150 Route de Fernez, P.O. Box 210
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Telephone: (022) 791 61 52\51 Telefax: (022) 798 13 46
email: JWN@WCC-COE.ORG
Press Alert For Immediate Use 21 October 1996
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES MAY WALK OUT OF UNITED NATIONS
A caucus of Indigenous Peoples here for a current (21 October - 1
November) meeting of the United Nations Open-ended Intersessional Working
Group on the Draft Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples met at
the World Council of Churches (WCC) over the weekend.
They unanimously rejected a decision by the Chairperson of the
inter-governmetnal Working Group that voting on the Declaration be put off
at least until next year.
Insisting that the Declaration represents the minimum standard for their
rights, they decided that if the Working Group, under the chairmanship of
Peruvian Ambassador Jose Urrutia, abides by its decision to postpone
substantive dicussion and voting on the Declaration, they will walk out en
bloc on this forum, thus in effect walking out on over ten years work on
the Declaration.
Representatives of the Caucus are meeting with Urrutia at this moment.
Should the walk-out happen today, some 150 Indigenous Peoples will march
from the UN to their "home" in Geneva, the Ecumenical Centre, where they
will hold a meeting open to the press, then prolonging their caucus by a
further two days.
The fate of the Draft Declaration, and the future of Indigenous Peoples
around the world, hangs in the balance.
We will inform you immediately as to further developments.
Contact: John Newbury WCC Press & Information Officer (+41.22) 791.61.52
(Office); 369.37.26 (Home).
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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 330, in more
than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the Assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Konrad Raiser fromthe Evangelical Church in Germany.