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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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