FIJI Mission to the United Nations
TOWARDS LASTING PEACE AND SECURITY IN OUR WORLD
Statement to the Fifty-First Session of the United Nations General Assembly
By H.E. Ambassador Poseci W. Bune
Head of Delegation and Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations
New York 4 October 1996
EXCERPTS
..."Indigenous Peoples
Mr. President,
As I stated previously, international security has many dimensions. The
security of the world's indigenous peoples is one such dimension.
The history of the world's indigenous peoples is replete with wholesale
slaughter, genocide and, in some cases, total annihilation during the era
of exploration, discovery and colonisation.
The Prime Minister of Fiji, the Honourable Sitiveni Rabuka, told the United
Nations last year it "must guarantee that external values and forces do not
continue to coerece political concessions, economic reforms and social
changes not desired by the indigenous peoples themselves."
At the opening of a Regional Workshop on the UN Draft Declaration on the
Rights of the Indigenous Peoples held in Fiji last month, the Prime
Minister of Fiji declared that in "our Pacific home, we have been sole
proprietors in most places for no less than three thousand years, in most
other places, for much longer."
Our Prime Minister stated that it must be legally accepted that "we are the
first settlers, first dwellers or proprietors of our land. Second, we are
a collective group who were imposed upon by uninvited external forces who
disrupted the normal march of our history."
"As victims of what continues to be described as imperialism and
colonialism, we cannot, in our quest for freedom, allow the vestiges of
foreign domination to encroach upon us either through internal machinations
or external collusion."
The Fiji Workshop agreed in preinciple that, wherever possible, efforts to
strengthen the text of the current Draft Declaration should be encouraged.
The unanimous view of the Workshop was that efforts by States to undermine
the existing language of the Draft should be actively resisted by
indigenous peoples. The Workshop further resolved that Pacific indigenous
peoples should seek to promote greater support for the Draft Declaration
within the UN system so that the overall objective of achieving an
effective and meaningful Declaration on Indigenous Peoples is reached.
My country, which has had a multi-racial population withing the last 150
years, warmly welcomes the oberservation of the International Decade of the
World's Indigenous Peoples.
We strongly urge, during the International Decade, the adoption of the
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
My country believes that the Declaration should bot be the alpha and the
omega of indigenous rights, but should be merely a first step towards the
negotiation, under the aegis of the United Nations, of a comprehensive
legal Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples..."
---We call upon the Governments - the Indigenous Governments who have regained their Independence from the colonial oppressions to come to our side and SUPPORT us... We expect this... We deserve this and we want our children to be honored... We are here in Geneva, 150 of us representing the Indigenous Peoples of the World, and the UN Governments have closed their doors. They will make an offer in the morning... We will settle for no less than the Right to stand upon our birth rights and the histories and future of our INDIGENOUS PEOPLES - to defend this UN Document as it has been written over the past 12 yeas and as passed by the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination Against Minorities in 1994. THESE ARE THE MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR THE SURVIVAL OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES...
Please send us your support by fax immediately so that we can carry and present your support and rights tomorrow
Fax: 0041 22 917 03 34 ATTN: Net Warriors , Indigenous Peoples Global Cacus Geneva 1996 Standoff
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The full text of the UN Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and related documents can be reviewed at:
http://www.aloha.net/nation/iitc/decltext.html
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Contact People: Latin America: Marcelo Orellana Coordinacion Pueblos Indigenos Cento y Sud America Pacific Region: Moana Sinclair, Te Kawau Maro North America: Steve Newcomb, Indigenous Law Institute East Asia: Boris Voyer, International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs.
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netwarriors@hookele.com fax: 0041 22 917 03 34
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES GLOBAL CRISIS STAND OFF Net Warriors Kekula P. Bray-Crawford, Pacific Peoples Indigenous Organization Committee/IITC Lori Pourier, Indigenous Womens Network Crystal Echohawk, Indigenous Womens Network Steve Newcomb, Indigenous Law Institute
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