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From: "ngo_ip_undecade" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: NGO Report from the WGDD (Geneva)
Greetings,
By the good graces of the Spirits and the support of the International
League for the Rights and Liberations of Peoples (LIDLIP) as well as
Indigenous World Association, I am back again to report on the 'final'
week of the Working Group on the Draft Declaration for the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. Please forward this report as you wish and I will
remind you that all opinions expressed within this report are my own
and do not reflect the views of LIDLIP or IWA unless expressly noted.
Now, they say that this is the last week for negotiations and that by
some miraculous force of political will (that has been absent in the
last, oh, 27 years) the Declaration will finally be adopted and the
indigenous peoples of the world can rest easy now the United Nations
has an official document in support of the basic human rights for
indigenous peoples. Even though I am an idealist, I have had to
concede with myself that this is simply not possible, and it is now
for us to see what will happen this week for the future of this
Declaration.
That said, after today's meeting things are looking bleak, grim and as
stormy as the weather in Geneva. Before I get into the substantial
discussions of the day, I will just let you know that Mr. Chavez's
agenda for the week is as follows: Monday and Tuesday to discuss the
hot topics of self-determination and lands and territories, Wednesday
and Thursday for informal discussions, and then Friday for the
presentation and adoption of the Chairman's report. It was expressly
noted over the weekend by Mr. Chavez during his visit to the
Indigenous Caucus that he will not call for the provisional adoption
of any articles at all (because he claims that in no way will this
demonstrate progress to the CHR!), that he is already working on the
Chairman's text which will be presented to the CHR as a middle ground
between all the varying positions within the negotiations, and even
though indigenous delegates had alternate workplans that seemed far
more time efficient, he would be sticking with his original agenda and
that was all final. Oh yes, and we haven't even begun talking about
today's meeting yet! Just wait!
As usual, this morning's session did not begin until 1040 AM (a trick
of the Chair to just eat away at the time like acid) and when it did
Saul Vicente of IITC announced to the WGDD that there would be seven
indigenous delegates who would be on a hunger strike and spiritual
fast until the end of the negotiations or until some significant
progress was made. The fasters are Saul Vicente (Zapoteca, Mexico),
Charmaine White Face (Oglala Tetuan, Sioux Nation), Adelard Blackman
(Buffalo River Dene Nation), Andrea Carmen (Yaqui Nation), Alexis
Tiouka (Kalina, French Guyana), Aucan Huillcaman (Chile), and Danny
Billie (Seminole Nation). If you would like to send a letter in
support of this "hunger strike for indigenous rights" please send a
fax to 00-41-22-917-0079, emails to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and
to have your letter posted on the IITC website email it also to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'to post' in the subject line. During the course
of the day, many indigenous delegations expressed their support of the
hunger strike, and these included World Peace Council, IORD, CISA,
IITC, RAIPON, ICC, AILA, AIR Trust, IWA, among others which included
most Latin American indigenous groups and organizations.
The announcement of the hunger strike was met with surprise and shock,
and Mr. Chavez suspended the meeting for ten minutes in order to
consult with government delegates as well as UN security in order to
determine what to do and whether or not the fasters would be allowed
to remain in the building. When the meeting resumed, Clifford White
Eyes from the Oglala Sioux Nation opened the meeting with a prayer.
Immediately after the prayer, an irate Russian delegate took the floor
on a point of order claiming that the WGDD was violating the agenda
not only by allowing a spiritual manifestation but also in terms of
the hunger strike, which he claimed were inappropriate and that the
Chairperson should take measures to correct. Russia wanted the
Chairperson to bring order to the room. Chavez pointed out to the
Russian delegate (for whom this is his first meeting at the UN) that
the indigenous meetings were always opened with a prayer and that UN
security had been informed about the hunger strike and thus he would
have nothing further to do with that. Boy, was the Russian delegate
mad, beet red and shaking his head, and I'm positive, cursing in
Russian under his breath.
The Chair opened up discussion on Article 3 on self-determination by
noting the various proposals of new text or amendments that had been
made by different delegations, included in the document CRP4. Mr.
Chavez made it clear that he would not allow for general comments to
be made in an interchange with Mr. Lazaro Pary that lasted about ten
minutes, and then the substantial discussion began. Russia had
presented a proposal for new text in Article 3 having to do with
self-determination relating to national constitutions and constructive
arrangements, which was categorically rejected by all indigenous
organizations that took the floor. Willie Littlechild took the floor
on a point of order to ask about the ECOSOC process of submitting
proposals to be included into the UN record, and stated that as per
his knowledge, all documents had to be submitted six weeks before the
start of the meeting, which in the case of the 10th WGDD was in
September. Willie asked this because very recently a huge proposal of
new text and amendments was presented by the Saami Council and
Tebtebba Foundation (CRP5), and he wanted to know what the legality of
that was from the Chair. Willie also pointed out that there were many
proposals made during the two weeks in September that never made
mention in the Chair's report to date, including the so-called
Indigenous Proposal which you will recall has to do with the articles
of self-determination and is the package deal to add a preambular
paragraph that could leave Article 3 as is. Mr. Chavez apologized
profusely for the omission of the proposal (which had been a
remarkable point of the September meetings) and this proposal was
re-circulated and presented once again. The proposal would also get a
formal title of CRP6 or something of the like. Mr. Chavez's oversight
in including many of the indigenous proposals would be a theme
throughout the day and he really had no reason for why it was so,
other than it just somehow didn't make it into the report.
