Message-Id: <v04011708b2ca9960db4c@[128.253.55.14]>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 16:20:51 -0400
To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
From: Native Americas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Significant Movement on Indigenous Issues at the U.N.
The following is an article from Native Americas, published by the Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University. For more information on how to stay informed of emerging trends that impact Native peoples throughout the hemisphere visit our website at http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu.
Significant Movement on Indigenous Issues at� U.N. Commission for Human
Rights
By John Stevens
The 54th session of the United Nations' Commission for Human Rights
resulted in a number of developments of interest to indigenous peoples.
Several resolutions and decisions passed by the commission will generate
continued action on indigenous issues, and possibly lead to new forums
for the advancement of indigenous rights within the U.N.. The addition of
a specific agenda item on "Indigenous Issues," first
inaugurated in 1996, has focused greater attention on indigenous rights
and increased the visibility of indigenous participants, although their
influence is still limited by the cost of attendance and the
discouragment of lobbying in-session. Their direct influence on
resolutions is also diluted, because voting on resolutions occurs two
weeks after the agenda item. By John Stevens
Three resolutions were passed at the CHR sessions that directly affect indigenous issues. The first, RES 1998/13, reauthorized the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and provided suggestions for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People as it approaches its mid-point. The second, RES 1998/14, reauthorized the Inter-Sessional Working Group that is debating the draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Both groups will be able to continue their work, even though both still suffer from external pressure regarding their utility, especially the ISWG, which passed only two articles of the draft declaration in its last session. These reauthorizations were expected, and both were adopted without a vote.
Third resolution, however, met with more resistance from member states. This was the resolution put forth by the government of Denmark, RES 1998/20, to establish an ad hoc working group, similar in many ways to the draft declaration group, that would collect and assess proposals for the Permanent Forum. This resolution was debated twice, and was contested by several governments, although for slightly different reasons. Cuba's main objection, which was seconded by France, was ostensibly financial. The delegation believed that funding the ad hoc working group out of the regular U.N. budget was both difficult and ill-conceived, despite assurances from the Secretariat and Denmark that it could be done. After some debate, the resolution was adopted, but Japan, which is against the idea of a permanent forum, vowed to take its position to the new working group directly, while the U.S. hinted that it felt such a group unnecessary and that debate should only continue in the WGIP.
This debate, however, only implies the significance of RES 1998/20. According to sources in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the permanent forum will be an object of more intense consideration than the highly-contested draft declaration. Some permanent forum proposals include significant indigenous representation with voting power, placing them at "the highest levels" of the U.N. hierarchy and suggests that the body has sanctioning or other judicial powers and functions. There also have been suggestions that its mandate exceed those of strictly "human rights" and encompass land claims and other issues that concern indigenous peoples, but that often get short shrift in U.N. forums. This would give indigenous communities and organizations a new level of influence on U.N. policy and standard-setting that might close the gap on the "partnership" that is the rhetorical focus of the International Decade, an idea that obviously still makes many states uncomfortable.
There were two other significant developments at the 1998 CHR session. The first was a decision, DEC 1998/103, to recommend that the Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities organize a seminar on the protection of the heritage of indigenous peoples following the work of Madame Erica-Irene Daes, the special rapporteur on the issue and the chairperson of the WGIP for the past 14 years. This seminar will take place after the CHR's next meeting in 1999. Another was the commission's decision to "conclude its consideration" of the human rights situation in Guatemala, according to an April 14 U.N. press release. With the recent signing of the peace accords, the commission decided by consensus that there was now a sufficient human rights mechanism in place. A representative of the International Indian Treaty Council, however, cautioned that human rights abuses were still a problem, and that indigenous participation in the peace process needed to be bolstered to bring lasting peace to the country.
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