to Mother Earth". Could
we so quickly forget the thousands of years mankind's adaptation to
the woods, deserts and the Arctic had taken? More than an alliance
of thinking or intent, we needed an alliance with Mother Earth, not
only for indigenous peoples, but for all peoples. The destruction of
the indigenous peoples was the destruction of all mankind.
She said mistaken ideas of "development" and "progress" had
condemned indigenous peoples to prostitution, alcoholism,
dependency and loss of cultural identity. The role of elders must
be restored as the model of moral conduct. The young must be
restored to the role of providing the continuity of the races.
The role of the family must be renewed. Western science had today
become the instrument of the destruction of the planet.
The International Year would be meaningful only if the United
Nations acted as the voice of Indian peoples, she went on. Member
States, through their empty seats in the Hall, had demonstrated
their lack of will to understand the case of the indigenous
peoples. All the States of America should declare an emergency
for Indian peoples. The various development projects for
indigenous peoples must resist "the demonic claims of the world
market". The International Year of 1993 must not become a mere
"folkloric festival".
She said the Indian peoples were under attack from
appropriation of their lands and from pollution. The United
Nations should be mindful of the risk of the loss of the Amazon
and other highly meaningful biologically diverse ecosystems. The
fiction of "ecological protection" must not be allowed to
facilitate the taking of Indian lands. Biological degradation was
robbing indigenous peoples of both nourishment and dignity.
TAMATI REEDY, for the National Maori Congress, said his
organization represented 45 affiliated tribes of Maori who were
the indigenous people of New Zealand. He was also a
representative of the second largest tribe, Ngati Porou, which
would be hosting the first celebration and conference on
1 January, to mark the 1993 International Year of the World's
Indigenous People. The conference would focus on the issue of
sovereignty of indigenous people.
Maori people, he continued, congratulated the General
Assembly for launching that initiative with its theme "Indigenous
people -- a new partnership".
He regretted that, at the time when that great event was
being launched, moves were taking place in New Zealand to
extinguish rights -- both Treaty and human rights -- of the Maori
people of the land.
He described recent action by the New Zealand Government and
court cases by the Maori against the Crown and said Maori fishing
rights had been infringed. A bill had been rushed through
Parliament to avoid the rising protest and opposition from the
Maori people. He said the Maori people were saddened that their
country's Government, which had recently won a seat on the
Security Council, should act in utter violation of the rights of
its own minority-indigenous group.
The fact that it did so on the eve of the 1993 International
Year for the World's Indigenous People, was remarkable for its
"callous disregard and insensitivity of indigenous rights". That
action was reminiscent of the land confiscations and denial of
Maori rights perpetrated during the colonial period of New
Zealand's settlement by the British Crown in the last century.
DONALD ROJAS, President of the World Council of Indigenous
Peoples, said he supported every effort to further promote the
right to self-determination. The United Nations system had made
an important contribution to indigenous peoples in the last 20
years. He suggested that the United Nations consider establishing
a high-level mechanism, such as a commissioner, to consider social
and cultural issues relating to indigenous peoples. He noted that
many countries had ratified convention 169 of ILO.
Indigenous peoples were still suffering from the colonial
heritage, he said. He awaited with great expectations the
creativity of indigenous peoples in 1993. He drew attention to
some important events that would be held during the Year: the
International Conference of Indigenous Peoples in Mexico in May,
and the seventh General Assembly of the World Council of
Indigenous Peoples in December.
IRJA SEURUJARVI-KARI, of the Nordic Islamic Council, said the
Council represented the Saami Nation of Finland, Norway, Russia
and Sweden. He expressed the hope and expectation that the
International Year would serve to further the development of
cooperation and respect for human rights which were necessary for
indigenous survival.
The United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations
had made good progress but had yet to complete its main task of
drafting a new declaration on the rights and freedoms of
indigenous peoples. The Working Group should continue with that
exercise uninterrupted until meaningful and substantive standards
emerged from the deliberations. The substance was more important
to him than the date of adoption.
