Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM)
Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM)
Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM)
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<strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong> (<strong>SOCHUM</strong>)<br />
World Model United Nations 2013<br />
Study Guide
Contact Us<br />
World Model united Nations 2013<br />
info@worldmun.org<br />
www.worldmun.org<br />
CONteNtS<br />
Letters<br />
Letter from the Secretary General<br />
Letter from the Under-Secretary General<br />
Letter from the Chair<br />
Introduction<br />
History of the <strong>Committee</strong><br />
04<br />
05<br />
06<br />
08<br />
08<br />
Topic Area A<br />
10 Statement of the Problem<br />
12 Causes of Language Endangerment<br />
17 Current Situation<br />
20 Should We Care About Language Endangerment?<br />
25 Possible Solutions<br />
27 Past International Action<br />
28 QARMA<br />
28 Key Actors <strong>and</strong> Positions<br />
29 Suggestions for Further Research<br />
30<br />
Topic Area B<br />
Statement of the Problem<br />
32 Causes of Minority Poverty<br />
40 Current Situation<br />
44 Possible Solutions<br />
45 Past International Action<br />
47 QARMA<br />
47 Key Actors <strong>and</strong> Positions<br />
48 Suggestions for Further Research<br />
49<br />
Conclusion<br />
Position Papers<br />
49 Closing Remarks<br />
50 Bibliography<br />
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Letters<br />
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Letter from the Secretary-General<br />
dear delegates,<br />
it is my pleasure <strong>and</strong> honor to welcome you to the 22nd session of World Model united<br />
Nations! My name is Charlene Wong, <strong>and</strong> i am the Secretary-General of WorldMuN 2013.<br />
Within this document you will find the study guide for your committee. The conference<br />
staff for WorldMUN 2013 has been working tirelessly over the past months to provide<br />
you with an unparalleled conference experience, beginning with this guide. Each Head<br />
Chair has researched extensively to provide you with a foundation for each committee’s<br />
topic areas.<br />
We encourage you to use this study guide as the starting point for your exploration of<br />
your committee’s topics, <strong>and</strong> your country or character’s policies. The WorldMUN Spirit<br />
invites you to step into the shoes of your country or character, <strong>and</strong> to immerse yourself in<br />
the committee by researching <strong>and</strong> developing a full underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the issues, perspectives,<br />
<strong>and</strong> possible solutions on the table. We offer several additional resources online,<br />
including our WorldMuN 101 Guide <strong>and</strong> Rules of Procedure, updated for this year. Both<br />
are available at www.worldmun.org. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to<br />
contact your Head Chair or Under-Secretary-General.<br />
WorldMUN believes that the impact of delegates over the four days of conference goes<br />
far beyond the walls of the committee room. Therefore we are pleased to announce that<br />
resolutions passed at the 2013 conference in this committee will be sent on to the relevant<br />
body in the United Nations.<br />
Please enjoy reading this study guide, <strong>and</strong> I look forward to meeting you in Melbourne<br />
in March!<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Charlene S. Wong<br />
Secretary-General<br />
World Model united Nations 2013<br />
secretarygeneral@worldmun.org<br />
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4
Letter from the Under-Secretary-General<br />
dear delegates,<br />
It is with the greatest pleasure that I welcome you to the General Assembly of the 22nd<br />
World Model United Nations. Over the last few months, we have been earnestly preparing<br />
for your rapidly approaching arrival in Melbourne. Your chairs have tirelessly labored<br />
to produce substantive material of the highest quality, which has <strong>and</strong>, I believe, will continue<br />
to distinguish the WorldMuN committee experience as foremost in the world for<br />
rich debate <strong>and</strong> fecund collaboration.<br />
I am overjoyed <strong>and</strong> humbled to be your Under-Secretary-General for this year’s GA, for it<br />
is certainly not one to be missed. For this session, the organ features a compelling mix<br />
of traditional GA mainstays as well as innovative committee experiences that our chairs<br />
have produced to tackle challenging world problems in novel ways. From endangered<br />
languages to urban crowding, a wide spectrum of committee topics has something to<br />
offer for every delegate, <strong>and</strong> our seven passionate chairs are excited to share their interests<br />
with you. These chairs have also dedicated themselves to creating a GA experience<br />
that transcends both the limitations <strong>and</strong> promises of the large committee sizes, pursuing<br />
a vision in which GA delegates enjoy all the fluid, intimate debate of smaller committees<br />
while gaining the caucusing potential <strong>and</strong> expansive representation of the GA.<br />
This study guide provides you with an excellent first step to prepare yourself for the first<br />
day of committee. the material here represents what your chair feels are the most important<br />
aspects of the topic areas <strong>and</strong> serves as both an introduction as well as a bridge<br />
to more in-depth research. If ever at a loss for where to start, always turn to the study<br />
guide first. Additionally, there are resources online at our website – including our World-<br />
MUN 101 guide <strong>and</strong> updated Rules of Procedure – to prepare you for committee.<br />
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or your chair. As a former<br />
WorldMUN chair, I know how much effort is invested into the committee experience by<br />
delegates <strong>and</strong> chairs alike, <strong>and</strong> we are all available to help make this conference the best<br />
WorldMuN yet!<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Scott yu<br />
under-Secretary-General of the General<br />
Assembly<br />
World Model united Nations 2013<br />
ga@worldmun.org<br />
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5
Letter from the Chair<br />
dear delegates,<br />
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> Affairs <strong>Committee</strong><br />
at World Model United Nations 2013! My name is Sam Pokross, <strong>and</strong> I am excited<br />
to serve as your chair for the week that you will spend in Melbourne next March. This<br />
conference will be my second WorldMUN <strong>and</strong> my first trip to Australia, <strong>and</strong> I am looking<br />
forward to sharing my experience with all of you on this committee!<br />
I am a senior at Harvard, concentrating in Linguistics with a focus on the psychological<br />
aspects of language cognition. Originally from Newton, Massachusetts, i went to high<br />
school in Cambridge, right down the street from Harvard. I participated as a delegate at<br />
Model UN conferences in high school, but, since coming to college, I have focused my<br />
time <strong>and</strong> energy on being a staffer. By the time we all arrive in Melbourne in March, I will<br />
have staffed thirteen conferences both on the substantive <strong>and</strong> the executive side, including<br />
as the Director-General for Harvard National Model United Nations 2013. Overall,<br />
WorldMUN 2013 will be my 22nd <strong>and</strong> final Model UN conference. Outside of Model UN, I<br />
conduct research on language development in a psychology laboratory <strong>and</strong> participate<br />
in the International Relations Council, the umbrella organization for IR-related groups on<br />
campus. When I am not doing work for my classes or for my extracurricular activities, I<br />
enjoy watching mind-numbing reality TV, eating delicious food, <strong>and</strong> going for long walks<br />
along the Charles River.<br />
I chose to chair <strong>SOCHUM</strong> for WorldMUN 2013 because I think that the issues that fall<br />
under the committee’s m<strong>and</strong>ate are those for which the United Nations can have the<br />
greatest impact. While it is difficult to solve complicated geopolitical problems, you, as<br />
representatives of the nations of the world, can work together to draft a plan to improve<br />
the quality of life of a certain population segment or to protect the world’s cultural heritage.<br />
The two topics up for debate are the fate of dying languages <strong>and</strong> the role of ethnic<br />
minorities in development. The first topic concerns a key facet of the protection of cultural<br />
heritage. With about half of the world’s languages spoken by fewer than 3,000 people,<br />
there is substantial risk that these languages will go extinct in the 21st century, taking with<br />
them a significant part of the cultures associated with their respective language groups.<br />
The second topic addresses a serious problem facing the rapidly developing countries of<br />
Asia <strong>and</strong> Africa. As citizens of the majority ethnic group gain more wealth, members of<br />
indigenous minorities are often left behind, without access to the same infrastructural<br />
improvements, governmental services, or educational <strong>and</strong> employment opportunities.<br />
Both of these topics call for innovative <strong>and</strong> thorough solutions, <strong>and</strong> I am confident that<br />
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6
Letter from the Chair<br />
you will be able to work together to develop an effective plan during the four days of<br />
debate.<br />
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about these topics areas<br />
or Model UN in general. I hope you enjoy learning about these topics, <strong>and</strong> I look forward<br />
to seeing you in Melbourne!<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Sam Pokross<br />
Chair, <strong>SOCHUM</strong><br />
World Model united Nations 2013<br />
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7
Introduction<br />
The <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong><br />
(<strong>SOCHUM</strong>) is one of the most important <strong>and</strong><br />
contentious bodies within the United Nations. One<br />
of the founding missions of the united Nations<br />
is the universal protection of human rights, <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>SOCHUM</strong> is the committee of the General Assembly<br />
where discussions of human rights issues take<br />
place. <strong>SOCHUM</strong>’s m<strong>and</strong>ate also covers a number<br />
of other social, humanitarian, <strong>and</strong> cultural topics<br />
from discrimination to drug control. the range of<br />
problems debated in the <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong> ensures conflict between UN<br />
member nations, but the success of the body has<br />
been in bridging these differences to solve some of<br />
the world’s greatest challenges.<br />
The topics that I have chosen for <strong>SOCHUM</strong> to discuss<br />
at WorldMUN 2013 cover two of the fundamental<br />
tasks of the body. The fate of endangered languages<br />
will force member nations to confront a pressing<br />
issue of intangible cultural heritage. Although<br />
over six thous<strong>and</strong> languages are currently spoken<br />
across the globe, this number is rapidly dwindling,<br />
as colonization, economic pressures, state policies,<br />
<strong>and</strong> discrimination force minority groups to ab<strong>and</strong>on<br />
their mother tongues in favor of languages of<br />
dominant ethnic majorities. The committee will have<br />
to develop methods for documenting endangered<br />
languages before they die <strong>and</strong> plans for ensuring<br />
that minority language speakers can have full access<br />
to public services, education, <strong>and</strong> employment<br />
without switching to a dominant language. the<br />
impoverishment of indigenous populations touches<br />
on the universal right to economic development.<br />
Millions of indigenous peoples live in acute poverty<br />
because of trade liberalization, a disregard of their<br />
l<strong>and</strong> rights, <strong>and</strong> a lack of civic participation, <strong>and</strong> their<br />
dire economic situation has stunted further progress<br />
towards many of the Millennium Development<br />
Goals. While the international legal precedent for<br />
helping indigenous peoples escape poverty exists,<br />
it is up to the committee to institute proposals for<br />
the implementation of developmental measures for<br />
indigenous groups. Both of these topics will force<br />
the committee to come up with creative solutions to<br />
some of the world’s most pressing problems.<br />
History of the <strong>Committee</strong><br />
The <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong><br />
is the third of six main committees of the united<br />
Nations General Assembly. Created at the first<br />
session of the General Assembly in 1946, it consists of<br />
representatives from all 193 UN member nations, with<br />
each country receiving one vote on all procedural<br />
<strong>and</strong> substantive matters. As a main committee<br />
of the General Assembly, <strong>SOCHUM</strong> is responsible<br />
for passing resolutions with recommendations on<br />
a number of important social, humanitarian, <strong>and</strong><br />
cultural problems. Of all of the General Assembly<br />
committees, which include disarmament <strong>and</strong><br />
International Security, Legal, <strong>and</strong> Administrative<br />
<strong>and</strong> Budgetary, <strong>SOCHUM</strong> has perhaps the widest<br />
range of topics under its m<strong>and</strong>ate. the committee<br />
is responsible for all debate within the General<br />
Assembly on human rights, <strong>and</strong> more than half of the<br />
draft resolutions that it considers during each session<br />
fall under this agenda item. Additionally, SCOHUM<br />
discusses a number of other issues, including “the<br />
advancement of women, the protection of children,<br />
indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the<br />
promotion of fundamental freedoms through the<br />
elimination of racism <strong>and</strong> racial discrimination, <strong>and</strong><br />
the right to self- determination,” as well as “important<br />
social development questions such as issues related<br />
to youth, family, ageing, persons with disabilities,<br />
crime prevention, criminal justice, <strong>and</strong> international<br />
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8
drug control.” 1 Each session, the <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong> considers about sixty draft<br />
resolutions on these different topics <strong>and</strong> makes its<br />
recommendations through a vote of the majority of<br />
the UN membership.<br />
during the past sixty-six years, the <strong>Social</strong>,<br />
<strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong> has seen<br />
more colorful debate than perhaps any other body<br />
of the General Assembly because of the nature of<br />
the topics that it discusses. Member nations have<br />
hurled accusations of human rights violations across<br />
the floor of the chamber of the UN Headquarters in<br />
New York, <strong>and</strong> there has been genuine ideological<br />
differences among them on many of the most pressing<br />
humanitarian crises of our time. 2 3 <strong>SOCHUM</strong> has also<br />
seen a clear manifestation of the rising influence of<br />
developing countries in the United Nations; as their<br />
membership has increased significantly since 1960,<br />
<strong>SOCHUM</strong> has focused less on issues of individual<br />
rights, a path favored by Western nations, <strong>and</strong> more<br />
on group rights, an area of concern for the third<br />
World. 4 Despite the conflicts that have arisen in the<br />
committee, <strong>SOCHUM</strong> has been the site of a number<br />
of triumphs for the united Nations system. Because<br />
of its emphasis on women’s rights, it has always had<br />
more female delegates than any other committee. 5 it<br />
has also drafted some of the important resolutions<br />
in the history of the united Nations, including the<br />
International Covenant on Economic, <strong>Social</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>Cultural</strong> Rights <strong>and</strong> the International Covenant on<br />
Civil <strong>and</strong> Political Rights, the two of which took over<br />
ten years to write. 6<br />
Because so much of its work falls under the<br />
m<strong>and</strong>ate of other main committees <strong>and</strong> united<br />
Nations organizations, the <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong> has sometimes been considered<br />
to be the “problem child” of the General Assembly. 7<br />
On the other h<strong>and</strong>, one can consider this to be one<br />
of the greatest strengths of the committee. <strong>SOCHUM</strong><br />
is forced to work closely with other bodies within<br />
the united Nations system, which forces greater<br />
underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> compromise. Additionally, the<br />
topics that fall under the m<strong>and</strong>ate of <strong>SOCHUM</strong><br />
do have a unifying theme, as these are the issues<br />
The <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong> was created at the first session of the General Assembly in 1946.<br />
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9
that the General Assembly can actually attempt to<br />
solve. Complex economic <strong>and</strong> financial issues are<br />
beyond the control of such an organization, <strong>and</strong> two<br />
sovereign nations in conflict are unlikely to come to<br />
peace because of a General Assembly reprim<strong>and</strong>.<br />
<strong>Social</strong>, humanitarian <strong>and</strong> cultural issues, however,<br />
require the unification of interests that cross borders<br />
<strong>and</strong> the implementation of solutions by all the nations<br />
of the world. it is with this optimism that the <strong>Social</strong>,<br />
<strong>Humanitarian</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Committee</strong> tackles two<br />
pressing problems: the fate of endangered languages<br />
<strong>and</strong> the impoverishment of indigenous populations.<br />
Topic Area A<br />
Statement of the Problem<br />
At first, the fate of endangered languages may<br />
appear to be a less pressing <strong>and</strong> critical issue than<br />
many of the others that the united Nations faces<br />
today. With the threat of a nuclear war hanging over<br />
the daily negotiations of the world’s leaders <strong>and</strong><br />
countless families living in destitution, why would<br />
the United Nations take the time to discuss an issue<br />
of such seemingly little importance? upon further<br />
analysis, however, language endangerment is about<br />
more than just the future of linguistic diversity. The<br />
problem of language endangerment is intrinsically<br />
connected to debates over intangible cultural<br />
heritage, individual <strong>and</strong> communal identity, economic<br />
opportunity, <strong>and</strong> minority rights, which are all subjects<br />
deemed important by the international community. It<br />
is with these broader issues in mind that we consider<br />
the fate of endangered languages as a question for<br />
the international community to solve.<br />
Having begun on an international scale only twenty<br />
years ago, the study of endangered languages is so<br />
young that there is no agreement on the terminology<br />
to be used when discussing this topic. The simplest<br />
distinctions divide languages into three categories:<br />
safe or viable, those with a healthy number of<br />
