D E C L A R A T I O N A G A I N S T G E N O C I D E
GENEVA, JULY 29, 1993
We, the undersigned Representatives of Indigenous Peoples, First Nations,
Minorities and Non-Governmental Organizations, on the occasion of the
11th session of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples of the UN
Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of
Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, held in Geneva July 19-30,
1993,
APPALLED by the genocidal practices which are allowed to continue to
visit havoc on the civilian populations of some UN Member States, notably
in the former Yugoslavia, in Iraq and in Indonesia, and particularly in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the northern and the southern parts of Iraq and in
East Timor, sometimes even in the presence of commendable and
individually courageous, yet hapless, ill-equipped, inadequately backed-
up and thus easily abused UN troops, EC Monitors, ICRC Delegates and
humanitarian aid personnel;
DISMAYED by the manifest facility and impunity with which officers,
soldiers and militia continue to maraud particularly in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, whereby they knowingly and crassly violate fundamental and
universally subscribed conventions of humanitarian law and human rights,
notably the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in
Time of War, the UN Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights;
ALARMED by the apparent unwillingness of most of today's decision-makers,
and by the growing incapacity of those international institutions which
were set up to preserve international peace and security, to effectively
stop and prevent at least the deliberate massacre of unarmed civilian
populations of UN Member States;
APPALLED by the apparent incapacity of the UN Security Council to act in
line with its own mandate with regard to its own resolutions if it turns
out that they are no longer part of the solution but have themselves
become part of the problem they are intended to address, as is the case
with some embargo resolutions which produce such perverse effects as to
help the aggressors, to violate the fundamental principles of self-
defense and self-help, and to victimize further the civilian victims of
aggression, all of which cannot fail to undercut the indispensable
respect for the Rule of Law as well as for the international institutions
which were set up to serve this corner stone of civilization; and
CONCERNED that Bosnia-Herzegovina in particular might become for the
United Nations, for the European Community and even for NATO what
Ethiopia was for the League of Nations, namely the fumbled opportunity to
promptly and duly defend the family of nations' fundamental principles,
thus setting the stage for later large-scale armed conflicts:
1. DECLARE our solidarity with the victims of aggression, human rights
violations and lack of respectful and disciplined leadership anywhere
on Mother Earth, notably with the Albanian, Bosnian and Hungarian
minorities in the Serbian Republic, with the Bogomin, Patarem and
other non-Serb and non-Croat ethnies in Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the
Assyrians, Kurds and Turkomans in the Mosul Vilayet, with the Marsh
Arabs in the South of Iraq, and with the indigenous peoples of East
Timor, Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia, Africa and the Americas;
2. CALL FOR THE PROMPT AND EFFECTIVE ENFORCEMENT of all corresponding UN
Security Council Resolutions providing for the protection of the
civilian populations, humanitarian aid and reconstruction and
development, with all necessary means, including air strikes against
hostile ground forces, lest "ethnic cleansing" and international
border changes by force, helped by political pseudo-leadership and
diplomatic ineptitude, become the model for the New World Disorder;
3. REGISTER WITH DISMAY AND CONDEMN the blockage of all effective relief
measures, notably in the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the UN
Security Council by one of its European members;
4. THEREFORE CALL ON the Members of the United Nations General Assembly
to provide for a more effective protection of indigenous peoples and
minorities particularly against genocide and ethnocide, as well as
for a more reliable application and enforcement of INTERNATIONAL
MINORITY PROTECTION GUARANTEES, in particular through the mechanisms
specified in the UN General Assembly Resolution 24 (I) of February
12, 1946, through the establishment of UN Trust Territories and
genuine UN Protectorates in areas where indigenous peoples and
minorities are threatened by genocide, and with the help of duly
elected Special Representatives which are to advise all relevant UN
bodies on related matters;
5. CALL ON all men of good will and non-governmental organizations in a
position to do so, to support and participate in the development of a
Universal League of First Nations and Indigenous Peoples; and
6. INVITE the Secretary-General of the United Nations, by way of the
good offices of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, to lend his
support to the objectives set out in this Declaration, and to
communicate same to the Member States of the United Nations.
-- Via DLG Pro v0.995
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/ John Burrows John_Burrows@freemf.eskimo.com /
/ Fido Net 1:352/333 206-786-9629 /
/ Director Center For World Indigenous Studies /
/ The Fourth World P.O. Box 2574 /
/ Documentation Project Olympia, Washington 98507-2574 /
/ Fax 206-956-1087 /
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