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The Right of Indigenous Peoples to Self-Determination: Rights & Democracy's President Speaks Out in Geneva

"We are here to create a new justice for those who have been tragically deprived of their rights," Jean-Louis Roy said in a speech delivered this morning to the members of the Draft Declaration Working Group of the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Geneva, 4 December, 2002 – Jean-Louis Roy, President of Rights & Democracy, has called on governments to recognize the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination and to pave the way for the adoption of the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"We are here to create a new justice for those who have been tragically deprived of their rights," Mr. Roy said in a speech delivered this morning to the members of the Draft Declaration Working Group of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

Mr. Roy told government representatives, including Canada's, "Don't be afraid to extend to indigenous peoples rights, all rights that have been denied to them."

"We are here to give the UN and the world a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with no discrimination, no restriction, no limit, except those that apply to all. Any other option will drive us to a dead end," he warned.

Article 3 on the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples has become the stumbling block of the Draft Declaration, and several governments fear that its adoption will pave the way to secessionist movements. Last May, in an attempt to depolarize the debate and to identify possible solutions, Rights and Democracy organized a seminar on the issue.

Held in New York to coincide with the first session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, this seminar brought together numerous experts as well as representatives of governments, indigenous peoples and non-governmental organizations.

Mr. Roy released the report in Geneva this week and it is available in French, English and Spanish. The report contains the presentations of experts including Erica-Irene Daes (Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations for the past 20 years), Rodolfo Stavenhagen (UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People), and Antonio Arenales Forno (Permanent Representative of Guatemala at the United Nations in Geneva).

One of the points it makes is that indigenous peoples are generally not interested in creating new States, but rather in ensuring their survival and development as a peoples.

As Erica-Irene Daes points out in this new publication: " It is very important to think of self-determination as a process. The process of achieving self-determination is endless. This is true of all peoples - not only indigenous peoples. "

Another participant in the May seminar, Maiv?n Clech L?m, Visiting Associate Professor at the Washington College of Law, American University, argued that, "we are presented today with a genuinely unique opportunity, in the form of the 1994 Draft Declaration, to lay down aspirational principles that will launch the process of making amends for the shameful harm that indigenous peoples have suffered for half a millennium now, and also to choose a path that offers all humanity the possibility of co-existing in peace and in enjoyment of the full richness and wisdom of our combined patrimony."