speakers <strong>and</strong> a high likelihood of maintaining this level<br />
in the next century; endangered, those with a smaller<br />
number of speakers <strong>and</strong> a significant chance of losing<br />
all of their speakers in the next century; <strong>and</strong> extinct,<br />
those with no remaining speakers. An additional<br />
term that is often employed in the literature of the<br />
topic is moribund, which refers to languages that<br />
still have older speakers but are no longer learned as<br />
the mother tongue by children. Some linguists <strong>and</strong><br />
anthropologists divide the category of endangered<br />
languages into subcategories based on how extreme<br />
the risk of extinction is, ranging from languages that<br />
still have robust numbers of speakers to those with<br />
only a few elderly speakers remaining. 8<br />
While the number of speakers is the most obvious<br />
signal of the status of a specific language, there is no<br />
set definition of how few speakers a language must<br />
have in order to be considered endangered. The same<br />
number of speakers may correlate to a safe language<br />
in one location <strong>and</strong> an endangered language in<br />
another. in most places, for example, a language<br />
with five hundred speakers would be on the verge<br />
of extinction; on the Pacific isl<strong>and</strong>s, however, there<br />
are a number of languages that are thriving with five<br />
hundred speakers. 9 thus, the percentage of the local<br />
population that speaks the language in question is<br />
an important factor for determining endangerment.<br />
this example shows that the percentage of the local<br />
population that speaks the language is an important<br />
factor. If the speakers make up a small part of the<br />
population, the language is likely in decline, but<br />
a language that makes up the majority of a small<br />
community may be secure. 10 Conversely, a large<br />
number of speakers does not make a language<br />
immune from endangerment, especially if there are<br />
political factors working against the language, like<br />
the institution of a dominant official language or<br />
languages. Lombard, a language spoken in the north<br />
of Italy, for example, has over three million speakers<br />
10<br />
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The regions shown on this map are language hotspots <strong>and</strong> are especially susceptible to language endangerment.<br />
but is considered “definitely endangered,” while<br />
Picard, a language in southern France with 700,000<br />
speakers, is on the list of “severely endangered”<br />
languages. 11<br />
Regardless of the terminology <strong>and</strong> definition, most<br />
endangered languages have a number of similar<br />
features. They generally, though not always, have a<br />
small number of speakers, who constitute a minority<br />
of the population in the region in which the language<br />
is located. The speakers are usually older, <strong>and</strong> some<br />
do not have full competence in the language. One<br />
of the major hallmarks of an endangered language is<br />
lack of transgenerational transmission, which means<br />
that children are not acquiring or using the language.<br />
This situation is worsened by the fact that, because<br />
many members of the community do not speak<br />
the language, <strong>and</strong> the national government of its<br />
respective country does not recognize it, a dominant<br />
language monopolizes public life, including the legal<br />
system, governmental administration, <strong>and</strong> education.<br />
Endangered languages are also defined by the<br />
attitudes that speakers <strong>and</strong> nonspeakers have toward<br />
them. Nonspeakers perceive endangered languages<br />
to be low-prestige dialects while some speakers<br />
of an endangered language often view it, <strong>and</strong> even<br />
their culture, as inferior to the one of the dominant<br />
language <strong>and</strong> culture of the population. Finally, most<br />
endangered languages have little documentation <strong>and</strong><br />
few written records. 12<br />
these signs of language endangerment form the<br />
basis of attempts to classify languages using the<br />
terms listed above. To date, the most st<strong>and</strong>ard criteria<br />
published for determining language endangerment<br />
was created in 2003 by a United Nations Educational,<br />
Scientific <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> Organization Ad-hoc expert<br />
group on the subject. The eight main factors that they<br />
proposed for classifying languages are as follows: (1)<br />
transgenerational transmission, (2) absolute number<br />
of speakers, (3) proportion of speakers within<br />
the total population, (4) loss of existing language<br />
domains, (5) response to new domains <strong>and</strong> media,<br />
(6) material for language education <strong>and</strong> literacy, (7)<br />
governmental <strong>and</strong> institutional language attitudes<br />
<strong>and</strong> policies, including official language status <strong>and</strong><br />
use, <strong>and</strong> (8) community members’ attitudes toward<br />
their own language. the existence of documentation<br />
is another factor that determines how urgently<br />
preservation efforts are needed. 13<br />
Despite the body of literature on the statuses<br />
of specific languages, the problem of language<br />
11<br />
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This figure shows how many different factors go into determining the vitality of a language.<br />
endangerment is proceeding at an unprecedented<br />
rate. Globalization, urbanization, <strong>and</strong> nationalism<br />
are forcing indigenous peoples to ab<strong>and</strong>on their<br />
mother tongue in favor of a dominant language, <strong>and</strong><br />
these ab<strong>and</strong>oned languages are disappearing at a<br />
rapid pace. As we shall see below, estimates vary as<br />
to the extent of the problem, but it is possible that<br />
more than half of the languages spoken across the<br />
world today will be extinct by 2100 if the international<br />
community does not act now. The loss of over 3,000<br />
languages will have a crippling effect on a number of<br />
academic disciplines, including anthropology, history,<br />
<strong>and</strong> literature, as well as on the preservation of<br />
local knowledge <strong>and</strong> the proliferation of indigenous<br />
cultures. The problem of endangered languages<br />
therefore far surpasses issues of linguistics <strong>and</strong><br />
requires an international solution to prevent this<br />
devastating loss to humanity.<br />
Causes of Language Endangerment<br />
the causes of language endangerment are as<br />
diverse <strong>and</strong> varied as the endangered languages<br />
themselves <strong>and</strong> encompass a range of political,<br />
economic, <strong>and</strong> psychological factors. in some<br />
situations, determining why a language is losing<br />
speakers is easy; in others, the causes may be more<br />
subtle <strong>and</strong> gradual. Usually, a number of different<br />
factors interact to lead to the endangerment of a<br />
specific language.<br />
Historical Factors<br />
Before the 20th century, the most prominent<br />
cause of language endangerment <strong>and</strong> death was the<br />
elimination of the entire population of speakers. The<br />
elimination of a population could occur through an<br />
invasion by another population speaking a different<br />
language or through natural disasters. 14 european<br />
colonization, for example, has had a major impact<br />
on the diversity of languages in the rest of the world<br />
through the spread of dominant european languages<br />
such as English, French, <strong>and</strong> Spanish. These languages<br />
serve as lingua francas, or common languages,<br />
between individuals who otherwise could not<br />
communicate, but, in the process, the development<br />
of international lingua franca has led speakers to<br />
ab<strong>and</strong>on their indigenous languages. Before the<br />
Spanish arrival in Latin America, for example, the two<br />
12<br />
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most widely spoken languages were Nahuatl of the<br />
Aztec Empire <strong>and</strong> Quechua of the Inca Empire, <strong>and</strong><br />
small communities employed thous<strong>and</strong>s of other<br />
unique languages; over the course of two centuries<br />
following the Spanish colonization, many of these<br />
smaller languages became extinct, <strong>and</strong> the number<br />
<strong>and</strong> prestige of Nahuatl <strong>and</strong> Quechua speakers<br />
dropped significantly. 15 Originally, the Spanish<br />
conquerors used Nahuatl or Quechua as a lingua<br />
franca only for their colonial administration <strong>and</strong><br />
missionary work, but as more Spanish settlers came<br />
to Latin America, Spanish gradually replaced these<br />
indigenous languages in most public domains. 16<br />
Invasion <strong>and</strong> colonization are often quickly<br />
followed by the spread of disease, which can have<br />
a deadly effect on a population <strong>and</strong> its languages.<br />
Approximately 90% of the indigenous population<br />
of the Americas died because of diseases that the<br />
Europeans brought with them, most significantly<br />
smallpox; the death of the vast majority of the<br />
indigenous population was accompanied by a<br />
drastic drop in the speakers of all of the native<br />
languages <strong>and</strong> the disappearance of many language<br />
communities. 17 While no longer accompanied by<br />
colonization, the spread of disease remains a major<br />
threat to the existence of many minority languages<br />
today. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, for example,<br />
disproportionately affects minority populations,<br />
many of whom have their own languages. In Nigeria,<br />
many of the smallest of the 470 languages have seen<br />
a drop in the number of speakers in the past thirty<br />
years because of deaths related to the HIV virus. 18<br />
types of natural disasters that can lead to<br />
language endangerment <strong>and</strong> death include those<br />
that kill speakers <strong>and</strong> force a population to relocate<br />
such as earthquakes, tsunamis, <strong>and</strong> famine. The<br />
Irish potato famine of the 1840s caused the death or<br />
emigration of about one-quarter of the population,<br />
the majority of which came from rural areas where<br />
Irish was more commonly spoken. A similar situation<br />
may be occurring in Sudan today, where the ongoing<br />
famine is threatening the population of about fifteen<br />
languages that have fewer than one thous<strong>and</strong><br />
speakers. 19 On 17 July 1998, an earthquake in the<br />
mountains of Papua New Guinea, a country known<br />
throughout the linguistic community for its bounty of<br />
indigenous languages, killed over 2,200 rural villagers<br />
<strong>and</strong> displaced more than ten thous<strong>and</strong>. These victims<br />
came primarily from four small language communities,<br />
<strong>and</strong> as they have relocated to other locations, these<br />
languages have undergone a drastic reduction in<br />
the number of speakers. 20 As evident from these<br />
examples, the effects of natural disasters on language<br />
endangerment are closely related to other factors<br />
like urbanization <strong>and</strong> economic opportunity, further<br />
discussed below.<br />
Finally, the spread of religion has also been a<br />
factor that has historically led to the extinction or<br />
endangerment of certain languages. the spread of<br />
islam throughout the Middle east <strong>and</strong> North Africa,<br />
for example, replaced a number of ancient languages,<br />
like Aramaic, Coptic, <strong>and</strong> Berber with Arabic, which<br />
remains the predominant language across the region.<br />
While the invasion <strong>and</strong> colonization of Muslim raiders<br />
contributed to this phenomenon, the spread of Arabic<br />
was accomplished primarily through the conversion<br />
of local populations to islam. 21 the endangerment of<br />
languages via the spread of religion also occurred in<br />
many european colonies, where, after gaining their<br />
first converts through the indigenous languages,<br />
missionaries proceeded to convince the native<br />
populations to switch to the european language that<br />
they felt was better suited for the study of Western<br />
religion.<br />
Modern Factors<br />
A major cause of language endangerment in modern<br />
times is an attitude among most states favoring the<br />
use of one or a small number of official languages. This<br />
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attitude is most prominent in education, where the<br />
dominant language is often used exclusively from the<br />
primary level onward.<br />
In some cases, even<br />
though many minority<br />
children have not had<br />
the opportunity to<br />
learn the dominant<br />
language before they<br />
enter the education<br />
system, they are<br />
punished when they<br />
use their indigenous<br />
language. 22 in Africa, for<br />
example, all secondary<br />
education is conducted<br />
in a european language<br />
such as English, French,<br />
or Portuguese, <strong>and</strong><br />
none of the languages<br />
that are native to the<br />
continent are used at all;<br />
only a small percentage<br />
of these languages are<br />
even used in primary<br />
education. 23 Historically, the birth of state policies against<br />
the use indigenous languages paralleled the rise<br />
of nationalism <strong>and</strong><br />
the formation of the<br />
concept of the nation<br />
state. in general, the<br />
empires that dominated<br />
Europe before the<br />
19<br />
in such<br />
countries, other<br />
public services, like<br />
the justice system <strong>and</strong><br />
employment programs,<br />
are also conducted in<br />
the dominant language<br />
or the language of the<br />
relevant European<br />
colonizer, <strong>and</strong> speakers<br />
of small, indigenous<br />
languages do not have the ability to navigate the<br />
maze of government bureaucracy to gain access to<br />
these opportunities.<br />
th century tolerated<br />
minority languages; the<br />
Ottoman empire was<br />
especially accepting<br />
of smaller languages<br />
<strong>and</strong> allowed local<br />
administration <strong>and</strong><br />
education to operate<br />
in those languages. 24<br />
The mid-19th century,<br />
Many African countries have European languages as the official or one however, saw the<br />
of the official languages.<br />
birth of the nation<br />
state, the idea that a<br />
government derived<br />
legitimacy by ruling<br />
over a unitary ethnic or<br />
cultural group. in order<br />
to claim legitimacy<br />
under this definition,<br />
many governments<br />
began to impose the<br />
dominant population’s<br />
language on the<br />
minority population.<br />
the fact that there<br />
were minority linguistic<br />
As people move from rural areas to cities, more languages will become<br />
groups in the first<br />
endangered <strong>and</strong> eventually extinct.<br />
place suggests that<br />
the concept of a nation state has always been more<br />
theoretical than pragmatic, but in order to maintain<br />
the myth of the nation state, governments had to<br />
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drive minority languages into the private sphere<br />
<strong>and</strong> insist on the use of the majority language in<br />
administration, education, <strong>and</strong> commerce. this logic<br />
has led to the drastic reduction of living languages<br />
in Europe, where most countries currently have one<br />
dominant language that every resident is expected to<br />
know. 25 In France, for example, there were a number<br />
of independent communities that had their own<br />
language before the French Revolution, including the<br />
Bretons, Alsatians, <strong>and</strong> the Occitanians. in order to<br />
unify France under their control, the revolutionaries<br />
instituted French, which was the language of highest<br />
prestige at the time, as the official language of the<br />
state. Since 1800, the numbers of speakers of Breton,<br />
Alsatian, <strong>and</strong> Occitan have dropped precipitously,<br />
such that Breton <strong>and</strong> Occitan are considered to be<br />
severely endangered languages today. 26 in defense<br />
of the idea of a unifying language for a successful<br />
state, many point to Canada, india, <strong>and</strong> Belgium as<br />
countries where linguistic <strong>and</strong> ethnic conflicts have<br />
arisen after multiple language communities were<br />
allowed to exist. 27<br />
interestingly, it is not only the attitude of states<br />
against minority languages that leads to language<br />
endangerment, but also the self-perception of many<br />
minority language speakers that their language is<br />
inferior in some way. A good example of this negative<br />
self-perception can be found among the speakers of<br />
Haida <strong>and</strong> Tlingit in Southeast Alaska in the United<br />
States. Many Haidi <strong>and</strong> Tlingit speakers believe that<br />
God does not like their languages, an idea that was<br />
perpetuated by church officials during the conversion<br />
of the native population of the region. While churches<br />
generally do not encourage this belief today, Christian<br />
missionaries have spread the idea that God does<br />
not like many indigenous languages throughout the<br />
world, <strong>and</strong> this view still remains in many areas. 28<br />
Speakers of Haida <strong>and</strong> Tlingit also express shame <strong>and</strong><br />
embarrassment toward their own languages. Older<br />
speakers often recall memories of being punished<br />
in school for using their indigenous language <strong>and</strong><br />
thus do not encourage the younger generations to<br />
learn <strong>and</strong> utilize the language. Many believe that<br />
they are backwards or undeveloped for speaking an<br />
indigenous language. 29 This negative perception of<br />
their own language is often encouraged by the fact<br />
that many of these languages lack an established<br />
written literature, which makes them seem inferior<br />
to the dominant language. 30 Many parents also<br />
think that the differences between their indigenous<br />
languages <strong>and</strong> English prohibit a child from learning<br />
both languages successfully, so they do not pass<br />
Haida or Tlingit to their children <strong>and</strong> do not support<br />
programs to protect these endangered languages. 31<br />
This negative self-perception that many endangered<br />
language speakers have toward their mother tongue<br />
emerges ultimately from the attitudes of the state<br />
<strong>and</strong> dominant language speakers. 32 Dressler provides<br />
a model for linguistic endangerment that effectively<br />
exemplifies the connection between state <strong>and</strong> majority<br />
language attitudes <strong>and</strong> such negative self-perception.<br />
According to his model, minority language speakers<br />
undergo social subordination by dominant language<br />
speakers through restricted access to education,<br />
public services, <strong>and</strong> employment. This subordination<br />
leads minority language speakers to internalize the<br />
stigmatization of their language <strong>and</strong> to develop a<br />
negative perception of their mother tongue. Because<br />
of this negative self-perception, speakers of minority<br />
languages often restrict the use of their language to a<br />
small set of domains, usually in the private sphere. This<br />
restriction leads to endangerment as speakers begin<br />
