Amazon Watch today called on the United Nations General Assembly to approve the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without delay.
The declaration has been under negotiation at the UN for 22 years, and in June 2006 was finally passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council 30 to two, with 12 abstentions. The General Assembly is now expected to vote on the Declaration by the end of September, the final step in making it international law, establishing minimum standards for protection of the collective rights of indigenous peoples.
According to the latest calculations, the Declaration just needs a handful of additional votes in the General Assembly. If the Declaration fails to win a majority, it may be years before the General Assembly will consider it again, making it imperative that it passes this time.
The Declaration would provide moral and legal backing for several concepts seen as critical to the preservation of the collective rights of the world’s estimated 370 million indigenous peoples, from 5,000 groups spread out across 71 countries. These concepts include the rights to:
• Self-determination, autonomy and self-government
• Education in their own language
• Recognition of indigenous laws, customs and traditions
• Own and control their territories and natural resources
However, the Declaration is facing some formidable opposition, reportedly orchestrated by the extractive industries, including diamond-mining interests in Africa. The United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Russia are all opposed to the Declaration, as are three Amazonian nations, Colombia, Guyana and Surinam. The US, Canada and Australia are all also thought to have been lobbying other countries behind the scenes to persuade them to vote against the Declaration.
Amazon Watch Executive Director Atossa Soltani said: “It is critical that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly without further delay.
“Indigenous Peoples have waited a long time for this. Their rights have been neglected and trampled on long enough. It has taken more than two decades of hard work by indigenous peoples and their supporters from around the world to draft the Declaration. It is time for the world to rally in support of the declaration as it did in the 1940s around the Human Rights Declaration after the tragedies of the Holocaust.
“In addition to recognizing the fundamental human rights of indigenous peoples around the world, the Declaration would also help indigenous peoples’ efforts to preserve their vast territories, some of the most pristine and biodiverse ecosystems remaining on the planet. From the Amazon to the Arctic, indigenous peoples’ stewardship of biodiversity is an immense service to humanity.
“We particularly call on the US and Canadian governments to withdraw their opposition to this declaration and to begin reversing the abuses and injustices these governments have perpetrated against Native Americans for five centuries.”
