Caracas, Venezuela – In a historic moment for Venezuela’s indigenous peoples, the 131-member constituent assembly voted yesterday to include a chapter in the new constitution that sets forth legal rights for indigenous peoples and indigenous communities in accordance with International Labor Organization Convention (ILO) 169. Chapter VIII would guarantee “the right to exist as indigenous peoples and communities with their own social and economic organization, their cultures and traditions, and their language and religion.”
After five days of debate, the proposal passed with most of the language and articles proposed by Venezuela’s indigenous organizations. One major change that was made to the approved proposal was the use of the words “indigenous lands” instead of “indigenous territories”. The vote was 128 in favor and 3 abstentions.
The Constituent Assembly will have another debate on the entire draft of the new constitution during November 10-12 where additional changes could be considered. The entire new constitution will then go to the Venezuelan public for a referendum vote on December 12.
Yaritza Array, a spokesperson for the Indigenous Federation of Bolivar State said, “We are pleased for the moment having won the first round of the debate for our rights. We are planning a series of workshops on the proposal as it currently stands. Indigenous constitutional rights experts from Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, and Niacaragua whose constitutional rights are similar to those being proposed are being invited to participate in workshops planned in Caracas on Nov 10-11.”
For more information regarding this update or the workshops, please contact:
Yartiza Aray, Indigenous Federation of Bolivar fieb@telcel.net.ve 011 58 85 26786
or
Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch amazon@amazonwatch.org 310-455-0617
# # #
UPDATE: November 11 1999
The Constitutional Assembly gave its final approval today to the Indigenous peoples proposal to the new constitution. A public referendum vote is scheduled for mid-December. Stay tuned for details.