to ab<strong>and</strong>on the language. Finally, the fact that their<br />
language is endangered reinforces the community’s<br />
negative self-perception, making the model cyclic. 33<br />
in addition to the myth of the nation state,<br />
certain other commonly held beliefs contribute to<br />
state policies against minority languages <strong>and</strong> to the<br />
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negative perception that many endangered language<br />
speakers have with regard to their language. The<br />
first is the idea of a linguistic survival of the fittest,<br />
or a “<strong>Social</strong> Darwinism of language” as Dorian calls<br />
it. Some people believe that, as with the natural<br />
world, languages that are more suitable for high<br />
levels of thinking <strong>and</strong> expression will eventually take<br />
over weaker languages; most of the languages that<br />
are considered to be the “fittest” are the dominant<br />
European languages like English, Spanish, <strong>and</strong> French.<br />
This theory is doubtable for a number of reasons.<br />
First, unlike animals in nature, which must occupy<br />
separate habitats to some extent, multiple languages<br />
can coexist in one, multilingual speaker. Secondly,<br />
the language most commonly cited as the “fittest,”<br />
English, is very difficult to learn as a second language<br />
due to its irregularities, so it is hard to argue that it<br />
is the best language for clear expression; similarly,<br />
M<strong>and</strong>arin Chinese, the language with the most native<br />
speakers, is also very difficult to learn. Finally, the<br />
powerful languages of many great civilizations, like<br />
Ancient Greek <strong>and</strong> Sumerian, have died out, showing<br />
that the “fittest” languages do not always survive. 34<br />
While it is clear that the theory of the survival of the<br />
fittest does not apply to language, it is nonetheless<br />
a commonly held view that discourages individuals,<br />
communities, <strong>and</strong> governments from attempting to<br />
save endangered languages.<br />
A second common belief that encourages<br />
language endangerment is the idea that bilingualism<br />
is an unhealthy situation for a speaker. Some contend<br />
that it is only possible to have full comm<strong>and</strong> of one<br />
language <strong>and</strong> that bilinguals cannot truly speak either<br />
language. in order to learn a politically or economically<br />
dominant language, according to this belief, a speaker<br />
must give up his or her mother tongue. 35 Numerous<br />
studies have proven that multilingualism actually<br />
grants cognitive benefits to speakers, who have<br />
stronger cognitive functioning <strong>and</strong> resist the mental<br />
effects of aging more easily. This negative perception<br />
of bilingualism, however, still remains strong in some<br />
parts of the world. 36 On the one h<strong>and</strong>, this false belief<br />
encourages speakers of minority languages to stop<br />
speaking their first language <strong>and</strong> to avoid teaching it<br />
to their children in the hopes that they can achieve<br />
full comm<strong>and</strong> of the dominant language. On the other<br />
h<strong>and</strong>, it also prevents state policy from attempting to<br />
protect minority languages from endangerment or<br />
extinction in the process of teaching the dominant<br />
language.<br />
The most significant cause of language<br />
endangerment today, <strong>and</strong> the cause with the most<br />
modern factors, is the cultural assimilation <strong>and</strong><br />
linguistic dominance that accompanies urbanization<br />
<strong>and</strong> globalization. The past century has seen an<br />
unprecedented shift in the global population away<br />
from rural villages to urban centers. In these cities, a<br />
lingua franca is necessary for communication across<br />
tribal, ethnic, <strong>and</strong> linguistic groups, <strong>and</strong> this language<br />
is almost exclusively the dominant majority language.<br />
Urbanization thus leads to language endangerment<br />
in two ways: the decline in the number of speakers<br />
in the original communities <strong>and</strong> the ab<strong>and</strong>onment of<br />
the indigenous language upon relocation to cities. 37<br />
The phenomenon of the loss of native traditions,<br />
including language, through urbanization is referred<br />
to as cultural dislocation. 38 The effects of urbanization<br />
are closely related to those of industrialization as well;<br />
the mass labor in the factories that employ many of<br />
the new residents of these cities must communicate<br />
using one language, which usually ends up being the<br />
language of the majority population <strong>and</strong> of the elite. 39<br />
Globalization has had an effect on minority<br />
languages similar to that of urbanization, as the<br />
two phenomena are very closely related. Today, the<br />
growth of multinational companies <strong>and</strong> the necessity<br />
of communicating across borders in virtually all fields<br />
have ensured that opportunities for socioeconomic<br />
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improvement are available exclusively in dominant<br />
languages. 40 today, the most dominant language<br />
across the world is English, but Spanish, French,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Portuguese are also languages that have<br />
provided employment for indigenous populations.<br />
in the process of learning a dominant language as<br />
a method of socioeconomic improvement, many<br />
minorities stop speaking their indigenous language<br />
either through disuse or active ab<strong>and</strong>onment, a<br />
phenomenon called social dislocation. 41 Often,<br />
the economic effects of globalization on minority<br />
languages are tied closely to other causes of language<br />
endangerment. Because most African countries offer<br />
no education in indigenous languages, for example,<br />
minority populations must start using the dominant<br />
language if they wish to attend secondary school or<br />
university <strong>and</strong> hold a well-paying job. The dislocation<br />
of a population because of a natural disaster can also<br />
lead to the ab<strong>and</strong>onment of indigenous languages<br />
<strong>and</strong> their subsequent endangerment, as the<br />
speakers often must utilize a different language to<br />
find employment in their new home. 42 Additionally,<br />
globalization can also lead to language endangerment<br />
through exposure to advertising, newspapers, <strong>and</strong><br />
television in the dominant language of the state.<br />
Many indigenous languages lack their own media, so<br />
speakers of these languages are consistently exposed<br />
to information in the dominant language via radio,<br />
television, <strong>and</strong> newspapers, which can contribute to<br />
the disuse of the mother tongue <strong>and</strong> the adoption of<br />
the dominant language. 43<br />
As is obvious in their descriptions, the causes of<br />
language endangerment are by no means mutually<br />
exclusive; in fact, they almost always interact to reduce<br />
the number of speakers of an indigenous language<br />
<strong>and</strong> eventually eliminate the language altogether.<br />
An official policy against an indigenous language, for<br />
example, may reduce the economic opportunities<br />
available in that language, which encourages speakers<br />
to ab<strong>and</strong>on their mother tongue for the dominant<br />
language. Alternatively, the idea that bilingualism is<br />
unhealthy may lead to negative self-perception by<br />
speakers of both a dominant <strong>and</strong> a minority language<br />
<strong>and</strong> cause them to pass only the dominant language<br />
onto their children. Thus, when evaluating an instance<br />
of language endangerment, it is vital to examine all<br />
of the factors, political, economic, <strong>and</strong> psychological,<br />
that have led to the decay of a specific language.<br />
Current Situation<br />
Given the numerous causes for language<br />
endangerment outlined above, it is not surprising<br />
that more languages are nearing extinction than ever<br />
before. There are a number of ways to quantify the<br />
issue of language endangerment, <strong>and</strong> each method<br />
reveals an additional aspect of the problem.<br />
The first way to quantify language endangerment<br />
is by examining the number of speakers of both the<br />
dominant languages that are driving indigenous<br />
languages toward extinction <strong>and</strong> the indigenous<br />
languages themselves. Fortunately, the Summer<br />
Institute of Linguistics (SIL) has been publishing a<br />
book of statistics on language since 1951 entitled<br />
Ethnologue: Languages of the World. According<br />
to an analysis of the Ethnologue by David Crystal<br />
about ten years ago, eight languages (M<strong>and</strong>arin<br />
Chinese, Spanish, English, Bengali, Hindi, Portuguese,<br />
Russian, <strong>and</strong> Japanese) each have over 100 million<br />
speakers <strong>and</strong> together have nearly 2.4 billion. With<br />
the next twelve on the Ethnologue’s list, the top<br />
twenty languages encompass half of the world’s<br />
population. 44 As Crystal’s analysis was completed<br />
with data from 1999, these figures are even higher<br />
today. the Ethnologue’s 2009 edition reveals that<br />
over 94% of the world’s population speaks 5.6% of the<br />
world’s languages, those with more than one million<br />
speakers. 45 These figures show just how widespread<br />
the international dominant languages have become.<br />
Conversely, the distribution of indigenous<br />
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languages is equally as problematic for the issue of<br />
language endangerment. Over one-quarter of the<br />
world’s languages have fewer than one thous<strong>and</strong><br />
speakers, <strong>and</strong> just over half have fewer than ten<br />
thous<strong>and</strong> speakers, a level that puts them at an<br />
increased risk for extinction. 46 Crystal’s analysis of<br />
the Ethnologue finds over fifty languages with just<br />
one speaker, which, since language is by definition a<br />
communicative tool between people, are effectively<br />
dead already. In combination, the prevalence of<br />
dominant languages <strong>and</strong> the small number of<br />
indigenous languages explain the magnitude of the<br />
problem of language endangerment today.<br />
Another way to look at the competition between<br />
dominant <strong>and</strong> indigenous languages is to investigate<br />
which languages receive official recognition from<br />
states, as the lack of official recognition is a leading<br />
cause of language endangerment. Given the number<br />
of states <strong>and</strong> the number of languages, each state<br />
would need to recognize an average of thirty-two<br />
unique languages in order for all of the languages<br />
of the word to receive official status somewhere.<br />
The actual figures, however, fall well below this. The<br />
majority of states worldwide are unilingual, <strong>and</strong> no<br />
state comes close to this thirty-two-language mark;<br />
the countries with the most official languages are<br />
India, with twenty-two, <strong>and</strong> South Africa with eleven.<br />
Compounding the problem is that the dominant<br />
international languages are officially recognized in<br />
multiple states, increasing the number of indigenous<br />
languages without any recognition even further.<br />
English, for example, has official status in fortyfive<br />
countries, French in thirty, <strong>and</strong> Spanish <strong>and</strong><br />
Arabic both in twenty; overall, these dominant<br />
languages have recognition in well over one hundred<br />
countries. 47 Looking beyond official recognition, one<br />
scholar found that English alone was a “significant”<br />
language, meaning either official or prominent for<br />
business, in about one hundred countries. 48<br />
Instead of looking at the distinction between<br />
dominant <strong>and</strong> indigenous languages, we can examine<br />
the number of languages spoken on each continent<br />
<strong>and</strong> the percentage of those that are endangered.<br />
Such an analysis will allow us to determine on which<br />
regions the international community should focus its<br />
efforts when fighting language endangerment. The<br />
regions with the fewest languages are europe <strong>and</strong><br />
the Middle East. Only 275 of the world’s languages<br />
(about 4%) have native speakers in Europe <strong>and</strong><br />
the Middle east. 49 Most of the languages in these<br />
regions are relatively stable because of the history of<br />
powerful centralized governments, nation-states, <strong>and</strong><br />
international trade, which have already weakened or<br />
eliminated a significant number of local languages,<br />
but there are still some endangered languages in the<br />
area.<br />
Approximately one thous<strong>and</strong> of the world’s<br />
languages (15%) are spoken in the Americas, with more<br />
than three-quarters of those concentrated in Latin<br />
America. 50 the situations for endangered languages<br />
are significantly different between North America <strong>and</strong><br />
Latin America. In North America, only two indigenous<br />
languages are considered to be completely safe<br />
from endangerment over the next hundred years,<br />
Greenl<strong>and</strong>ic inuit <strong>and</strong> eastern Canadian inuit, largely<br />
because these populations have remained isolated<br />
from the centers of political power. About 86% of the<br />
indigenous languages of North America are moribund,<br />
meaning that they are no longer spoken by the<br />
youngest generations. Most of these languages will<br />
become extinct in the subsequent century, including<br />
two-thirds of the indigenous languages of Canada in<br />
the next fifty years. 51 In Latin America, the situation is<br />
less bleak, with only 17% of Central American <strong>and</strong> 27%<br />
of South American languages considered moribund. 52<br />
That said, there are still some instances of severe<br />
language loss in Latin America. Brazil, for example,<br />
still has over two hundred languages, but this figure<br />
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The vast majority of languages have fewer than 100,000 speakers, which puts them at risk for extinction.<br />
is about one-sixth of the estimated number of<br />
languages in existence at the beginning of European<br />
settlement. uruguay has no indigenous languages<br />
left, as the entire native population has either been<br />
driven out or integrated into the white majority. 53<br />
Africa provides another interesting case for the<br />
study of endangered languages. While the continent<br />
encompasses about two thous<strong>and</strong>, or 30%, of the<br />
world’s languages, 54 only about two hundred of<br />
these languages are in danger of extinction. this low<br />
number, relative to those of the other continents, is<br />
due primarily to the fact that the dominant european<br />
languages have not spread as extensively throughout<br />
Africa as they have through the rest of the world. Still,<br />
the causes of language endangerment still operate<br />
in Africa, just on a smaller scale. Minority language<br />
communities are slowly ab<strong>and</strong>oning their mother<br />
tongues, especially in the countries with high numbers<br />
of languages, such as Nigeria, Cameroon, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Democratic Republic of the Congo (over two hundred<br />
languages each), not for the internationally dominant<br />
European languages but for the local dominant native<br />
languages. 55 Because much of the economy of most<br />
African countries is still fairly regional, this process is<br />
moving more slowly than in many other parts of the<br />
world, but language endangerment is nevertheless<br />
still a problem in Africa. 56<br />
The region hit the hardest by language<br />
endangerment in recent years has been Asia <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Pacific. Asian countries contain over two thous<strong>and</strong><br />
languages, about one-third of the world’s total; the<br />
Pacific region is not far behind with about thirteen<br />
hundred, or 19% of the world’s languages. 57 the<br />
high number of languages in Asia <strong>and</strong> the Pacific<br />
means that many of them have a small population of<br />
speakers, which makes them especially susceptible<br />
to language endangerment. One country that<br />
exemplifies this problem is Papua New Guinea. With<br />
eight hundred languages, Papua New Guinea is home<br />
to more languages than any other nation in the world.<br />
Linguists cite the long period of settlement in the area,<br />
the isolated terrain due to mountains <strong>and</strong> isl<strong>and</strong>s,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the historical lack of centralized government as<br />
reasons for the multitude of languages in Papua New<br />
Guinea. Most of the languages of Papua New Guinea,<br />
however, have fewer than one thous<strong>and</strong> speakers,<br />
the vast majority of whom are usually centered<br />
around a single village. Some of these languages have<br />
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only a h<strong>and</strong>ful of speakers, including Abaga with five,<br />
Guramalum with three, <strong>and</strong> Laua with just one. Thus,<br />
much of the language death expected over the next<br />
decades is predicted to occur to these languages in<br />
Papua New Guinea. 58<br />
Perhaps the most extreme case of language<br />
endangerment today is taking place in Australia.<br />
Linguists estimate that at the time of the British<br />
arrival in Australia at the end of the 18th century, the<br />
indigenous population spoke about 250 languages<br />
across the continent. Three-fifths of those languages<br />
have been completely eliminated, <strong>and</strong> another eighty<br />
or so will likely die very soon, as there are only older<br />
speakers left. These shocking numbers leave only<br />
twenty, or 8%, or the languages of Australia still viable<br />
today. Most of the language death in Australia has<br />
occurred because of the state policies toward the<br />
Aboriginal population over the past two hundred<br />
years, with numerous instances of forced relocation,<br />
lack of treatment for European diseases, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
murder of tribes of indigenous peoples. 59<br />
Overall, as the various figures intimate, the problem<br />
of language endangerment is real, severe, <strong>and</strong><br />
worsening every year. Dominant European languages<br />
have been exp<strong>and</strong>ing throughout the Americas,<br />
Africa, <strong>and</strong> Asia <strong>and</strong> the Pacific <strong>and</strong>, in the process,<br />
have pulled speakers away from local indigenous<br />
languages. Today, linguists estimate that only 5% to<br />
10% of the world’s languages are completely safe from<br />
endangerment <strong>and</strong> extinction, with the rest either<br />
moribund or weakening. 60 Predictions vary widely for<br />
how rapidly language death is occurring; the lowest<br />
suggests that 25% of the world’s languages will be<br />
extinct within one hundred years, while the highest<br />
puts that number at 90%. Even if we take the st<strong>and</strong>ard<br />
projection that half of the world’s languages will die<br />
in the next one hundred years, this still amounts to<br />
the death of one language every two weeks. 61<br />
Should We Care About Language<br />
endangerment?<br />
Reasons Not To Support Language Revitalization Efforts<br />
While the discussion of language endangerment<br />
so far has suggested that this is a serious problem<br />