The Nordic countries had consistently been active
participants in the Working Group, he said, and he encouraged the
Group to continue its considerations of Nordic issues, including
in particular the land rights of the Saami in Russia and Sweden.
The links between human rights, democracy and sustainable
development had emerged with increasing clarity from the work of
the United Nations on indigenous people's issues. Those links
were being reflected in the standard-setting activities but they
should also be reflected in the operational work of the United
Nations system. The ILO had held inter-agency coordination
meetings in that field and he endorsed the emphasis which was
placed on development and partnership aspects in the Programme
drawn up for the International Year. Indigenous people and their
organizations must have the opportunity to participate effectively
in all relevant activities at all relevant levels.
MARY SIMON spoke on behalf of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada,
the Inuit Circumpolar Conference of Canada, the Grand Council of
the Crees of Quebec, the Metis National Council, the Native
Council of Canada/Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and the
International Organization of Indigenous Resource Development.
She said she was an Inuk leader from Nunavik in northern Canada
and was speaking on behalf of the majority of the indigenous
peoples of Canada, and the International Organization of
Indigenous Resource Development -- an international
non-governmental organization in consultative status with the
Economic and Social Council.
She said indigenous peoples from every region were among the
most vulnerable and exploited societies. They urgently needed the
international protections that the United Nations could provide.
Although the theme of the International Year was a "new
partnership", the reality the indigenous peoples faced was one of
exclusion and marginalization. Disposition of lands and
resources, racial discrimination and other violations of their
most fundamental rights still ravaged the lives of indigenous
peoples in both developing and developed countries. On the eve of
1993, a number of State Governments still refused to recognize
their collective and individual rights as "peoples". Those rights
were inseparable from their cultures, way of life and relationship
to their lands and territories. To deny that was to deny who they
were. "We are no longer merely objects of international law; we
are subjects of international law", she said.
The universal declaration on the rights of indigenous
peoples, which was being drafted, must not become the "lowest
common denominator" of existing domestic law, she said. Instead,
it should conform to the status, rights and perspectives of
indigenous peoples themselves, whose concerns must now be
addressed by the United Nations. The urgent concerns of millions
of indigenous peoples could no longer remain a "footnote" to the
overall work of the United Nations.
She recommended that the institutional framework of the United
Nations be appropriately strengthened to recognize the increasing
paramountcy of the issues affecting indigenous peoples; and the
creation of a permanent advisory body within the United Nations, made
up of representatives of indigenous peoples themselves. The
international community must go beyond the inadequate protections
provided for "minorities" under the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights.
Indigenous peoples must have the right to consent to
development on indigenous lands, she said, as they were often the
first to suffer the adverse social and environmental effects of
ill-conceived development projects. States must respect
indigenous peoples' right to peace and security. In Canada, for
example, the contamination of indigenous lands from military
activity was of vital concern. Treaties between indigenous
peoples and States must be fully respected under international
law. Indigenous treaties were not signed only as "domestic
instruments" and must not be turned into domestic instruments
after the fact. Respect for the right of indigenous people to
self-determination was paramount.
The Inuit of Resolute Bay and Grise Fjord had been victims of
forced relocation to support Canada's claim to northern
sovereignty, she asserted. The Government of Canada owed an
apology and compensation to these high Arctic exiles. The
indigenous peoples in Quebec were now threatened by the possible
secession of Quebec from Canada. The indigenous right of
self-determination must take precedence under those
circumstances.
On a more positive note, she said, the Inuit of Nunavut had
moved closer to controlling their own lives through a recent
comprehensive land claims agreement and political accord on
division of the Northwest Territories. And the Metis Nation had
agreed to a legislative accord with the Metis Nation Accord.
During the Canadian constitutional negotiations, the recognition
of the inherent right to self-government for all aboriginal
peoples was an historic breakthrough. She called upon the
Assembly to go beyond the "relatively insubstantial resolution"
which had been proposed, and to endorse a plan of action which
would address indigenous issues for the next decade.
