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United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples?
December
10, 2004
For
twenty years, Indigenous Peoples and their support organisations have
been pressuring the United Nations to adopt a declaration for the
protection of the rights of the world’s Indigenous Peoples. It is
feared that – due to blocking attempts most notably by the UK and
the USA - the UN will now stop this process and leave Indigenous
Peoples’ rights unrecognized.
The United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples is to become an internationally recognized legal instrument
setting the minimum standards for the promotion and protection of
Indigenous Peoples’ rights. The existing Universal Declaration of
Human Rights protects individual human rights. The Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples is needed to protect the collective human
rights of Indigenous Peoples, such as their rights to
self-determination, culture, religion, language, lands, territories
and natural resources. The protection of these collective human rights
is essential for the survival of the more than 5,000 Indigenous
Peoples, totalling over 300 million Indigenous persons in the world.
The present draft of this Declaration is a document composed of 45
Articles. Its adoption by the United Nations highest body, the General
Assembly, was a primary objective in the present United Nations Decade
for the World's Indigenous Peoples (1995-2004). However, as this
Decade comes to a close, only a mere two Articles of the Declaration
have been provisionally approved. The other 43 Articles, relating to
the core issue of the promotion and protection of the collective human
rights of Indigenous Peoples, have yet to be adopted.
The failure of the UN system thus far to establish and implement human
rights standards for Indigenous Peoples constitutes a significant
setback. And time is running out. The mandate of the UN Working Group
entrusted with the elaboration of this Declaration has now expired.
Indigenous Peoples now fear that this process will come to an end
without the desired result - despite the many efforts by both
Indigenous Peoples and Governments to work towards concensus on this
Declaration. Will the twenty years of hard work on this process be in
vain?
Now it will be up to the decision-making body, the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights, to take on this issue and determine
whether this process can continue. The adoption of this Declaration is
the most urgent issue facing Indigenous Peoples globally and the key
to their very survival. It is important that an urgent message is sent
to the United Nations, making it clear that this must continue.
Source: Speaking4earth.com
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