that must be addressed as soon as possible, there<br />
are a number of politicians, linguistics, <strong>and</strong> activists<br />
that do not believe that the international community<br />
should take significant action to revive endangered<br />
languages in the near future. the reasons that they<br />
cite range from religious arguments to economic<br />
considerations, <strong>and</strong>, as evident in the lack of a strong<br />
international response thus far, it is clear that many<br />
of these reasons have been persuasive.<br />
Some people cite religious arguments as reasons<br />
to not intervene in the process of language<br />
endangerment <strong>and</strong> death. those who hold this<br />
view are generally Christians, <strong>and</strong> their arguments<br />
rest on the stories of Genesis in the Old testament.<br />
According to the Bible, Adam named all of the<br />
animals <strong>and</strong> plants that he discovered in the Garden<br />
of Eden through the inspiration of God. Thus, before<br />
the fall of man <strong>and</strong> the birth of original sin, there<br />
was one “pure” language. Generations later, states<br />
the Bible, humans attempted to build a structure<br />
that would reach the heavens, termed the Tower of<br />
Babel; God considered the tower to be a show of<br />
excessive human pride, so he destroyed the tower,<br />
scattered the people across the face of the earth, <strong>and</strong><br />
gave each group a different language so that they<br />
would be unable to communicate <strong>and</strong> replicate the<br />
Tower of Babel. 62 Because they believe that mankind<br />
spoke one language during the uncorrupted period<br />
of the Garden of eden <strong>and</strong> that the imposition of the<br />
diversity of languages was a curse for human pride,<br />
some Christians see the endangerment <strong>and</strong> death of<br />
languages as a positive step on the way to recreating<br />
this ideal part of human history. 63 interestingly, other<br />
religions see linguistic diversity as a positive aspect<br />
of humanity; in Islam, for example, the multitude<br />
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of languages is a sign of Allah’s work on earth, <strong>and</strong><br />
for the Acoma tribe of New Mexico in the United<br />
States, the mother goddess Iatiku created so many<br />
languages to prevent the peoples of the world from<br />
quarreling. 64 thus, the religious arguments for noninterference<br />
in language endangerment are mainly<br />
found in Christianity.<br />
Another set of arguments against action to protect<br />
Some argue that for religious reasons the international community<br />
should not spend its resources on language revitalization.<br />
endangered languages is that the endangerment <strong>and</strong><br />
death of the vast majority of the world’s languages are<br />
inevitable, regardless of any efforts the international<br />
community may take now, so it would be a waste<br />
of time, energy, <strong>and</strong> resources to try to do anything<br />
about it. Some people believe that, as the current<br />
trend is showing, multilingualism is just a temporary<br />
stage on the way to complete monolingualism <strong>and</strong><br />
that all speakers will eventually settle on the single<br />
most useful language. Because globalization <strong>and</strong><br />
urbanization are constantly limiting the number of<br />
“useful” languages left in the world, these forces<br />
will inevitably lead to the elimination of most of the<br />
world’s languages. Any attempts to reverse this<br />
trend would be futile in the long term. 65 A second<br />
line of related reasoning concerns the ability of<br />
individuals to learn their indigenous language. Given<br />
the complicated syntax <strong>and</strong> morphology of many<br />
of these languages, <strong>and</strong> the differences between<br />
them <strong>and</strong> the dominant languages, some think that<br />
it would be extremely difficult or impossible to teach<br />
the younger generations, who often have had no<br />
previous exposure, to speak the languages. 66 these<br />
two arguments against protecting endangered<br />
languages suggest that any efforts to revive such<br />
languages are doomed to fail from the start.<br />
A third, <strong>and</strong> perhaps the most common, set of<br />
arguments against protecting endangered languages<br />
rests on an economic rationale. The first economic<br />
argument is that it is not cost-effective to try to protect<br />
endangered languages. Even if it were possible to<br />
revive endangered languages, both private <strong>and</strong><br />
public organizations do not have the monetary or<br />
physical resources to accommodate educational<br />
administrative systems <strong>and</strong> other services in all of<br />
these languages. Approximately 40% of the entire<br />
administrative budget of the European Union goes<br />
toward translation, 67 <strong>and</strong> the official recognition of<br />
all indigenous languages in countries like Papua New<br />
Guinea <strong>and</strong> Nigeria, with hundreds of languages each,<br />
would be crippling for the states’ budgets. The second<br />
argument in this category is that the decay of most<br />
minority languages occurs because speakers actively<br />
choose to ab<strong>and</strong>on their mother tongue in the hope<br />
of opportunities for socioeconomic advancement.<br />
After a careful cost-benefit analysis over switching<br />
to a dominant language, many indigenous language<br />
speakers decide that the economic benefits of<br />
utilizing the dominant language outweigh the cultural<br />
legacy of the mother tongue. For this reason, many<br />
minority parents oppose education programs that<br />
attempt to incorporate the indigenous language into<br />
their children’s curriculum, as they want their children<br />
to obtain full fluency in the dominant language. 68 if<br />
many minority language speakers actively choose to<br />
ab<strong>and</strong>on their mother tongue <strong>and</strong> oppose programs<br />
to reverse language endangerment, so many believe,<br />
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then it is unfair to force language revitalization efforts<br />
upon them.<br />
Reasons to Support Language Revitalization Efforts<br />
Despite several legitimate reasons to allow the<br />
natural process of language death to occur, many<br />
people, especially linguistics <strong>and</strong> minority rights<br />
activists, believe that the international community<br />
must act soon to prevent the large number of<br />
endangered languages from disappearing completely.<br />
the reasons to protect endangered languages range<br />
from academic to personal, <strong>and</strong> many consider them<br />
to trump the inevitability <strong>and</strong> economic arguments<br />
given above for inaction.<br />
From the perspective of those that study language,<br />
the existence of language diversity is vital for the<br />
future of the discipline of linguistics. The prevailing<br />
theory of language over the past fifty years posits that<br />
all humans are born with a basic linguistic function,<br />
called Universal Grammar, <strong>and</strong> that the differences<br />
between languages are the results of parameters that<br />
affect which structures <strong>and</strong> forms are permitted in<br />
each language. in order to underst<strong>and</strong> what is allowed<br />
<strong>and</strong> disallowed in Universal Grammar <strong>and</strong> what the<br />
various parameters are, linguistics need to study<br />
many different languages. 69 Some languages overtly<br />
show linguistic phenomenon that have only been<br />
observed covertly in other languages, including the<br />
existence of movement <strong>and</strong> functional categories. 70<br />
The easiest way to observe this is through phonology.<br />
English possesses about twenty-four consonant<br />
phonemes (sounds) <strong>and</strong> between fifteen <strong>and</strong> twenty<br />
vowel phonemes, depending on the dialect (note<br />
that this is not referring to letters of the alphabet,<br />
as each letter <strong>and</strong> combination of letters can have<br />
multiple phonetic realizations). If linguists only<br />
studied English, we would think that these were the<br />
only possible sounds in human language. We would<br />
never know, for example, about the click consonants<br />
that are present in the Khosian language family of<br />
Africa, or about the fifty-five additional constant<br />
phonemes present in Ubykh, a language with eighty<br />
consonants <strong>and</strong> only two vowels that was spoken in<br />
the Caucasus region of central Asia. 71 The last speaker<br />
of Ubykh passed away on 7 October 1992 in Turkey,<br />
but fortunately, linguists were able to document the<br />
language before his death. 72 As shown in this example,<br />
smaller languages are often more useful for linguistic<br />
research because they have not been fully analyzed<br />
before <strong>and</strong> because, unlike the dominant European<br />
languages, they have usually not been significantly<br />
altered through contact. To make the importance<br />
of endangered languages to linguists even more<br />
salient, one author cites this fact: if language death<br />
continues as projected, linguists will preside over the<br />
disappearance of 90% of the entities that they are<br />
meant to study, an unprecedented statistic in the<br />
history of science <strong>and</strong> human knowledge. 73<br />
the study of the languages of the world also has<br />
benefits outside of linguistics. For historians, for<br />
example, analyzing the etymology of words <strong>and</strong><br />
syntactic forms can reveal contact between various<br />
societies that may have occurred centuries ago;<br />
since many language communities lack formalized<br />
histories, the study of historical linguistics is one of<br />
the few ways to learn about the wars, conquests,<br />
<strong>and</strong> merging of societies over the past millennium. 74<br />
thus, the death of a language in some cases also<br />
means the death of the language community’s<br />
history. The preservation of endangered languages<br />
also ensures that each community will continue to<br />
have their myths <strong>and</strong> stories, both for the sake of<br />
the speakers themselves <strong>and</strong> for anthropologists<br />
to be able to study them. No languages have been<br />
discovered that do not have a collection of myths <strong>and</strong><br />
stories, even if they are not as well-known globally as<br />
the works of the great authors of the Latin, Greek,<br />
<strong>and</strong> english traditions. 75 If these works are written<br />
down, it may be possible, albeit more difficult, for<br />
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There are over 100 sounds in human languages, many of which would be undiscovered if not for the study of small languages.<br />
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them to be studied after the relevant language has<br />
died. But, since many endangered languages do<br />
not have a writing system, their canons are at risk<br />
of being lost forever. 76 Finally, the endangerment<br />
of languages also threatens the work of natural<br />
scientists. Many indigenous cultures, particularly<br />
in the regions with the highest level of biodiversity,<br />
have a unique knowledge of the local climate <strong>and</strong><br />
flora <strong>and</strong> fauna, <strong>and</strong> this knowledge is encoded in<br />
their language. A uNeSCO study of the language of<br />
the Anuesha people of the Peruvian Amazon, which<br />
is severely endangered, for example, revealed a<br />
number of terms for plants that had previously not<br />
been recorded <strong>and</strong> studied. 77 Some claim that the<br />
loss of local knowledge is not caused by language<br />
endangerment but by the devaluation <strong>and</strong> erosion of<br />
indigenous cultures. 78 Since this sociopolitical force<br />
is also a cause of language endangerment, however,<br />
it is clear that the ab<strong>and</strong>onment of local language<br />
<strong>and</strong> the loss of indigenous knowledge of nature are<br />
related. thus, without the protection of endangered<br />
languages, numerous academic disciplines will be<br />
hurt, <strong>and</strong> the history <strong>and</strong> knowledge of indigenous<br />
populations will be lost forever.<br />
Perhaps the strongest, <strong>and</strong> also most controversial,<br />
motivation for action to protect endangered<br />
languages is the claim of an inherent connection<br />
between language <strong>and</strong> culture. While everyone<br />
concedes that there is a link between language <strong>and</strong><br />
culture, the nature of this connection is controversial.<br />
Some anthropologists take an extreme view of<br />
this relationship, claiming that different languages<br />
represent different ways of looking at the world, or<br />
worldviews. This idea is a modern adaptation of the<br />
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, also known as linguistic<br />
relativity, which maintains that the structure <strong>and</strong><br />
lexicon of a language affect the way that its speakers<br />
perceive the world. Whorf’s most famous example<br />
for linguistic relativity was his underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the<br />
ways of speaking about time in Hopi, an indigenous<br />
language of the American Southwest. He believed that<br />
the Hopi people had a different conception of time<br />
than English speakers because the Hopi language did<br />
not have words for distinct units of time, like English’s<br />
“day” <strong>and</strong> “year.” A few experiments have shown<br />
linguistic relativity to be applicable to certain ideas,<br />
like shape <strong>and</strong> color; in one, researchers provided<br />
evidence that speakers of Yucatec, a language that<br />
refers to concrete nouns by units of their material,<br />
were more likely to pay attention to objects’ materials<br />
than forms, in contrast to speakers of English, which<br />
makes the form of the object more salient than its<br />
material. 79 Overall, however, linguistic relativity has<br />
been essentially disproven over the past fifty years,<br />
with no experimental evidence showing significant<br />
differences in the conceptions of numbers <strong>and</strong> time<br />
among speakers of various languages. 80<br />
Some activists, linguists, <strong>and</strong> anthropologists rely<br />
on a variation of linguistic relativity as an argument for<br />
protecting endangered languages. they argue that<br />
language death suppresses the distinct worldviews<br />
that different cultures possess. As linguistic relativity<br />
has been largely discredited, however, most<br />
defenders of indigenous languages rely on the reverse<br />
connection between language <strong>and</strong> culture, that a<br />
society’s language is vital for the full representation<br />
of its culture. Joshua Fishman goes as far as saying of<br />
the language-culture connection: “Such a huge part<br />
of every ethnoculture is linguistically expressed that it<br />
is not wrong to say that most ethnocultural behaviors<br />
would be impossible without their expression via the<br />
particular language with which these behaviors have<br />
been traditionally associated.” 81 While this position<br />
may be too extreme, it explicates the intrinsic value<br />
that indigenous languages have for the maintenance<br />
of the culture of their speakers. Starting with the<br />
most observable link, each language has its own<br />
set of myths, literature, songs <strong>and</strong> poetry, as stated<br />
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above. 82 While these works can be read in translation,<br />
it is clear that one loses some aspects of the author’s<br />
original intent in a foreign language; in order to fully<br />
underst<strong>and</strong> the cultural significance of these works,<br />
it is necessary to maintain them in their original<br />
languages. 83 Languages also encode what their<br />
respective cultures know or value about a number<br />
of other aspects of society, including religion, justice,<br />
education, kinship, medicine, <strong>and</strong> nature, collectively<br />
known as intangible cultural heritage. 84 As much of<br />
this heritage is inherited through language, language<br />
death <strong>and</strong> endangerment has the risk of eliminating<br />
countless indigenous cultures. 85 While a few cultures<br />
have survived language endangerment, most notably<br />
those of the irish <strong>and</strong> Jewish peoples86 , the threat of<br />
language death to local cultures is undeniably strong.<br />
Possible Solutions<br />
Although the situation is grim for many endangered<br />
languages, there are a number of steps the<br />
international community can take to prevent these<br />
languages from becoming extinct. The undeniable<br />
first step is to increase information-gathering efforts<br />
about the status of endangered <strong>and</strong> non-endangered<br />
languages across the world. the Ethnologue<br />
represents a positive start in this direction, but much<br />
more information is needed before informed policy<br />
decisions can be made, including the age of speakers,<br />
the attitudes of speakers toward their mother tongue,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the specific causes of language endangerment<br />
in each case. 87 Additionally, by maintaining a<br />
core set of speakers over the past century, some<br />
languages appear immune to the forces of language<br />
endangerment, <strong>and</strong> it is vital to underst<strong>and</strong> what has<br />
prevented the decay of these respective languages. 88<br />
Beyond this type of information gathering, there<br />
are two main categories of solutions to the problem<br />
of language endangerment: documentation <strong>and</strong><br />
revitalization. These two categories can be applied<br />
separately or together, depending on how seriously<br />
endangered a language is, its prognosis for survival,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the priorities of those funding the efforts are.<br />
in cases of extreme language endangerment,<br />
the primary goal is usually documentation so<br />
that linguists can study the language, <strong>and</strong> future<br />
generations can have access, through translation, to<br />
their culture’s oral traditions. When a language is less<br />
seriously endangered, <strong>and</strong> more funding is available,<br />
the community might initiate revitalization efforts to<br />
rebuild a strong base of speakers.<br />
Documentation, also known as corpus planning,<br />
aims to ensure that a language persists in records<br />
after the death of the last speaker. These efforts<br />
usually involve the codification of the language<br />
in a st<strong>and</strong>ard form <strong>and</strong> the development of an<br />
orthography, or written form, if such a system does<br />
not already exist. documentation also includes<br />
the production of dictionaries <strong>and</strong> other types of<br />
written <strong>and</strong> oral archives. 89 in recent years, these<br />
archives have been undergoing a slow transition<br />
to the internet, which has made them much more<br />
easily accessible to the general population. On 21<br />
June 2012, Google announced that it was launching<br />
the Endangered Languages Project with a number of<br />
organizations involved in language preservation in<br />
order to collect online samples of the thous<strong>and</strong>s of<br />
dying languages across the world. 90 In one remarkable<br />
case involving a digital archive, a group of speakers of<br />
Arapesh, an endangered language on the northern<br />
coast of Papua New Guinea, found an archive of their<br />
