Advancing the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A Critical Challenge for the International Community

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Voices from a forum at the 61st Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 13 April 2005

Presented by Amnesty International, la Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme, the Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples (NCIV), Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers),
and Rights and Democracy

Introduction

“Over the years, we have witnessed the immense obstacles certain persons and groups face in enjoying their human rights fully. Among the groups most at risk and in need of protection are indigenous peoples, who have suffered perennial prejudice and discrimination.” - statement by 28 Independent Experts of the UN Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Day, 10 December 2004

International human rights treaties recognize that all peoples have the right to maintain their unique cultures and traditions, exercise control over their own lives, and to use and benefit from the lands and resources of their territories. However, when it comes to Indigenous Peoples, states have persistently failed to recognize and uphold these rights. The devastating consequence has been the profound impoverishment and marginalization of Indigenous women, men and children around the world and the denial of such basic rights as rights to food, health, and education and livelihood.

Indigenous Peoples have long engaged with the international community in an attempt to right this wrong. Indigenous Peoples’ efforts to bring their experiences and perspectives to the United Nations and to regional bodies has led to the emergence of an important body of international human rights norms in which universal human rights protections are applied to the specific circumstances of Indigenous Peoples. For example, UN treaty bodies have affirmed that state obligations under widely ratified human rights instruments include a duty to protect distinctive collective rights of Indigenous Peoples, including rights in respect to land, culture and self-determination.

A draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, long under consideration by the Commission on Human Rights, seeks to elaborate, in a consistent and coherent manner, “minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world” (article 42). The draft Declaration is wide-ranging, reflecting the complex interconnection and interdependency of the individual and collective rights of Indigenous persons and Peoples – and the many ways in which these rights are being violated. Some of the diverse critical themes in the draft Declaration include:

• The right of all Indigenous women, men and children to live in dignity and equality;

• The right of Indigenous Peoples to maintain and continue to develop their distinct cultural practices, knowledge systems and ways of living;

• The right of Indigenous children to be brought up and educated in their own language and culture;

• The right of Indigenous Peoples to be consulted on decisions and actions impacting on their rights and interests and to be protected against actions taken without their free, prior and informed consent;

• Rights related to access to, control and use of lands, territories and resources central to the identity, survival and well-being of Indigenous Peoples; and

• Recognition that the right of self-determination of all peoples found in the first article of both the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights applies equally to Indigenous Peoples.

The draft Declaration was developed over many years by a working group of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (now called the UN Sub-Commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights). States, independent experts and Indigenous Peoples all played an active role in the development of the draft text. The Sub-Commission unanimously approved the text of the draft Declaration in 1994, but the Human Rights Commission did not; instead it referred the Declaration to an open-ended intersessional working group for further elaboration.

Little progress was made toward adoption of the Declaration throughout the entire first International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (1994-2004). In fact, the Working Group was able to agree on the provisional adoption of only 2 of the 45 articles of the draft text. However, as the first Decade drew to a close, a new climate of improved dialogue between states and Indigenous Peoples began to emerge. When the Working Group met in 2004, there was indication of an emerging consensus among states and Indigenous Peoples concerning provisional adoption of a much larger number of articles, including new and revised articles proposed by the Indigenous Caucus.

In April 2005, the 61 st Session of the Commission on Human Rights agreed to continue this standard setting process. On this occasion, and with a Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People just beginning, a group of international human rights organizations – Amnesty International, International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers), Rights & Democracy and the Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples – organized a forum at the Commission to promote discussion of the advances that have been made in the recognition of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples and the work that remains to be done.

Our organizations believe that adoption of a strong Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is an urgent priority, not only to help prevent the terrible violations experienced by Indigenous Peoples worldwide, but also to strengthen the international human rights system by helping to eliminate discrimination in the application of universal human rights. States and civil society have a responsibility to ensure that the process of elaborating the Declaration moves ahead in a timely manner and that this process builds upon, and does not undermine, the international standards for the recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights that have emerged as the result of Indigenous Peoples’ efforts in the past decade. It is our hope that the forum has contributed to this dialogue.

We have, therefore, produced this transcript of the speeches given by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen; North American Indigenous representative to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Wilton Littlechild; Dalee Sambo Dorough of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and Mililani Trask of Na Koa Ikaika O Ka Lahui.