And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 12:21:43 EDT Subject: Indigenous Rights runs into U$ Opposition > >Campaign for Indigenous Rights Runs into U.S. Opposition > >UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- In 1985, leaders of more than 300 million >indigenous peoples in over 70 countries started campaigning for a U.N. >declaration recognizing their right to self determination and land. > >But indigenous leaders say their campaign has run into strong opposition >on those two key demands from the United States, Canada, Australia and New >Zealand. > >Representatives of native peoples from around the globe gathered Monday at >the United Nations to mark the International Day of the World's Indigenous >People, but there was no celebration -- just a sobering assessment of the >struggles ahead. > >"Indigenous people have been basically ignored in many cases, are some of >the poorest of the poor, and are also some of the most excluded in the >development process," said Alfredo Sfeir-Younis, the World Bank >representative at the United Nations. > >"They are facing serious discrimination in terms of human rights, >property, and also culture and citizenship," he told a news conference. > >Indigenous leaders have been campaigning for a U.N. Declaration on the >Rights of Indigenous People to take the 1948 Universal Declaration of >Human Rights a step further and affirm that indigenous peoples are equal >in dignity and rights to all other peoples -- but also have a right to be >different. > >A draft declaration, adopted in 1994 and currently being considered by a >working group of the Geneva-based U.N. Commission on Human Rights, would >protect religious practices and ceremonies of indigenous peoples, their >languages and oral traditions. > >It would also give indigenous peoples -- including native Americans and >Canadians, Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maoris, and South American >Quechua and Mapuche -- the right to self-determination and the right to >own, develop, control and use their traditional lands, waters and other >resources. > >"This declaration is making very slow progress," said Bacre Waly Ndiaye, >director of the New York office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human >Rights. > >"For many governments it's very important to allow prospecting for gold >and for oil anywhere -- and they're clashing with people for whom the land >where they want to prospect is sacred," he said. > >Tonya Gonnella Frichner, president of the American-Indian Law Alliance, >said Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand fear that >self-determination could lead to secession. > >"That certainly is not what indigenous peoples are talking about," she >said. "When you secede, you go somewhere, and this is our indigenous >territory. Where are we going?" > >Despite objections from the four nations, indigenous leaders are hopeful >that they will get the United Nations to adopt the declaration by the end >of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People in 2004. > >While a declaration won't be legally binding, Frichner said, it will be an >important guide to nations around the world on the rights of many of their >forgotten peoples. > > Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