language through Facebook <strong>and</strong> have since reached<br />
out to the linguist responsible for assistance with<br />
their revitalization efforts. 91 this example reinforces<br />
the importance that linguists play in documentation<br />
efforts <strong>and</strong> shows that documentation can in itself be<br />
a method of revitalization, as indigenous populations<br />
often do not attempt to maintain their language until<br />
the work of linguists makes them underst<strong>and</strong> the<br />
value of their own tongue. 92<br />
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Revitalization efforts can take a number of different<br />
One way to save a dying language is to send linguists to document<br />
<strong>and</strong> record the language, so it will live past the death of its last<br />
speaker.<br />
forms, but they all seek to combat one of the many<br />
causes of language endangerment, whether it be<br />
the attitude of the population toward the language<br />
or the lack of official domains in which the language<br />
is used. The most common revitalization efforts<br />
are in education. Language-in-education planning<br />
efforts aim to increase the number of speakers of<br />
an endangered language by holding classes for<br />
children <strong>and</strong> adults. The most effective, but also most<br />
complicated <strong>and</strong> expensive, educational initiatives<br />
involve the insertion of an indigenous language in the<br />
general education of children; this can take the form<br />
of a bilingual program or even complete language<br />
immersion. One of the most successful educational<br />
initiatives has been the implementation of “language<br />
nests,” which began with the Hawaiians <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Maori of New Zeal<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> have since spread across<br />
the world. In a language nest, old <strong>and</strong> retired speakers<br />
of the endangered language run a preschool that<br />
operates completely in the indigenous language, a<br />
system that allows the language to skip a generation<br />
of parents that may not have acquired it. 93<br />
Revitalization efforts can also aim to increase<br />
the prestige of an indigenous language, as negative<br />
attitudes toward a language can be a major cause of<br />
endangerment. One way of increasing a language’s<br />
prestige is to secure official recognition from<br />
governments <strong>and</strong> intergovernmental organizations.<br />
Many endangered languages would benefit greatly<br />
from official recognition, which would allow the<br />
language to be used in more public domains<br />
<strong>and</strong> would lead to greater funding for language<br />
revitalization efforts. 94 Official recognition would also<br />
lead speakers <strong>and</strong> nonspeakers to think more highly<br />
of the language in comparison to others. 95 Such<br />
recognition can come in the form of increased political<br />
autonomy. In 1979, for example, when Greenl<strong>and</strong> was<br />
granted home rule by Denmark, Greenl<strong>and</strong>ic was an<br />
endangered language; it is now considered one of the<br />
only safe indigenous languages in North America. 96 in<br />
addition, increasing the economic prosperity of the<br />
speaking population <strong>and</strong> giving the population more<br />
employment opportunities in its mother tongue<br />
would likely help save an endangered language by<br />
increasing speakers’ regard for their own language,<br />
prevent them from switching to a dominant language<br />
for professional reasons, <strong>and</strong> provide resources for<br />
language protection programs. Such an effect is<br />
evident in the Ayas Valley of northern Italy, where<br />
the change from an agriculture to tourism-based<br />
economy has provided the impetus <strong>and</strong> the funds for<br />
a trilingual education program in Italian, French, <strong>and</strong><br />
the endangered Franco-provençal dialect. 97<br />
Even if a language has lost all of its speakers<br />
<strong>and</strong> is considered dead, it may still be possible to<br />
revive it. Assuming that the language has some<br />
documentation, linguists <strong>and</strong> activists can use these<br />
written materials to teach themselves, <strong>and</strong> others,<br />
the dead language. One prominent example of this<br />
language reclamation is the Wampanoag language<br />
of New Engl<strong>and</strong> in the United States. The last native<br />
speakers of Wampanoag died in the mid 19th century,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the language was lost for over six generations. In<br />
1993, a member of the tribe founded the Wampanoag<br />
Language Reclamation Project, <strong>and</strong> in the past twenty<br />
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years, she has used records from the 17 th century to<br />
write a dictionary, develop educational materials,<br />
<strong>and</strong> run adult language classes. 98 this example shows<br />
that language reclamation is possible with significant<br />
effort <strong>and</strong> also underscores the importance of<br />
creating an orthography <strong>and</strong> maintaining written<br />
documentation of endangered languages, in case<br />
they do become extinct.<br />
Past international Action<br />
The issue of language endangerment first caught<br />
the attention of the international community in<br />
the early 1990s with the 15th international Congress<br />
of Linguists in 1992. The gathering of linguistic<br />
experts from around the world to discuss the fate of<br />
endangered languages marked the first time that this<br />
problem had been the topic of a major international<br />
gathering. The final report of the 15th international<br />
Congress of Linguists called upon the United Nations<br />
Educational, Scientific <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> Organization<br />
(UNESCO), a specialized agency of the UN, to initiate<br />
a documentation campaign to record the grammars,<br />
texts, <strong>and</strong> oral histories of the endangered languages<br />
of the world. 99 uNeSCO did, in fact, respond to the<br />
appeal from the International Congress of Linguists,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the following year, the organization officially<br />
made endangered languages one of its priority issues<br />
<strong>and</strong> founded the Red Book of Endangered Languages,<br />
a compilation of information on the thous<strong>and</strong>s of<br />
endangered <strong>and</strong> dying languages across the globe.<br />
The International Clearing House of Endangered<br />
Languages was founded at the University of Tokyo<br />
in 1995 to coordinate the research <strong>and</strong> publication of<br />
the Red Book. the Red Book has since been replaced<br />
by the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, which<br />
continues to be published to this day. 100<br />
Outside of this action by UNESCO, however, the<br />
United Nations has been rather silent on the issue of<br />
endangered languages. uNeSCO has assisted local<br />
activists <strong>and</strong> organizations in efforts to revitalize<br />
endangered languages, but it has not made any<br />
meaning for declarations of what must be done to<br />
secure the futures of dying languages. Most of the<br />
relevant UN resolutions on the topic have been about<br />
minority rights or cultural diversity more generally,<br />
<strong>and</strong> not specifically about endangered languages. In<br />
1992, the General Assembly passed the Declaration<br />
on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or<br />
Ethnic, Religious <strong>and</strong> Linguistic Minorities. The first<br />
article of this resolution declares that “states shall<br />
protect the…linguistic identity…of minorities within<br />
their respective territories.” 101 Articles Two <strong>and</strong> Four<br />
go on to assert the rights of indigenous language<br />
speakers to learn their mother tongue, use it in the<br />
public <strong>and</strong> private sphere without discrimination, <strong>and</strong><br />
receive education in the language. 102 the Action Plan<br />
of the 2001 UNESCO Universal Declaration on <strong>Cultural</strong><br />
Diversity calls upon nations to protect linguistic<br />
heritage, to support the production <strong>and</strong> dissemination<br />
of culture in as many languages as possible, <strong>and</strong> to<br />
encourage linguistic diversity in education <strong>and</strong> on the<br />
internet. 103 uNeSCO also indirectly called upon nations<br />
to support endangered languages by calling language<br />
“the vehicle of intangible cultural heritage” in the<br />
2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible<br />
<strong>Cultural</strong> Heritage <strong>and</strong> by emphasizing the importance<br />
of linguistic diversity in cultural diversity in the 2005<br />
Convention on the Promotion <strong>and</strong> Protection of the<br />
104 ,105<br />
Diversity of <strong>Cultural</strong> Expressions.<br />
While the United Nations has been inactive on the<br />
issue of language endangerment <strong>and</strong> language rights<br />
more generally, a community of activists has not. In<br />
1996, at the World Conference on Linguistic Rights<br />
in Barcelona, a group of writers, linguistics, <strong>and</strong><br />
anthropologists adopted the Universal Declaration<br />
on Linguistic Rights, also known as the Barcelona<br />
declaration. the Barcelona declaration was drafted<br />
in response to the ever-increasing number of<br />
endangered languages across the world <strong>and</strong> the lack<br />
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of protections for those languages <strong>and</strong> their speakers.<br />
It recognizes the causes of language endangerment<br />
discussed above, including conquest <strong>and</strong> invasion,<br />
hostile state policies, <strong>and</strong> economic factors. it also<br />
acknowledges the benefits of preserving endangered<br />
languages, including their importance for identity,<br />
culture, <strong>and</strong> communication. the Barcelona<br />
declaration calls on states to implement protections<br />
for minority language speakers to use their mother<br />
tongue in all aspects of public life, including the justice<br />
system, government administrative, education, <strong>and</strong><br />
the economic marketplace. It also emphasizes both<br />
individual <strong>and</strong> collective rights to use any language<br />
in the private sphere <strong>and</strong> to maintain a culture via<br />
language. The document acknowledges the economic<br />
factors that go into a speaker’s decision to ab<strong>and</strong>on<br />
their indigenous language but encourages states<br />
to facilitate the integration, with a maintenance<br />
of culture, of minority language speakers into the<br />
dominant community, instead of their assimilation. 106<br />
Although the Barcelona declaration was presented<br />
to UNESCO, it has not been adopted in any formal<br />
manner by the organization <strong>and</strong> thus has no legal<br />
st<strong>and</strong>ing; it may, however, provide the committee<br />
with ideas about measures to take to protect<br />
endangered languages in the future.<br />
Questions a Resolution Must Answer<br />
(QARMA)<br />
1. Should the protection of endangered<br />
2.<br />
languages even be of significant importance<br />
for the <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Humanitarian</strong><br />
committee in the first place?<br />
Given the urgency of the situation <strong>and</strong> the<br />
difficulty of stopping the forces of language<br />
endangerment, should the primary focus<br />
be on language documentation or language<br />
revitalization?<br />
3. What measures can the international<br />
community take to encourage indigenous<br />
populations to maintain their language in<br />
the face of discrimination <strong>and</strong> globalizing<br />
economic forces? Can the causes of language<br />
endangerment be combatted to prevent<br />
languages from decay?<br />
4. Who should take the lead in protecting<br />
endangered languages: states,<br />
nongovernmental organizations, or local<br />
5.<br />
activists? How should the efforts be distributed<br />
between these different groups?<br />
How can the <strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Humanitarian</strong><br />
committee ensure the protection of<br />
endangered languages in international<br />
resolutions, declarations, <strong>and</strong> covenants?<br />
Key Actors <strong>and</strong> Positions<br />
the three sets of players that are most important for<br />
the future of endangered languages are indigenous<br />
populations, non-governmental organizations<br />
(NGOs) that work to protect endangered languages,<br />
<strong>and</strong> state governments. All three groups must work<br />
together to ensure that measures to document <strong>and</strong><br />
revitalize endangered languages are implemented<br />
successfully. Without the support of the language<br />
community, for example, it is impossible to collect<br />
data for archives <strong>and</strong> to implement education courses.<br />
Without the involvement of NGOs, documentation<br />
<strong>and</strong> revitalization plans will lack the expertise to be<br />
effective. Finally, without the backing of governments,<br />
NGOs will lack the funding required to enact these<br />
programs <strong>and</strong> will be powerless against prevailing<br />
discriminatory attitudes. thus, any solution to the<br />
problem of language endangerment must involve a<br />
collaboration among indigenous peoples, NGOs, <strong>and</strong><br />
governments.<br />
There are a few nongovernmental organizations<br />
that are especially active in the fight to save<br />
endangered languages, including Google’s<br />
Endangered Language Project, which is being<br />
operated by the First Peoples’ <strong>Cultural</strong> Council <strong>and</strong> the<br />
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Institute for Language Information <strong>and</strong> Technology<br />
at Eastern Michigan University. The most prominent<br />
NGO is the SIL, a nonprofit that publishes Ethnologue:<br />
Languages of the World, the encyclopedia from where<br />
much of the data in this background guide comes.<br />
The SIL is a faith-based organization whose goal is<br />
to document <strong>and</strong> revitalize endangered languages<br />
across the world. Founded in 1934, the SIL now has<br />
a staff of over five thous<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> is currently studying<br />
almost three thous<strong>and</strong> different languages. 107<br />
the positions that your countries hold with regard<br />
to the protection of language endangerment are not<br />
easily divisible along regional lines. Governments will<br />
instead follow the official or unofficial linguistic policy<br />
that they hold for the languages within their borders.<br />
Many nations, including the united States <strong>and</strong><br />
much of Europe, have strict unilingual policies, only<br />
recognizing one official language; while these nations<br />
would not necessarily oppose language revitalization<br />
efforts, they would be unlikely to support a set of<br />
solutions that involve the recognition of endangered<br />
languages on a national level. Countries with multiple<br />
official languages, like much of Africa <strong>and</strong> Asia, would<br />
be more eager to propose solutions that involve the<br />
national recognition of endangered languages. Some<br />
countries have primary or secondary education in<br />
certain indigenous languages, whereas others only<br />
teach in the dominant language; while the former<br />
would be in favor of increased minority language<br />
education, the latter may not.<br />
Another factor that will determine your country’s<br />
position on the protection of endangered languages<br />
is the number <strong>and</strong> conditions of dying languages<br />
within its borders. A country like Australia, for<br />
example, which has a few languages that are critically<br />
endangered <strong>and</strong> has historically made no effort to<br />
protect those languages, would most likely be eager<br />
to institute programs to document fully <strong>and</strong> revitalize<br />
its dying languages, because it would be manageable<br />
given the number of languages remaining <strong>and</strong><br />
would show the government’s commitment to<br />
the indigenous population. A country like Nigeria,<br />
however, may be less inclined to support endangered<br />
languages initiatives because there are so many<br />
indigenous languages that it would have to protect.<br />
Furthermore, faced with a high level of poverty <strong>and</strong><br />
low levels of education, the Nigerian government<br />
may not want to spend its valuable resources on such<br />
programs.<br />
Finally, your nation’s policy must consider benefits<br />
that your country would experience from endangered<br />
language protection initiatives. A country that already<br />
has a strong tourism industry due to its dominant<br />
culture or natural resources, like the United States,<br />
would not gain much in terms of culture <strong>and</strong> tourism<br />
from protecting its indigenous languages; a nation<br />
with less tourism, like many Pacific Isl<strong>and</strong>s, may<br />
gain international recognition for its unique cultures<br />
<strong>and</strong> more foreign visitors if it chooses to protect<br />
its endangered languages. When developing your<br />
country’s policy on language endangerment, it is<br />
important to take all of these different factors into<br />
consideration. Just because your country has a strict<br />
unilingual policy, for example, does not necessarily<br />
mean that you should oppose all protections for<br />
endangered languages. A country with a thriving<br />
travel industry may support tourism as a method of<br />
endangered languages protection, even if it does<br />
not wish to see such measures instituted within<br />
its borders. The possible solutions for the problem<br />
of endangered languages are so broad that the<br />
question is not whether or not your country supports<br />
documentation <strong>and</strong> revitalization but which specific<br />
policies you think should be enacted.<br />
Suggestions for Further Research<br />
As a starting point, i would encourage you to do some<br />
research on the problem of language endangerment<br />
in general. UNESCO has a good overview of the<br />
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topic, as well as links to current efforts to revitalize<br />
<strong>and</strong> document endangered languages. the American<br />
National Science Foundation also has an informative<br />
description of language endangerment. in addition,<br />
there are a number of small nonprofit organizations<br />
that are dedicated to the preservation of endangered<br />
languages, <strong>and</strong> a quick study of their websites should<br />
give you more information on the problem, as well as<br />
new <strong>and</strong> creative solutions to revitalize or document<br />
languages. Most of the information on endangered<br />
is fairly decentralized, so I hope that you will take<br />
the time to search around the internet for as many<br />
different perspectives as possible.<br />
Secondly, the best way to gain a sense of the<br />
severity of the problem <strong>and</strong> to better underst<strong>and</strong> the<br />
issues involved is to research a number of different<br />
endangered languages. There are a number of digital<br />
archives that have information on the wide variety<br />
of the three thous<strong>and</strong> or so endangered languages<br />
across the world. the entire Ethnologue is available<br />
online at www.ethnologue.com, <strong>and</strong> it contains facts<br />
