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EXPERT REGIONAL MEETING ON
INDIGENOUS RIGHTS IN THE COMMONWEALTH
AFRICA
Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit
PRESS RELEASE
16th-18th October 2002
Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC)
Cape Town, South Africa
Important delegates to a historic meeting of African Indigenous Peoples in the
Commonwealth held this week in Cape Town, dealt with the issues of
Commonwealth responsibility to Indigenous Peoples. The meeting sought to bring to an end the ‘invisibility’ of Indigenous Peoples in
Commonwealth Africa, thus requiring the member States to give due attention to
their human rights and land rights. As a first step member states must identify and
acknowledge their Indigenous Peoples, including full demographic information.
At this meeting, Indigenous Peoples called on the Commonwealth African Heads of State
to ensure that the Commonwealth Declaration 2003 promotes and protects their rights,
and expressed the hope that the South African Government, as Chair of the African
Union, would take the initiative.
The delegates called on the Commonwealth to create greater awareness of the issues
which affect Indigenous Peoples in all its member countries. Delegates highlighted the importance of Indigenous women’s participation in local
or national decision-making processes; Delegates noted with concern the multiple discrimination against Indigenous women
in Commonwealth African countries and their poor access to health
care, employment opportunities, and welfare facilities. These prevent Indigenous
women’s essential contribution to the development processes of their communities.
The Indigenous representatives discussed the particular issues in South Africa, Botswana,
Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria and Tanzania, and they determined that the
Heads of States and Government in Commonwealth African countries should:
• Recognise the right of Indigenous Peoples to identify themselves as ‘Indigenous’;
• Make Constitutional provisions to promote and protect the rights of Indigenous
Peoples;
• Note the cultural and linguistic diversity that Indigenous Peoples bring to
Commonwealth African countries, and which are threatened by policies that
marginalise and discriminate against Indigenous Peoples;
• Call for recognition and use of Indigenous languages in local education and
media;
• Note the critical role that Indigenous Peoples play in sustainable development in
Commonwealth African countries;
• Note and take lead from the South African Government’s efforts towards a full
recognition of the rights of its Indigenous Peoples;
• Take a more active and supportive role in the United Nations Working Group on
the Draft Declaration on Indigenous Peoples;
• Observe with concern the fact that activities and programmes of transnational
corporations and other organizations such as the World Bank, IMF, and WTO,
impugn on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and should pressurise these bodies to
ensure that free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples is obtained in
all matters of development that affect Indigenous Peoples;
• Note with concern the on-going expulsion of Basarwa/San people from their
traditional land, and that their resettlement outside the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve in Botswana violates their political, economic, social and cultural rights,
and ensure that negotiations with the Basarwa/San and Non Governmental
Organisations be resumed on this issue;
• Urge the Namibian Government to recognise all the San traditional
authorities, in particular the Haillom, Julhoansi, !Xoo and Khwe, in accordance with the
Traditional Authorities Act, 1995;
• Note that the Ogiek community in the Mau forest complex in Kenya, which has
traditionally lived in a sustainable way, is now being expelled from their ancestral
lands and excluded from the development, conservation, management and
rehabilitation processes of the forest, resulting in social conflict and
environmental de gradation;
• Applaud the recent ruling of the African Commission on Human and Peoples
Rights on Nigeria’s treatment of the Ogoni Peoples, and call on Commonwealth
leaders to impress on the Nigerian Government to respect and comply with the
ruling;
• Call for a full implementation of the Mgahinga and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Conservation Trust (MBIFCT) clauses meant to benefit the Batwa community in
Uganda;
• Note the ongoing marginalisation of the Baka and Bakola Peoples in forest
management in Cameroon, and the huge adverse impact of the World Bank
funded Chad-Cameroon oil project on the Bakola People of Southern Cameroon.
“Indigenous Peoples in Commonwealth Africa have been systematically forgotten, as if
they did not exist”, said Patrick McKenzie, Minister for Cultural Affairs, Provincial
Government of Western Cape, who opened the meeting. He said the “horror” of the
genocide of the Khoi and the San in South Africa has not come to an end, and that the
struggle for the human rights of Indigenous Peoples in Commonwealth Africa is not over.
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