Indigenous Peoples in the UN System's Political Institutions

The Participation of Indigenous Peoples in the United Nations System's
Political Institutions

Lecture by Professor Dr. Erica-Irene A. Daes at the Castan Centre for
Human Rights, 27 May 2004

Co-hosted by HREOC and the Castan
Centre for Human Rights at Monash University

Mr. Chairperson,

Distinguished Professors,

Dear friends,

It is a great honor, and a particular pleasure to address this August
gathering.

At the outset, I would like to extend my warmest thanks for the invitation
addressed to me to present my views concerning on timing and important
subject entitled: "the participation of Indigenous Peoples in the political
institutions of the United Nations system."

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The opening words of the United Nations Charter express an ideal of word
democracy, which we have barely begun to achieve in practice. I quote:
"We the peoples of the United Nations .....". These words speak of a United
Nations Organization that is not only popular and accountable, but which
genuinely reflects the full political, cultural, religious and linguistic
diversity of our world. The United Nations Organization should be a great
forum, embodying the whole of human values and aspirations.

In actuality, however, it is a forum of States, most of which are organized
on the same bureaucratic or technocratic models, and many of which reflect
in their laws, policies and practices only the dreams of a single ethnic
division of their complex national populations. As a result, debates in
the United Nations have always fallen short of the true richness and intelligence
of the human species.

Indigenous peoples, along with various sectors of civil society in many
countries of the world community, have been completely excluded from the
access to the political institutions of the United Nations system.

In particular, Indigenous peoples have been deprived of the right to
self-determination which includes the right never to be deprived of their
own means of subsistence, to freely dispose of their natural wealth and
resources and to freely determine their political status and freely pursue
their economic, social and cultural development. Also, the right to control,
oversee, participate in and benefit from all trade with respect to the
lands and resources of Indigenous peoples is an aspect of the right to
self -determination.

Indigenous peoples have been excluded from participation in decision-making
regarding their human rights, environment, their traditional lands and
their resources. Indigenous peoples have been further prevented from participating
in the development of protective and beneficial trade regimes. Nevertheless,
it should not be forgotten, Indigenous peoples represent one large important
segment of the world's population that has not been represented adequately
by States. I say large, because Indigenous peoples number at least 350
millions, important, because Indigenous peoples embrace distinctive philosophies
and values that set them apart from the other major religious, social
and ideological divisions of the world; and which other societies and
peoples have come to regard as valuable contributions to the solution
of the global political, social and environmental challenges we all face
today.

Indigenous peoples participation in international decision-making political
institutions is not only a matter of social justice for Indigenous peoples,
but of improving the well - being of peoples around the globe.

The right of Indigenous peoples to participate effectively, in all decision-making
processes, particularly to those which affect their lands and resources,
is recognized as is the invaluable contribution which Indigenous participation
brings to such processes.

Indigenous peoples own chosen representatives must be fully afforded
their right of meaningful participation, at the table with member states,
in negotiations and discussions concerning in particular agreements with
competent bodies of the United Nations system and international financial
institutions in order to ensure that the rights of Indigenous peoples
and the protection of this Earth are adequately and appropriately considered
and protected.

As a global community, we simply cannot afford to be deaf to any human
voices. If our increasingly destructive capacities as a species are to
be tempered by greater wisdom and collective responsibility, we must learn
to sing together like a symphony.

The United Nations, after almost six decades, can take some pride in
the progress it has made to add more voices to that human symphony. Not
only have the number of Member States increased several-fold since 1945,
but the number of non-governmental organizations, including Indigenous
non-governmental organizations in United Nations consultative status with
the Economic and Social Council, has grown to more than 1700. Non-governmental
organizations, including those composed by Indigenous peoples, have gained
access to a wide variety of official meetings, and played an increasingly
direct role in decision making, most notably in the series of international
conferences beginning with the "Earth Summit" at Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

I am pleased to state that Indigenous peoples have played an important
part in this historic democratic transformation of the United Nations.
When it met for the first time in 1982, the United Nations Working Group
on Indigenous Populations became the first United Nations body to admit
grass-roots people and organizations, without regard to consultative status
with the Economic and Social Council. This open-door policy enriched our
work enormously. In addition to a number of Indigenous non-governmental
organizations, which have since gained accreditation with Economic and
Social Council, we have enjoyed the views and support of hundreds of smaller
regional, national and grass-roots level Indigenous organizations and
persons. Neither the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. nor the
technical conferences or workshops organized by the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights, have ever refused access to an Indigenous
organization on the basis of Government objections. I have always maintained
that access to the United Nations should be freely available to all organizations
that genuinely represent Indigenous peoples in all countries. I would
have liked to see other United Nations bodies to accord to Indigenous
Peoples the same openness and trust.

The political momentum of this degree of popular participation helped
propel our work into the forefront of United Nations work, in particular
in the field of human rights, and made it possible within just few years
to have an International Year launch, an International decade of the World's
Indigenous Peoples to complete the work of a draft United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and more important to contribute to
the establishment of a Permanent Forum.

Building upon the experience of the above-mentioned Working Group on
Indigenous Populations, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights with the approval of the sub-Commission on the Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights, the Commission on Human Rights and the
Economic and Social Council, has been convening seminars, and technical
meetings in the field of Indigenous rights, at which the representatives
of Indigenous peoples and governments are accorded equal status. The first
such seminar was the seminar organize at the United Nations, in Geneva,
on 16-20 January 1989, on "The Effects of Racism and Racial Discrimination
on the Social and Economic Relations between Indigenous Peoples and States,"
as a part of the Programme of Advisory Services on Human Rights. This
seminar has elected a governmental chairperson and an Indigenous person
as rapporteur, and adopted its report by consensus. This significant precedent
was reinforce by a 1991 seminar on Indigenous self-government , held in
Greenland, a 1992 technical conference on Indigenous peoples and sustainable
development in Chile and many others.