ANDERSON MUTANG URUD, of the Kelabit people of Sarawak, said
that the Year of Indigenous People gave cause for hope, but at the
same time, he wondered if it was receiving enough support, and enough
funding. He said Sarawak, a state in Malaysia on the island of
Borneo, was less than 2 per cent the size of Brazil, yet was
producing almost two thirds of the world's supply of tropical
timber. If the current rate of logging were immediately reduced by
one half, all primary forests in Sarawak would be destroyed by the
year 2000. The Government said it was bringing progress and
development, but the only development that could be seen was dusty
logging roads and relocation camps. The so-called progress meant
only "starvation, dependence, helplessness, the destruction of our
culture and the demoralization of our peopl"." The Government said
it was creating jobs for the people, but those jobs would disappear
along with the forest. In 10 years the jobs would all be gone; and
the forest which had sustained the people for thousands of years
would be gone with them.
In return for defending their way of life, he continued, his
people had been called greenies, pirates, traitors and terrorists.
Their lives were threatened by company goons. Women were often
raped by loggers who invaded villages. While the companies got
rich from the forests, the people who lived there were condemned
to poverty.
He called upon the United Nations to do its utmost to assist
all indigenous peoples which were threatened by their own
Governments. It must urge Member States to restore the human and
economic rights of the weakest and most vulnerable of the world's
peoples.
He concluded, "Let 1993, the Year of Indigenous People, be a
year of peace and hope, a year for the restoration of our bleeding
forests and threatened cultures."
DAVI YANOMAMI, Yanomami leader from Brazil, said the
indigenous people were defending their land from invasion. The
white, rich capitalists said the lands were too big for the
indigenous people. The mineral companies were looking for the
riches from the indigenous people's land and continued to mistreat
his people.
He said the Yanomami must live on their lands. The "Gold
Diggers" had brought destruction. The indigenous people said
nature must be preserved. Many places had already been destroyed,
but his people wanted their land to be preserved.
The international community must help the minority people in
Brazil and throughout the world, he said. He called on the
Organization to protect his people. While many wanted to use the
resources of the Amazon Forest, it must be preserved. The mineral
wealth of the land must also be preserved. He called for respect
for his people and for respect of the constitutional law that
stated that the rights of indigenous people must be upheld. There
had been a recent invasion by over 8,000 people into their land.
He called on the Brazilian Government to remove all the invaders
from their land.
THOMAS BANYACYA, Hopi Elder from the United States, said his
spiritual leaders had an ancient prophecy that someday world
leaders would gather in a great House of Mica with rules and
regulations to solve problems without war. "I'm amazed to see the
prophecy has come true and here you are today", he said.
Hopi meant a peaceful, kind, gentle, truthful people, he
continued. The traditional Hopi followed the spiritual path that
was given to them by Massau'u, the Great Spirit. They had made a
sacred covenant to follow his life plan at all times, which
included the responsibility of taking care of the land and life
for his divine purpose. They had never made any treaties with any
foreign nation, including the United States, but for many
centuries they had honoured that sacred agreement. Their goals
were not to gain political control, monetary wealth or military
power, but rather to pray and to promote the welfare of all living
beings and to preserve the world in a natural way.
He said the world was "in terrible shape", humans poisoned their
own food and water and air with pollution. Children were left to
starve. Wars were still being fought. Greed was "a common
disease". Now was the time, he added, to weigh the situation and
choose the future. The United Nations should fully open the door for
native spiritual elders to speak as soon as possible.
He said no one should be relocated from their sacred
homelands in the western hemisphere. The United Nations talked
about human rights, equality and justice, and yet the native
people had never had a real opportunity to speak to the General
Assembly until today. The United Nations and the Assembly should
use their power and rules to examine and cure the damage people
had done to the earth and to each other.