So discussion on Article 3 mainly focused on the issue of including
'territorial integrity' and 'political unity' into the Declaration
text. Indigenous delegates noted that States were already protected
many times over on both these issues in numerous treaties and in
international law, and also that the issue of self-determination of
peoples is also already recognized many times over in the same. What
are not specifically recognized are these rights for indigenous
peoples and hence the importance of the presence of strong language in
this regard in favor of indigenous peoples. Dalee Sambo, on behalf of
ICC, took the floor and gave an impassioned intervention on the issue
of territorial integrity and how the Indigenous Proposal as well as
the AILA/Guatemala Proposal from the 9th Session could assuage the
fears of governments on this issue. Mainly, she referred to the New
Zealand government comments from September in which they claimed that
the Indigenous Proposal in no way met their concerns over territorial
integrity, and Dalee went on to demonstrate in a very clear and
succinct manner how it did. Firstly she noted that the principle of
equality is in fact universal, and so is the equal application of
self-determination to indigenous peoples in this context. She cited
from the Universal Declaration on Human Rights as well as many other
treaties which not only speak to the equality of all people in the
human family, but noted where the territorial integrity of States is
already provided for in various declarations, conventions and
treaties. Furthermore, she posited that States in their comments on
self-determination in these negotiations were in fact making a
hierarchy of recognized international law and placing territorial
integrity in an untouchable and supreme place. She vehemently stated
that there can be no hierarchy in international law and that all
people have equally the right to access the various processes therein.
She also stated that the Indigenous Proposal attempts to reconfigure
and reconceptualize relations between States and indigenous peoples
and in this context when they speak of democracy it relates more to
the discussions in terms of encouraging participation than it does as
a political notion of governance. Canada expressed their support of
Dalee's comments as well as the Indigenous Proposal and encouraged
States to do what they can to come to consensus, especially in regards
to this Indigenous Proposal and the sticky issue of
self-determination. Yes, my friends, we have now entered The Twilight
Zone.
The Saami Council and Tebtebba discussed their extensive proposal
contained in CRP5 and wanted to make clear that they were not chained
to the proposal and only created it in an effort to forge consensus.
They would still be considering other proposals and also support the
Indigenous Proposal.
Australia took the floor to say that they were of the view before the
morning began that the issue of self-determination could be concluded
(like I said, we have entered another dimension of space and sound),
but at that point if no substantial progress was made on this issue
they could not support an extension of the WGDD. They also wanted to
understand that if territorial integrity was present in so many
treaties, then why should it be problematic to include it in the
Declaration. New Zealand agreed with them on this point as well.
AILA took the floor and also gave an ardent intervention to point out
that everyone is here to negotiate a Declaration on the rights of
indigenous peoples, and furthermore noted once again that
self-determination is entrenched in a multitude of international
documents and is without limitation. She noted that it would be a
scandal and without precedent if indigenous peoples were asked to
accept a specific limitation of their rights, and in no way did the
WGDD have the power to do this.
During the afternoon session, which also began almost 30 minutes late,
the discussion on Article 3 and self-determination continued only
until just a little bit past 4 PM. The Russian proposal for
self-determination was criticized further as it was noted that many
nations do not have written constitutions or legislation that is
discriminatory and thus amendment put forward by the Russian
delegation would be inappropriate for much of the world. Goddess
Mililani Trask took the floor to point out that Russia is a signatory
to the Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights (CECSR) and in
2003 they had been rebuked for the violent and precarious situation of
indigenous peoples in their territories. Russia indignantly took the
floor in a point of order to bellow that the topic under discussion
was not the status of indigenous peoples in their country and angrily
asked the Chair to keep the discussion on topic. Mr. Chavez, the
adept diplomat, agreed that certainly it was not the place for
specific cases nor denunciations of States, but at the same time he
stated that Mililani's example illustrates a situation in the light of
the Russian proposal, and so he allowed for Mililani to continue with
her intervention. Ironically, Mililani said nothing more about Russia
but went on to note that many of the additions of text for Article 3
had been directly taken from other treaties and she discussed the
problematic of taking these passages out of context and sticking them
into the Declaration just like that. Ron Barnes noted that there is
no such thing as internal or external self-determination, and there
are no limits placed on this in international law. Russia complained
that no one understood their amendment and how really it helps to
implement the right of self-determination, and so they made a new
proposal (not yet circulated) which would clarify their position.
Chavez closed Article 3 and self-determination for discussion and
moved to land rights and territories.
Discussions on Articles 25 and 26 were opened and these were discussed
for the rest of the afternoon. Of course, most indigenous delegates
and some States would like to see the Declaration left as it is, and
the discussion became highly technical over exciting topics like
should it be 'their lands' or 'the lands.' A discussion of ILO 169
entered into these discussions vis a vis comments by several
organizations from Chile, Mexico, and Argentina, but Chavez pointed
out that ILO 169 is not very widely ratified and thus cannot take a
substantial role in the discussions. Chavez also wanted people to
stop discussing their national constitutions as he felt that there are
too many constitutions in the world to consider and they cannot be
used to further impede the process of the WGDD. Again the point came
up about the omission of proposals in the Chairman's report from ILRC
and Mr. Pary, but the Chair noted that in the case of ILRC (different
from other cases) he actually did not have a copy of the proposal and
that is why it wasn't included. Hmmmm. Makes you wonder why exactly
the other proposals, which he did in fact have at his disposal,
somehow did not make a mention in his report.
The meeting was suspended at 6 PM but for once, not everyone poured
immediately out of the room. Instead, many people went to speak with
the hunger strikers, who were trying to find a way to stay in the UN
overnight. Of course, Swiss bureaucracy and UN Security Policy would
not allow it, so that was that. Tomorrow morning the discussions will
continue on lands and territories and I will be back again tomorrow
night to report back on how far down the rabbit hole will go.
In honor of Tony Black Feather,
Sezin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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