about most of the world’s languages, in addition to<br />
statistics about geographical distribution <strong>and</strong> number<br />
of speakers. Google’s Endangered Languages Project<br />
can be found at www.endangeredlanguages.com <strong>and</strong><br />
has information <strong>and</strong> samples from many endangered<br />
languages. From these databases <strong>and</strong> from the case<br />
studies in any book on the topic, you will learn about<br />
the diverse situations that endangered languages<br />
face <strong>and</strong> learn how to craft solutions to benefit as<br />
many of them as possible. Additionally, if you are a<br />
speaker of an endangered language, I encourage you<br />
to submit a sample to the Endangered Languages<br />
Project!<br />
Topic Area B<br />
Statement of the Problem<br />
The world has seen an unprecedented level of<br />
economic growth in modern times that has led to<br />
significant increases in the st<strong>and</strong>ard of living of much<br />
of the global population. Incomes in much of the<br />
developed world, for example, have increased by a<br />
factor of twelve in the past 150 years. In developing<br />
nations, improvements in human development<br />
indices, including life expectancy <strong>and</strong> infant <strong>and</strong><br />
maternal mortality, have occurred even faster than<br />
they did during the European Industrial Revolution,<br />
which is commonly regarded as the historic st<strong>and</strong>ard<br />
for rapid economic growth. 108 That being said, this<br />
unprecedented growth has not affected the world’s<br />
population evenly. While most of the developed<br />
world <strong>and</strong> the elites in third world countries have seen<br />
their st<strong>and</strong>ards of living rise consistently, this growth<br />
has been much less drastic for many marginalized<br />
populations. Perhaps the most marginalized of the<br />
world’s minorities are indigenous peoples, <strong>and</strong> they<br />
constitute a huge portion of the world’s poor; a new<br />
World Bank study states that although indigenous<br />
peoples make up only five percent of the global<br />
population, they are fifteen percent of all those living<br />
in poverty. 109<br />
Many indigenous economic activities are threatened in the<br />
modern, globalized economy, which leaves impoverished <strong>and</strong><br />
helpless indigenous populations.<br />
Beyond the simple need to improve the lot of the<br />
world’s peoples, there are a number of reasons why<br />
the international community should look to aid the<br />
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economic development of indigenous peoples. The<br />
existence of poor communities, especially those that<br />
are marginalized, is correlated with a general weak<br />
rule of law <strong>and</strong> distrust in government institutions,<br />
which is manifested through increased crime rates<br />
<strong>and</strong> non-utilization of government services. High<br />
levels of indigenous poverty also lead to larger slum<br />
populations. Additionally, as would be expected,<br />
significant populations of impoverished indigenous<br />
peoples can stagnate the overall economic growth of<br />
a nation. When indigenous peoples are not connected<br />
to the majority economy, unemployment rates are<br />
higher, <strong>and</strong> there is less overall market trade. Poverty<br />
is also associated with worse indicators in other areas<br />
of development, including life expectancy, child <strong>and</strong><br />
maternal mortality, <strong>and</strong> education attainment. 110<br />
While it is well-known that increases in these other<br />
areas of development can lead to a reduction in<br />
poverty levels, increasing economic development<br />
can contribute to improvements in these aspects of<br />
overall development as well. 111 Tackling the problem<br />
of indigenous poverty is therefore vital for all of the<br />
developmental goals of the international community.<br />
the international community has already<br />
recognized the importance of economic development<br />
for the entire global population. The Universal<br />
Declaration of Human Rights, the document that<br />
began the modern human rights movement, protects<br />
the right to economic development in Article 25 (1),<br />
which reads as follows:<br />
“Everyone has the right to a st<strong>and</strong>ard<br />
of living adequate for the health <strong>and</strong><br />
well-being of himself <strong>and</strong> of his family,<br />
including food, clothing, housing <strong>and</strong><br />
medical care <strong>and</strong> necessary social<br />
services, <strong>and</strong> the right to security<br />
in the event of unemployment,<br />
sickness, disability, widowhood,<br />
old age or other lack of livelihood in<br />
circumstances beyond his control.” 112<br />
The right to development is without a doubt one<br />
of the most pressing <strong>and</strong> urgent rights listed in<br />
the Universal Declaration, as many of the other<br />
goals, including universal access to education <strong>and</strong><br />
participation in government, are unachievable if<br />
a certain basic st<strong>and</strong>ard of living is not reached. As<br />
stated above, the international community has come<br />
far in the way of improving economic conditions<br />
for much of the global population. Because much<br />
of the population that remains in poverty today<br />
is indigenous, however, the challenges impeding<br />
further economic development <strong>and</strong> the solutions to<br />
those challenges are different than those previously<br />
encountered.<br />
Between 6 <strong>and</strong> 8 September 2000, leaders from<br />
almost every nation of the world convened in New<br />
York at the Millennium Summit to discuss the role<br />
of the united Nations in the 21st century. the most<br />
well-known, if not most important, outcome of<br />
the Millennium Summit was the drafting of the<br />
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of<br />
eight development targets for improving the lives<br />
of peoples across the world. The MDGs are specific<br />
targets that range from combatting HIV/AIDS<br />
<strong>and</strong> other diseases to achieving universal primary<br />
education. Here we will be focusing on the first MDG,<br />
eradicating extreme poverty <strong>and</strong> hunger. The specific<br />
targets for the first MDG are as follows: halving the<br />
proportion of people living on less than $1 a day;<br />
achieving decent employment for women, men, <strong>and</strong><br />
young people; <strong>and</strong> halving the proportion of people<br />
who suffer from hunger. 113<br />
One of the difficulties in assessing the progress of<br />
economic development among indigenous peoples<br />
is the lack of st<strong>and</strong>ard definitions for “indigenous<br />
peoples” <strong>and</strong> “poverty.” The United Nations has<br />
refrained in recent years from defining what makes a<br />
group of people “indigenous,” even in the Declaration<br />
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on the Rights of indigenous Peoples, in order to<br />
ensure that certain populations are not excluded. in its<br />
l<strong>and</strong>mark convention on the topic, the International<br />
Labour Organization defines “indigenous peoples”<br />
as those that are descended from a population that<br />
inhabited a given region at the time of conquest or<br />
colonization. 114 Others define the term more broadly<br />
to include any marginalized population that has strong<br />
ties to native l<strong>and</strong>s, practices subsistence agriculture,<br />
<strong>and</strong>/or possesses a unique culture, language, or social<br />
<strong>and</strong> political structure. Not all minority populations<br />
are indigenous, but most indigenous peoples are a<br />
minority in their respective states.<br />
Causes of Minority Poverty<br />
In their book on minority development in China,<br />
Bhalla <strong>and</strong> Qiu provide a relatively uncontroversial<br />
definition of poverty: “a social phenomenon<br />
under which the st<strong>and</strong>ard of living of individuals<br />
<strong>and</strong> households in a community or a country is<br />
persistently below a certain level required physically<br />
for sustaining human life according to some accepted<br />
norms.” 115 More important than a compact definition<br />
are the indicators of poverty, which include low<br />
income <strong>and</strong> consumption levels; the inability to<br />
receive adequate shelter, education, <strong>and</strong> heath care;<br />
<strong>and</strong> lack of access to employment opportunities. 116<br />
A distinction must be made, however, between<br />
absolute <strong>and</strong> relative poverty. Absolute poverty is a<br />
circumstance in which an individual does not have<br />
access to a basic level of resources necessary to live.<br />
Indicators of absolute poverty include starvation<br />
<strong>and</strong> malnutrition; poor health due to diet <strong>and</strong> lack<br />
of hygiene; <strong>and</strong> no attainment of any education. 117<br />
Relative poverty is a situation in which an individual<br />
has the resources to survive but not in a way that<br />
matches the st<strong>and</strong>ards of society in terms of diet,<br />
education, <strong>and</strong> employment. It is vital to utilize these<br />
different definitions of poverty when discussing <strong>and</strong><br />
attempting to solve indigenous impoverishment in<br />
various regions. In much of the developed world for<br />
example, essentially none of the population lives in<br />
absolute poverty; these countries must make efforts<br />
to bring its citizens out of relative poverty. In the<br />
developing world, a significant percentage of the<br />
population lives in absolute poverty, so the primary<br />
focus there should be to increase access to basic<br />
nutrition, employment, <strong>and</strong> shelter. 118<br />
Liberalization of Trade<br />
One of the most notable causes of the<br />
impoverishment of indigenous peoples over the past<br />
decades has been the push toward the liberalization<br />
of international trade. This problem encompasses two<br />
trends that are intrinsically intertwined: the expansion<br />
of transnational corporations into indigenous l<strong>and</strong>s<br />
<strong>and</strong> the declining viability of local indigenous means<br />
of subsistence. For centuries, indigenous populations<br />
have utilized this l<strong>and</strong> for their own (primarily<br />
agricultural) practices with little-to-no interference<br />
from outside entities. Recently, however, laws have<br />
permitted transitional corporations, often with the<br />
blessing of national governments, to enter indigenous<br />
l<strong>and</strong>s with the purpose of extracting natural resources<br />
like oil, gas, <strong>and</strong> minerals. With the development<br />
of large-scale resource extraction equipment, local<br />
agricultural techniques are no longer viable, leaving<br />
these indigenous communities with little food <strong>and</strong> no<br />
chance for employment.<br />
The liberalization of international trade has<br />
negatively impacted the prosperity of indigenous<br />
populations through the direct competition of largescale<br />
agricultural production. The primary driver of<br />
this change was the 1995 World Trade Organization<br />
Agreement on Agriculture (WtO Agreement on<br />
Agriculture). While the details are not particularly<br />
relevant to this discussion, one of the goals of the<br />
WtO Agreement on Agriculture was to encourage<br />
export competition <strong>and</strong> import liberalization through<br />
reductions of import <strong>and</strong> export tariffs. 119 the World<br />
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Trade Organization (WTO) suggested these actions<br />
as a means of increasing free trade globally, which<br />
would lead to substantial economic growth in the long<br />
term. This logic, however, did not take into account<br />
the negative impact that the WTO Agreement on<br />
Agriculture would bear for on indigenous populations.<br />
This impact has two distinct manifestations. The first<br />
is the flooding of international markets with large<br />
volumes of agricultural crops from the developed<br />
industries of a small number of countries, which<br />
drives down prices on these products for all countries.<br />
Without any tariff protections <strong>and</strong> exposed to the<br />
free market, indigenous farmers who grow the same<br />
crops are unable to make a suitable living with their<br />
traditional techniques. Because they do not have<br />
the resources to compete with the large agricultural<br />
companies in developed countries, they are also<br />
unable to adapt to more modern methods of farming.<br />
One of the primary producers of agricultural products<br />
for the past century has been the United States, <strong>and</strong><br />
its companies have inadvertently destroyed many<br />
indigenous industries, notably Mexico’s corn industry<br />
<strong>and</strong> the coffee industries of other Latin American<br />
countries like Brazil, Guatemala, <strong>and</strong> Costa Rica. 120<br />
Effects on local agriculture also occur when<br />
transnational companies move onto local l<strong>and</strong>s<br />
to increase their production capabilities. The<br />
transnational companies sign agreements with<br />
governments to convert “unused” l<strong>and</strong> into<br />
plantations that produce huge amounts of cash crops. 121<br />
these l<strong>and</strong>s are often not actually unused, of course,<br />
but are rather employed by indigenous populations<br />
for small-scale farming. A common view held by many<br />
majority populations <strong>and</strong> the governments that they<br />
inevitably control is that such small-scale agriculture<br />
does not contribute to economic growth <strong>and</strong> that<br />
in order to increase growth they have to turn the<br />
l<strong>and</strong> over to foreign companies that will generate<br />
profits. Even though many indigenous agricultural<br />
practices are environmentally sustainable, the<br />
majority population sees them as outdated <strong>and</strong><br />
unproductive. 122 Worse still, the crops grown by these<br />
foreign companies are almost always exclusively<br />
bound for international destinations, so they do<br />
not even help feed the indigenous populations that<br />
were pushed off of the l<strong>and</strong>. Thus, through the direct<br />
intervention of transnational agricultural companies<br />
into local farming l<strong>and</strong>s, indigenous peoples lose their<br />
livelihoods <strong>and</strong> find themselves in extreme poverty.<br />
One specific indigenous system that majority<br />
populations <strong>and</strong> governments often disrespect <strong>and</strong><br />
ignore is pastoralism. Pastoralism is a method of<br />
raising livestock on l<strong>and</strong>s that are not very good for<br />
agriculture by constantly moving the animals onto<br />
new territory in search of grazing areas <strong>and</strong> water.<br />
Approximately 25% of the world’s l<strong>and</strong> coverage is<br />
currently used for pastoralism, which accounts for<br />
10% of the world’s meat production <strong>and</strong> well over<br />
50% of the agricultural gross domestic products of<br />
many nations in Sub-Saharan Africa. 123 Pastoralism is<br />
therefore vital for the economy of Africa <strong>and</strong> is used<br />
by indigenous populations throughout the continent,<br />
including the Tuareg camel breeders in the Sahara,<br />
the Maasai cattle breeders of Eastern Africa, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Fulani cattle breeders of the West African savannah. 124<br />
Pastoralism is thus an extremely common farming<br />
practice, usually employed by indigenous peoples.<br />
Historically, colonial governments considered<br />
pastoral l<strong>and</strong>s to be unoccupied, <strong>and</strong> many postcolonial<br />
governments have since taken control<br />
of these territories from indigenous populations<br />
for sedentary agriculture, resource extraction, or<br />
infrastructural projects. The governments take this<br />
action even though pastoralism is an extremely<br />
environmentally sustainable practice <strong>and</strong> is one<br />
of the most effective ways of utilizing dryl<strong>and</strong>s. 125<br />
Recent years have seen an increase in expulsions of<br />
indigenous populations from pastoral l<strong>and</strong>s in Sub-<br />
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Saharan Africa. On her website, for example, Janet<br />
Museveni, the First Lady of Ug<strong>and</strong>a <strong>and</strong> the national<br />
minister for the Karamoja region, calls upon pastoral<br />
Advanced farming equipment has allowed the agricultural<br />
industry of certain developed nations to flourish at the expensive<br />
of indigenous ways of life.<br />
farmers to settle their livestock on one location <strong>and</strong><br />
begin practicing sedentary agriculture. 126<br />
One of the regional industries in which the<br />
liberalization of trade has had the most effect<br />
is mining in Africa. Many African countries have<br />
liberalized their mining laws over the past thirty years<br />
to encourage foreign investment, in the hopes that<br />
this will help boost their economic growth <strong>and</strong> overall<br />
gross domestic product (GDP), a primary measure of<br />
economic development. In response, many British,<br />
American, Canadian, <strong>and</strong> Australian companies<br />
have established operations on these previously<br />
untouched l<strong>and</strong>s with little regard for the indigenous<br />
populations that live <strong>and</strong> farm there. The presence<br />
of these transnational companies is so extensive<br />
that over 2,600 bilateral agreements had been<br />
signed between African governments <strong>and</strong> foreign<br />
mining companies by 2008. 127 As may be expected,<br />
these transnational mining companies generally do<br />
not take environmental factors into consideration<br />
when building their infrastructure <strong>and</strong> implementing<br />
their extractive techniques, which further harms<br />
the situation in which indigenous populations<br />
find themselves. In Africa, the most common<br />
environmental impact is the dissemination of toxic<br />
chemicals in the water supply, which has ruined crops<br />
<strong>and</strong> farming l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> has caused dangerous illnesses<br />
<strong>and</strong> problems with pregnancies <strong>and</strong> childbirth. 128<br />
Because they are no longer able to practice their<br />
traditional farming techniques, which are usually<br />
relatively sustainable, indigenous peoples are often<br />
forced to employ other, less environmentally-friendly<br />
methods; this worsens the situation <strong>and</strong> leaves them<br />
with no means of subsistence or employment. This<br />
pattern is not only evident in the African mining<br />
industry but is also observed in Indonesia’s nickel<br />
industry <strong>and</strong> the Amazonian natural gas industry. 129<br />
Disregard for Indigenous L<strong>and</strong> Rights<br />
Another cause of the impoverishment of indigenous<br />
populations is the disregard for local l<strong>and</strong> rights, an<br />
issue that is closely connected to the liberalization of<br />
trade regulations. As alluded to above, in the process<br />
of creating the infrastructure for massive agricultural<br />
or resource extraction industries in a developing<br />
country, many governments <strong>and</strong> transnational<br />
corporations either explicitly or implicitly expel the<br />
indigenous residents from their l<strong>and</strong>. in many Asian<br />