Mr. Chairperson,

Another important step in the growth of Indigenous people's participation
in the United Nations system's political institutions was taken in 1988-1989
during the drafting of the International Labor Organization's Convention
169/1989, concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries.
Procedural rules were bent so that Indigenous Non-governmental Organizations
could present their views at the beginning of drafting meetings. In addition,
there were a few Indigenous peoples in each of the three official voting
groups - Workers, Employers and Governments. All three of the voting delegates
from the United States were Indigenous, in fact. Moreover, the Workers
Group met each day with Indigenous NGO's, and asked them for directions
in voting. Although the ILO Convention did not, in the end, incorporate
all of the proposals made by Indigenous peoples, Indigenous representatives
were more directly involved in the negotiations than ever before.

I think the most eloquent symbol of Indigenous peoples' new and growing
role in international deliberations was the way they participated in launching
the International Year of the World's Indigenous People in December 1992.
Indigenous representatives from all five regions were invited to address
the United Nations General Assembly during the opening ceremony on the
10 December 1992. They spoke in the main Assembly hall at New York and
from the same podium from which the leaders of the international community
addressed it. This was an unprecedented recognition of the world's Indigenous
peoples unique status as distinct nations and peoples. While I would have
liked to see the General Assembly give more practical and concrete support
to the Year, as well as the International Decade of the world's Indigenous
Peoples, I will always carry in my heart the profound emotion of witnessing,
for the first time, the great defenders and spiritual leaders of the Fourth
World speaking from the same podium as other great nations leaders.

Indigenous peoples also organized their own distinct caucus during the
preparatory meetings for the Earth Summit, demanding recognition as equal
partners in global environmental management and protection. They successfully
demanded a special chapter of Agenda 21 and, in close collaboration with
Governments of Norway and New Zeeland, drafted most of the text of the
chapter in the form it was ultimately adopted. Once again, it was helpful
that several governments included Indigenous persons in their official
delegations. It was also important that other NGO groups, such as environmental
and women's NGOs recognized Indigenous peoples as distinct, and included
Indigenous peoples' recommendations in their own. I am pleased to state
that these pattern continued both at the World Conference on Human Rights
in Vienna in 1993, at Cairo for the International Conference on Population
and Development, in 1994.

Indeed, if there is anything to criticize in this, it is that the opportunities
for effective participation of Indigenous peoples in the United Nations
system have expanded much more rapidly than the resources available to
Indigenous peoples, to take advantage of these opportunities. More financial
support for Indigenous participation is critically needed at this stage,
as well as better communications between United Nations competent bodies
and the hundreds of Indigenous organizations we have already identified
in the course of the meetings of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

Mr Chairperson,

Strengthening the effectiveness of Indigenous peoples' voices at the
United Nations system should be a central mission of the International
Decade of the World's Indigenous People, and I have already proposed that
the final year of the aforesaid International Decade, which will be 2004,
be devoted to: "Indigenous Peoples participation in international decision-making
institutions". In this respect, the following four main reforms should
be implemented, as soon as possible, which I believe would also set important
precedents for the effective participation of other grassroots groups:

(a) the implementation of the recommendations adopted by the members
of the Permanent Forum and approved by ECOSOC, the creation of the Working
Group on Free and Prior Informed Consent and Participatory Research Guidelines.
This Working Group would be requested to broaden and deepen the dialogue
on prior informed consent by: (i) defining what prior informed consent
and Participatory Research Guidelines mean in substantive terms; (ii)
recommending criteria and guidelines for consideration when Indigenous
Peoples and others address issues of prior informed consent and Participatory
Research Guidelines to ensure that Indigenous Peoples and their communities
are fully informed , meaningfully participate in decision making and benefit
sharing processes and that their interests are protected;

(b) United Nations facilitation of networks for the exchange of information
and expertise among Indigenous peoples in different regions, an important
idea first introduced by the "Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro;

(c) Including Indigenous persons in national-level consultations and
technical reviews with the United Nations agencies, a measure that was
agreed in principle at a meeting of the United Nations operational agencies
and Indigenous Peoples , at New York already in 1992; and

(d) Active and systematic recruitment of Indigenous peoples into the
Secretariat of the United Nations system, and as experts at international
technical meetings, and conferences particularly in the fields of environment
and development. This was, among others, stressed in Indigenous peoples'
evaluation of the International Year. In my opinion the implementation
of these humble proposals will constitute a step towards greater equality
of governments and peoples.

(e) With this history in mind, and in the spirit of this important conference,
may I be so bold to suggest that in order for the United Nations to fulfill,
its historic mission of achieving respect and freedom for all nations
and peoples, large and small, it must enlist the broadest possible constituency
for its future activities. It cannot rest content with the support of
a majority of governments, but must mobilize the support of a majority
of people including in particular Indigenous peoples, of all regions of
the globe.

A more democratic United Nations, more accountable to communities and
people, is a force for more democratic nation-states, as well as a more
stable and equitable international economic and social system. The United
Nations at this new millennium should seek its strength in diversity,
genuine democracy, build on the participation of all the peoples in decision
making and on the respect of human rights and human values.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Professor Dr. Erica-Irene A. Daes