<strong>and</strong> African nations, indigenous peoples have no title<br />
to the l<strong>and</strong> on which they reside, <strong>and</strong> the government<br />
has the complete authority to distribute that l<strong>and</strong><br />
to members of the country’s ethnic majority or to<br />
domestic or foreign companies. 130 When their l<strong>and</strong><br />
is taken away, most indigenous peoples lose their<br />
traditional methods of subsistence <strong>and</strong> are either<br />
forced to live in extreme poverty or migrate to a<br />
city for employment, another problem that will be<br />
discussed.<br />
The problems with the legal frameworks for<br />
indigenous l<strong>and</strong> rights are numerous. Many<br />
countries simply do not have such laws in the first<br />
place, so indigenous populations have no authority<br />
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over the l<strong>and</strong> that they have lived on for centuries.<br />
Another problem is the failure to consult indigenous<br />
communities when developing l<strong>and</strong> rights policies.<br />
Many indigenous communities have their own<br />
local l<strong>and</strong> practices that policymakers completely<br />
disregard in the drafting of their frameworks for l<strong>and</strong><br />
rights. The Samburu of Kenya, for example, use the<br />
Lkiama system, which their ancestors developed<br />
centuries ago. The Lkiama system states that all<br />
tribal l<strong>and</strong>s are collectively owned by the community<br />
<strong>and</strong> entrusts them to a group of elders, who then<br />
distribute them for use to the rest of the tribe. The<br />
Samburu also negotiate directly with other tribes for<br />
l<strong>and</strong>s rights, outside of the jurisdiction of national<br />
laws. The Kenyan government, however, did not take<br />
the Lkiama system or these direct negotiations in<br />
account when developing its new l<strong>and</strong> policy, which<br />
has led to dissention among the Samburu people.<br />
131 Further problems with legal frameworks for local<br />
l<strong>and</strong> rights include overly complicated procedures<br />
for securing these l<strong>and</strong> rights, imprecision in the<br />
definitions of who is entitled to local l<strong>and</strong> rights, <strong>and</strong><br />
conflict over ownership of natural resources within<br />
certain territories. 132<br />
Upon removing indigenous populations from<br />
ancestral l<strong>and</strong>s, governments sometimes resettle<br />
them on l<strong>and</strong>s entirely unfamiliar to the populations.<br />
For example, the Batwa people of Central Africa have<br />
traditionally lived in the forests of Rw<strong>and</strong>a, Ug<strong>and</strong>a,<br />
Burundi, <strong>and</strong> the eastern part of the democratic<br />
Republic of the Congo. In past few decades, these<br />
governments have expelled the Batwa from their<br />
l<strong>and</strong>s because they wished to either undertake a<br />
large infrastructural development program or form<br />
a national park or nature reserve on the territory.<br />
Currently, fewer than 10% of the Batwa still retain<br />
access to traditional forest l<strong>and</strong>s while the rest<br />
have been resettled to villages on the periphery of<br />
mainstream society. 133 These resettled citizens cannot<br />
continue the forms of employment that they used to<br />
undertake in the forest, <strong>and</strong> discrimination from the<br />
majority ethnic group prevents them from obtaining<br />
meaningful work. Most end up working as labor on<br />
other people’s farms <strong>and</strong> have to borrow food in<br />
order to survive. This entraps the Batwa people in a<br />
cycle of debt from which they rarely escape. While<br />
the populations of these African nations are rapidly<br />
rising, the Batwa population is falling, most likely<br />
because of the extreme poverty they face <strong>and</strong> the<br />
subsequent lack of access to food <strong>and</strong> healthcare. 134<br />
The problem of indigenous populations losing their<br />
local l<strong>and</strong> rights is not always forced upon them by<br />
national governments. In some instances, immediate<br />
economic pressures can encourage indigenous<br />
peoples to sell their plots to whomever is willing to pay,<br />
whether it be members of the majority population or a<br />
dominant company. The Olkaria Maasai population of<br />
Kenya, for example, live in Hell’s Gate National Park,<br />
where the Kenya electricity Generating Company<br />
(KenGen), a parastatal organization that produces<br />
the vast majority of the electricity consumed in the<br />
country, has been developing geothermal energy<br />
since before the founding of the park in 1984. After a<br />
long legal dispute, a Kenyan court ruled in 2009 that<br />
the Maasai had rights to the l<strong>and</strong> but, ignoring the<br />
local l<strong>and</strong> customs as discussed above, divided the<br />
l<strong>and</strong> into plots owned by individual members of the<br />
Maasai tribe. While some have retained their l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
resumed traditional agricultural practices, KenGen<br />
has bought out many others, paying them substantial<br />
amounts for their individual titles. This issue has<br />
brought significant intertribal violence <strong>and</strong> conflict to<br />
the region, as those that do not sell were angry with<br />
those that do. 135 Although it seems that the selling of<br />
individual titles benefits the economic situations of<br />
these Maasai, in the long run it will most likely leave<br />
them in a worse position, as most of them do not<br />
have the education or the skills for other occupations<br />
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Increased mining activity in Hell’s Gate National Park have slowly<br />
removed he Maasai of Kenya from their native l<strong>and</strong>s.<br />
<strong>and</strong> are thus left unemployed without their plot of<br />
l<strong>and</strong> to farm.<br />
disregard for indigenous l<strong>and</strong> rights can occur<br />
even when the government is attempting to act in<br />
the best interest of the community. The highl<strong>and</strong>s of<br />
northern Thail<strong>and</strong>, for example, contain significant<br />
indigenous populations, including the Akh <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Lisu, who farm rice, maize, <strong>and</strong> poppy via the slash<strong>and</strong>-burn<br />
technique, an agricultural method used in<br />
overpopulated <strong>and</strong> forested regions where there is<br />
not enough arable l<strong>and</strong>. 136 In slash-<strong>and</strong>-burn farming,<br />
agricultural plots are created through the burning<br />
<strong>and</strong> cutting of all of vegetation in a certain area.<br />
Because of the indigenous slash-<strong>and</strong>-burn methods<br />
<strong>and</strong> significant logging activity, the forests of the<br />
highl<strong>and</strong>s are severely damaged, so the Royal Forest<br />
Department, a body of the Thai government, has<br />
taken ownership of the l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> begun a replanting<br />
campaign. 137 In the process of replanting, however,<br />
the Royal Forest Department has eliminated many<br />
farms that the Akh <strong>and</strong> Lisu were cultivating. None of<br />
the indigenous peoples are Thai citizens, which makes<br />
it extremely difficult for them to retake ownership<br />
of their l<strong>and</strong> at any point. 138 Since their l<strong>and</strong>s have<br />
been taken away, they have seen increased rates of<br />
extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS, <strong>and</strong> drug addiction. 139<br />
Without access to their traditional farming practices,<br />
which produced enough food for the population to<br />
live on, many Akh <strong>and</strong> Lisu have been forced to seek<br />
other forms of income, including local wage labor <strong>and</strong><br />
jobs in the major cities of Thail<strong>and</strong>. 140 the conditions<br />
that these migrants live <strong>and</strong> work in, however, are not<br />
ideal, <strong>and</strong>, as discussed below, they face significant<br />
discrimination that makes it difficult for them to<br />
find other employment. Others have attempted to<br />
adopt sustainable agricultural practices to prevent<br />
the Thai government from taking away their l<strong>and</strong>,<br />
but since the Thai government is instituting these<br />
changes so rapidly, it is unlikely that the adoption<br />
will be successful. 141 this example illustrates the<br />
challenges that the international community faces<br />
when attempting to assist indigenous populations,<br />
as the actions that benefit them sometimes have<br />
other negative consequences, which, in this case, are<br />
environmental.<br />
Another common example of good government<br />
intentions backfiring is the development of national<br />
parks <strong>and</strong> its accompanying tourist economy on<br />
indigenous l<strong>and</strong>s. One such case concerns the<br />
Taroko, an indigenous people of Taiwan. Their<br />
territory encompasses the Taroko Gorge, a worldclass<br />
attraction that draws almost two million tourists<br />
annually. Since the founding of the Republic of China<br />
on Taiwan, the government has taken away much of<br />
their l<strong>and</strong> for development projects. The largest l<strong>and</strong><br />
grab was in 1980, when the government created the<br />
Taroko National Park. Taroko residents were forced to<br />
relocate with limited reparations <strong>and</strong> were forbidden<br />
from practicing their local customs, including hunting,<br />
fishing, <strong>and</strong> slash-<strong>and</strong>-burn agriculture. 142 Many<br />
Taroko left for jobs in the city but found themselves<br />
unemployed with the cutback in industrialization <strong>and</strong><br />
importation of foreign labor during the economic<br />
restructuring of the 1990s. Today, the government<br />
of the Republic of China is attempting to convince<br />
the Taroko to begin small businesses in the tourist<br />
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industry, like bed <strong>and</strong> breakfasts <strong>and</strong> restaurants, but<br />
the indigenous population is largely resistant. 143 When<br />
interviewed, they say that they are not interested in<br />
the market economy <strong>and</strong> just want enough food <strong>and</strong><br />
money for their expenses; what are most important to<br />
the Taroko people are their l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> their traditional<br />
lifestyles, which are unlikely to be returned to them in<br />
the near future. 144<br />
There are a number of indigenous organizations<br />
that have been fighting for local l<strong>and</strong> rights, most<br />
notably those in Latin America. In the 1990s,<br />
indigenous rights non-governmental organizations<br />
(NGOs) throughout the region made significant<br />
attempts to map, demarcate, <strong>and</strong> title the l<strong>and</strong>s of<br />
the indigenous populations. These efforts were fairly<br />
successful in certain parts of Colombia, Peru, <strong>and</strong><br />
Brazil, but they ran into resistance in other countries,<br />
like Chile <strong>and</strong> Argentina. Unfortunately, even in the<br />
countries where these efforts had some success, the<br />
indigenous populations did not win full l<strong>and</strong> rights. in<br />
many instances where these NGOs won indigenous<br />
titles to local l<strong>and</strong>s, the territories that were granted<br />
to the indigenous peoples did not cover all of the l<strong>and</strong><br />
that they utilized for their economic activities, leaving<br />
many in the same situation in which they began.<br />
Additionally, armed conflict in some countries, most<br />
notably Colombia, has forced indigenous populations<br />
off of their l<strong>and</strong>s, erasing any benefits they had won<br />
from gaining title to the l<strong>and</strong>. 145<br />
Limited progress has also been made in certain<br />
countries in rectifying past disregard for indigenous<br />
l<strong>and</strong>. A new l<strong>and</strong> policy in ug<strong>and</strong>a, for example,<br />
promises compensation for past <strong>and</strong> future l<strong>and</strong><br />
seizures, though the exact method <strong>and</strong> amount of<br />
compensation have yet to be determined. This new<br />
l<strong>and</strong> policy also seeks to increase indigenous l<strong>and</strong><br />
ownership by simplifying the process for members of<br />
indigenous communities to apply to gain official title<br />
for the l<strong>and</strong>. this l<strong>and</strong> policy has not yet passed the<br />
Ug<strong>and</strong>a legislature, however. 146 Nevertheless, this<br />
first step gives hope that governments in the future<br />
will take indigenous l<strong>and</strong> rights into account when<br />
determining national policy.<br />
Some suggest that the international community<br />
should not focus on local l<strong>and</strong> rights when seeking<br />
to improve the economic situation of indigenous<br />
peoples. Roger Riddell, for example, argues that<br />
so many indigenous people have already forsaken<br />
their ancestral l<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> traditional occupations<br />
for urban life <strong>and</strong> employment <strong>and</strong> that our efforts<br />
should primarily attempt to help indigenous migrants<br />
in those urban locations. 147 The reason, however,<br />
that so many indigenous people have migrated to<br />
urban areas at an increasingly rapid pace is that they<br />
have been forced off of their ancestral l<strong>and</strong>s or that,<br />
because of the global economy, they are unable to<br />
subsist on these l<strong>and</strong>s alone. If the international<br />
community works to protect indigenous l<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong><br />
make them viable for economic subsistence, then the<br />
problem of indigenous populations in urban areas will<br />
lessen.<br />
Lack of Indigenous Civic Participation<br />
One of the major problems that anthropologists<br />
<strong>and</strong> activists have discovered with previous failed<br />
attempts to assist the economic <strong>and</strong> human<br />
development of indigenous peoples is the lack of<br />
participation by indigenous peoples in the drafting<br />
<strong>and</strong> debate of plans that are intended to assist them.<br />
When indigenous populations are excluded from<br />
the development discussion, subsequent policies<br />
either fail to recognize their interests at all or initiate<br />
action that is harmful to them. Policies that promote<br />
general economic growth, which primarily affect<br />
the wealthy <strong>and</strong> the majority ethnic population, are<br />
different from those that assist the development<br />
of indigenous populations, but many poverty<br />
reduction strategies do not make this distinction<br />
<strong>and</strong> only involve plans to increase general growth. 148<br />
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Often, these general growth strategies, including<br />
privatization <strong>and</strong> trade liberalization, not only fail<br />
to help but actually adversely affect indigenous<br />
populations. Even if minority development strategies<br />
are included, they are often underfunded <strong>and</strong><br />
ineffective. Without the participation of indigenous<br />
peoples in the development discussion, it will be<br />
difficult to prevent flawed policies from being<br />
enacted again in the future. indigenous peoples need<br />
to be included at all levels of the debate, including<br />
policy <strong>and</strong> program design, implementation, <strong>and</strong><br />
evaluation. 149 Additionally, according to the World<br />
Bank, growth is more sustainable in countries where<br />
political power is more evenly distributed, a reason<br />
in itself to encourage indigenous participation in the<br />
development discussion. 150<br />
An example of the harm that can come from<br />
leaving indigenous peoples out of the development<br />
discussion is the 1997 Poverty Eradication Action Plan<br />
in ug<strong>and</strong>a. this plan was touted as a proposal for<br />
reducing poverty among minority populations, but in<br />
reality, it had no effect on the dire circumstances that<br />
many indigenous people in the country still endure.<br />
The Poverty Eradication Action Plan called for the<br />
liberalization of trade, privatization of industries,<br />
low inflation, <strong>and</strong> a balancing of the budget. It also<br />
cut social programs that were targeted at poverty<br />
reduction, human development, <strong>and</strong> income<br />
distribution. The indigenous population relied on<br />
many of the eliminated programs for assistance, <strong>and</strong><br />
the reduction in government spending <strong>and</strong> lowering<br />
of inflation prevented the development of new public<br />
or private initiatives to assist the indigenous groups.<br />
Overall, the Poverty Eradication Action Plan was a<br />
complete failure <strong>and</strong> exemplifies the importance<br />
of indigenous involvement in the discussion <strong>and</strong><br />
development of any future poverty reduction plans. 151<br />
There are many factors that prevent indigenous<br />
populations from participating in development<br />
discussions. Their minority status may not be<br />
recognized by the national government in the first<br />
place, which makes any attempt to create special<br />
programs nearly impossible. 152 Many indigenous<br />
populations speak a small minority language instead<br />
of the official national language <strong>and</strong> thus cannot<br />
communicate with governmental officials. Further<br />
challenges include a lack of education among<br />
indigenous people, which prevents them from<br />
underst<strong>and</strong>ing the complex economic issues involved<br />
<strong>and</strong> from articulating their needs to others, <strong>and</strong> a lack<br />
of knowledge about government processes <strong>and</strong> their<br />
rights. 153 NGOs that represent indigenous peoples<br />
can provide a voice for these disenfranchised people,<br />
but these groups often have their own troubles,<br />
including limited funding for travel, translation, <strong>and</strong><br />
information gathering. 154<br />
The international community has taken a step<br />
toward indigenous involvement in the development<br />
discussion with the establishment of the Poverty<br />
Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) by the World Bank<br />
<strong>and</strong> the International Monetary Fund. The PRSPs are<br />
documents that these two organizations require<br />
before they allocate any sort of development aid under<br />
the Heavily Indebted Poor Country initiative, <strong>and</strong> they<br />
force developing countries to draft proposals for<br />
using the aid to reduce poverty within their borders. 155<br />
Thus, at a minimum the PRSPs encourage developing<br />
nations with significant indigenous communities<br />
to consider how to effectively bring economic<br />
development to the most remote regions. Many<br />
countries, however, have drafted PRSPs without<br />
considering the effects of their policies on indigenous<br />
peoples <strong>and</strong> have thereby ignored the plights of some<br />
of their poorest residents. 156Any effective solution to<br />
this problem necessitates the inclusion of indigenous<br />
peoples in developing countries’ PRSPs to support<br />
their participation in the creation of development<br />
policies.<br />
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Discrimination<br />
Of all of the factors that lead to extreme poverty<br />
like arson, rape, or murder. In the face of this violent<br />
discrimination, it is impossible for indigenous peoples<br />
among indigenous peoples, the most important may<br />
be the discrimination that they encounter from the<br />
ethnic majority population <strong>and</strong> the government. 157<br />
Such discrimination is especially relevant if the<br />
indigenous population has been evicted from<br />
their tribal l<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong><br />
are forced to seek<br />
new employment<br />
opportunities outside<br />
of their traditional<br />
occupations. Many<br />
indigenous peoples<br />
have trouble securing<br />
jobs because members<br />
of the majority ethnic<br />
population own <strong>and</strong><br />
operate most businesses<br />
<strong>and</strong> are averse to hiring<br />
indigenous labor. Many<br />
employers do not value<br />
indigenous knowledge <strong>and</strong> skills <strong>and</strong> instead see<br />
indigenous peoples as uneducated <strong>and</strong> backwards.<br />
Even when they can secure employment, indigenous<br />
people are almost always underpaid in comparison<br />
to non-minorities. An analysis of these earnings<br />
differentials globally shows that between 25% <strong>and</strong> 50%<br />
of the differences in pay can be account for as a result<br />
of discrimination. this distinction is especially acute<br />
for jobs that require higher levels of education. 158 in<br />
addition to employment, discrimination also prevents<br />
indigenous peoples from accessing educational<br />
opportunities <strong>and</strong> healthcare. 159<br />
to continue with their traditional livelihoods or with<br />
their attempts to establish new lives elsewhere. On<br />
the other h<strong>and</strong>, extreme poverty can also be the cause<br />
of violence <strong>and</strong> crime among indigenous populations.<br />
Without meaningful educational opportunities or<br />
employment, many<br />
indigenous youth<br />
commit violent acts or<br />
crimes in desperation.<br />
Thus, the problem with<br />
lawlessness is present<br />
on both sides; in order<br />
to bring indigenous<br />
people out of poverty,<br />
we must protect them<br />
from discriminatory<br />
crimes, but the poverty<br />
that discrimination<br />
causes among the same<br />
population leads them to<br />
commit their own crimes.<br />
In some circumstances, discrimination can take<br />
the form of violence <strong>and</strong> crime. Indigenous peoples<br />
sometimes find themselves subject to constant attacks<br />
from members of the majority ethnic population in the<br />
form of nonviolent harassment or more violent crimes<br />
160 It is impossible to provide<br />
developmental aid to areas with significant violence,<br />
an issue that has rendered many governments <strong>and</strong><br />
civil society organizations inactive in the face of<br />
indigenous poverty. It is therefore urgent that the<br />
international community finds a way to stop this cycle<br />
of violence.<br />
Discrimination is most prevalent in urban<br />
environments in which indigenous peoples live<br />
side-by-side with members of the majority ethnic<br />
group <strong>and</strong> members of other minority populations.<br />
Indigenous peoples are often driven to cities by l<strong>and</strong><br />
dispossession <strong>and</strong> eviction <strong>and</strong> the search for new<br />
employment opportunities, as shown in many of the<br />
examples described above. Once in cities, however,<br />
indigenous peoples are often unable to find adequate<br />
employment or housing. 161 Upon moving to a city in search of employment, many indigenous<br />
peoples find themselves living in slums, such as the infamous Rochina<br />
slum in Rio de Janeiro.<br />
If they are lucky enough to<br />
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find a job, they are usually employed in unskilled <strong>and</strong><br />
underpaid positions such as domestic or construction<br />
workers or small street vendors. Because of these<br />
low-paying jobs, indigenous populations in cities are<br />
dependent on social services from the government<br />
though many do not have access to these benefits for<br />
varied reasons.<br />
The lack of adequate housing is another serious<br />
problem for indigenous peoples in cities. They<br />
often reside in informal settlements <strong>and</strong> slums on<br />
the outskirts of the traditional city center that are<br />
overcrowded <strong>and</strong> do not have sufficient sanitation<br />
facilities, electricity, <strong>and</strong> other amenities. these<br />
settlements <strong>and</strong> slum are never constructed with<br />
long-term settlement in mind, so they are susceptible<br />
to mudslides <strong>and</strong> erosion, exposing residents to<br />
danger. 162<br />
An example of an indigenous group that has<br />
encountered intense discrimination after urbanization<br />
is the Murle community of South Sudan. in a search<br />
for increased employment opportunities, many Murle<br />
families migrated to the regional capital, Bor. in Bor,<br />
however, they have been unable to find jobs or get<br />
adequate housing because of the discrimination that<br />
they have faced from the majority ethnic group, the<br />
Dinka. Much of the economy of Bor is still based on<br />
agriculture, <strong>and</strong> the Murle community often faces<br />
revenge attacks from the Dinka for cattle death, even<br />
when there is no evidence that the Murle people had<br />
any involvement in deaths in the first place. The Dinka<br />
also harass the Murle when they hear them using<br />
their indigenous language around town. 163<br />
Current Situation<br />
Statistics about the current state of poverty among<br />
indigenous populations make clear the seriousness<br />
of the problem the international community is facing<br />
today. Rates of poverty among indigenous peoples<br />
are significantly higher than those among nonminority<br />
groups. Overall, indigenous peoples make<br />
up between four <strong>and</strong> five percent of the world’s total<br />
population, a small but substantial minority. When<br />
we restrict our focus to the world’s poor population,<br />
however, the relative size of the indigenous<br />
population dramatically increases; it is estimated that<br />
been ten <strong>and</strong> fifteen percent of the world’s poor are<br />
members of indigenous minorities. 164, 165 Given the fact<br />
that many indigenous peoples reside outside of urban<br />
centers, it is not surprising that they make up an even<br />
higher portion (around one-third) of the world’s rural<br />
poor population. 166 Of all of the indigenous peoples<br />
throughout the world, just over one-third live in<br />
poverty. 167<br />
As will be discussed below, one of the major<br />
obstacles in solving the problem of poverty among<br />
indigenous peoples is the lack of information on the<br />
current condition that such populations are facing in<br />
different regions. That being said, the information<br />
that we do have on indigenous poverty presents a<br />
dire reality. Latin America, with its sizeable indigenous<br />
population, provides a good case study. Across the<br />
region, rates of poverty among indigenous peoples are<br />
significantly higher than those among ethnic majority<br />
groups. In Peru, for example, 65% of the indigenous<br />
population lives in poverty, as opposed to 43% of the<br />
general population. 168 Bolivia <strong>and</strong> Guatemala have<br />
even higher rates, with about half of the population<br />
under the poverty line, including three-quarters of all<br />
indigenous peoples. In the Latin American country<br />
with the highest poverty rates, Ecuador, only one in<br />
ten members of indigenous communities do not live<br />
in poverty; as suggested above, the problem is even<br />
more pronounced in rural areas, with 96% of rural<br />
indigenous Ecuadorians under the poverty line. 169 the<br />
issue of poverty among indigenous peoples in Latin<br />
America affects not only the indigenous communities<br />
themselves but also the general population. In<br />
Mexico, for example, rates of extreme poverty are<br />
almost five times higher in regions with significant<br />
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indigenous populations than in those without, not<br />
only for the indigenous peoples but also for nonindigenous<br />
groups living in the area. 170<br />
the dire situations that indigenous peoples face<br />
in Latin America is also evident in developmental<br />
indicators other than simple poverty rates. According<br />
to a study by the International Labour Organization,<br />
members of indigenous communities in Latin American<br />
earn approximately half of the income earned by the<br />
average non-minority citizen. 171 Such a statistic has<br />
obvious implications for indigenous peoples’ access<br />
to basic resources <strong>and</strong> services, including food,<br />
shelter, <strong>and</strong> healthcare, <strong>and</strong> underscores why the<br />
poverty rates among indigenous populations are so<br />
high. Indigenous peoples are also behind in indicators<br />
of overall health. Malnutrition rates, for example, are<br />
twice as high among the indigenous population than<br />
the majority ethnic groups. 172 unfortunately, as the<br />
overall population in most Latin American countries<br />
has seen progress toward economic development in<br />
recent years, this does not seem to be the case for<br />
indigenous groups. In Guatemala, the overall poverty<br />
rate has fallen almost thirty percentage points in the<br />
past twenty years, while the indigenous poverty rate<br />
has remained essentially the same. Some countries,<br />
like Chile, have seen poverty rates for indigenous<br />
peoples fall at the same pace as those for the general<br />
population, but they are the exception rather than<br />
the rule in Latin America. 173<br />
In Asia, another continent with significant<br />
indigenous populations, poverty rates for those<br />
indigenous peoples have been rapidly falling. In China,<br />
for example, the overall poverty rate has declined<br />
from 84% in 1981 to just 16% in 2005, <strong>and</strong> the rates<br />
among indigenous populations have actually fallen<br />
even more drastically than those for the majority<br />
Han ethnic group, though the overall percentage of<br />
indigenous poor remains higher than that of poor<br />
Han Chinese. Current estimates put the poverty rate<br />
among the indigenous population in China at 5.4%,<br />
by far the lowest among countries with a significant<br />
number of indigenous groups. 174 Vietnam <strong>and</strong> India<br />
have seen similar, though less extreme, progress,<br />
with poverty rates among indigenous peoples falling<br />
about 20% to current levels of 52.3% in Vietnam <strong>and</strong><br />
43.8% in India. An analysis of the statistics for Vietnam<br />
shows, however, that some changes in policy are<br />
necessary; while the poverty rate among indigenous<br />
peoples has fallen by about 20%, the poverty rate for<br />
the majority ethnic population fell over 40% in the<br />
same period. 175 While it is unclear whether declines<br />
in poverty rates mean that indigenous populations<br />
are actually doing better overall or, as this figure<br />
suggest, that there are other areas in which they still<br />
lag behind the majority ethnic group, these statistics<br />
In many of the world’s largest developing nations, the indigenous<br />
poverty rate is higher than that of the general population.<br />
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do provide hope that an improvement in the situation<br />
of indigenous peoples is possible.<br />
The impoverishment of indigenous peoples is not a<br />
problem that is confined to the developing world. The<br />
united States, Canada, Australia, <strong>and</strong> New Zeal<strong>and</strong><br />
also have small indigenous populations that exhibit<br />
developmental indices well below those of the nonindigenous<br />
populations. in terms of unemployment,<br />
indigenous rates are two to three times higher in these<br />
countries than the non-indigenous rates. As of 2009 in<br />
New Zeal<strong>and</strong>, for example, 7.7% of indigenous peoples<br />
did not have meaningful employment, as opposed to<br />
3.8% of the rest of the population. 176 Income levels<br />
for indigenous populations are significantly lower<br />
than those for non-indigenous groups; in the United<br />
States, Native Americans earn approximately half of<br />
what the general population makes. In Canada, 60%<br />
of the indigenous population in cities live below the<br />
poverty line, including 80% of indigenous peoples<br />
in Winnipeg. 177 Of these countries, Australia has the<br />
worst record in terms of indigenous poverty, with<br />
only 34% of indigenous peoples owning their own<br />
In developed countries, like the United States, Canada, Australia,<br />
<strong>and</strong> New Zeal<strong>and</strong>, indigenous peoples comprise a large proportion<br />
of the poor population<br />
homes <strong>and</strong> half of all indigenous communities lacking<br />
access to a safe water supply. 178<br />
As mentioned in the introduction to this topic, the<br />
need to diminish the impoverishment of indigenous<br />
peoples can be thought of as an aspect of the first<br />
MDG: to eradicate extreme poverty <strong>and</strong> hunger<br />
worldwide. The specific subgoals of the first MDG<br />
are to halve the proportion of people living on less<br />
than $1 a day <strong>and</strong> the proportion of people who suffer<br />
from hunger <strong>and</strong> to achieve decent employment for<br />
women, men, <strong>and</strong> young people. The twelve years<br />
since the establishment of the MDGs have seen mixed<br />
overall progress toward these targets. Only slight<br />
progress has been made in reducing hunger; while<br />
the percentage of people that are undernourished<br />
has dropped from 19.8% to 15.5% between 1990<br />
<strong>and</strong> 2008, the overall number of undernourished<br />
individuals has remained stagnant at around 850<br />
million, <strong>and</strong> rates of undernourishment are still<br />
around 20% in Sub-Saharan Africa <strong>and</strong> Southern<br />
Asia. 179 A similar situation is evident with the target of<br />
achieving decent employment, with a decrease in the<br />
working poverty rate but not in the absolute number<br />
of employed people living beneath the poverty line.<br />
The vast majority of progress in the area has been<br />
made in eastern Asia, meaning that the situation<br />
remains grim for the poor in other regions. 180 On a<br />
more positive note, however, the first subgoal of the<br />
first MDG, halving the number of people living on less<br />
than $1 per day, has likely already been achieved on a<br />
global scale. According to a United Nations progress<br />
report on the MDG, the portion of people living on<br />
less than $1.25 (inflation-adjusted) per day dropped<br />
from 47% in 1990 to 24% in 2008; a preliminary World<br />
Bank report has this figure even lower for 2010, which<br />
would put the poverty rate at less than half of the<br />
1990 baseline. 181<br />
While the global progress on poverty reduction<br />
is laudable, it masks the fact that many indigenous<br />
populations are not enjoying the same reductions<br />
in impoverishment <strong>and</strong> hunger. Most countries will<br />
likely reach the benchmark set out in the Millennium<br />
Declaration of halving the number of proportion of<br />
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people living on $1 per day, but the indigenous groups<br />
within their borders will not. 182 Because indigenous<br />
peoples do not make up a large percentage of the<br />
total population of many countries, the levels of<br />
various development indicators achieved by these<br />
countries are hardly affected by worse statistics for<br />
indigenous communities. That should not be taken<br />
to mean, however, that the economic development<br />
of indigenous communities should not be a priority<br />
for national governments. Many policies aimed at<br />
reducing poverty <strong>and</strong> hunger to the targets set in the<br />
first MDG do not reach indigenous peoples <strong>and</strong> do<br />
not take their specific needs <strong>and</strong> circumstances into<br />
account. 183 Any plan to achieve true success with the<br />
Millennium Development Goals will have to include<br />
special policies designed specifically for indigenous<br />
peoples.<br />
the importance of targeting indigenous peoples for<br />
achieving the MDGs becomes evident by examining the<br />
progress of nations <strong>and</strong> their indigenous populations<br />
toward various MDG targets. Two types of countries<br />
emerge through this analysis. The first are countries<br />
that are on track to achieve certain MDG targets but<br />
have indigenous minorities that will not reach the<br />
same level of improvement. Minorities in Vietnam,<br />
for example, have poverty rates 40% higher than<br />
the majority ethnic population. Mexico, a member<br />
of the Organisation for economic Co-operation <strong>and</strong><br />
Development (OECD), is likely to reach almost all<br />
of the MDG targets, but the region of Metlatonoc,<br />
which is 98% indigenous, has development indices<br />
comparable to Malawi <strong>and</strong> Angola, two of the most<br />
underdeveloped countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. 184<br />
the second category of countries are those that are<br />
not going to reach some of the MDG targets because<br />
of their indigenous minority groups, including many<br />
African nations like Cameroon, Mali, <strong>and</strong> Senegal.<br />
In Niger, for example, 29% of children experienced<br />
nutrition deprivation in 2006, a figure that was<br />
elevated due to the 33% <strong>and</strong> 30% rates among the Peul<br />
<strong>and</strong> tuareg minority populations. 185 these statistics<br />
make it clear that more must be done to specifically<br />
target indigenous peoples in order to achieve the<br />
MdGs for all segments of the population.<br />
Many people working toward improving the<br />
situation for indigenous peoples believe that the<br />
framework of the MDGs needs to be altered if we<br />
hope to achieve the MDG targets among indigenous<br />
populations. Firstly, the MDGs do not explain the<br />
need to address indigenous groups differently.<br />
Because of this, national development policies do<br />
not take indigenous groups into account. A survey of<br />
MDG reports from various nations shows that 68% of<br />
countries’ plans do not respond to the special needs<br />
of indigenous peoples, <strong>and</strong> many do not even mention<br />
the existence of indigenous peoples at all; additionally,<br />
when indigenous populations are mentioned in these<br />
reports, it is almost exclusive in the sections about<br />
the second MDG, which concern universal primary<br />
education. 186,187 As shown above, general statistics<br />
on MDG progress make the condition of indigenous<br />
peoples invisible. Secondly, the desire to achieve<br />
the MdG targets has encouraged some countries to<br />
take actions that harm their indigenous populations,<br />
like increased mining efforts in the Philippines <strong>and</strong><br />
seizing of pastoral l<strong>and</strong>s for agriculture in Kenya. 188<br />
thirdly, the MdGs are not framed in a human rightsbased<br />
way, meaning that they do not take into<br />
consideration the fact that a population cannot make<br />
significant developmental progress if they do not<br />
have basic human rights. It is impossible to talk about<br />
reducing hunger, for example, without first ensuring<br />
that everyone has secured his or her right to food. 189<br />
Finally, the MDGs are enumerated as development<br />
targets <strong>and</strong> do not take account for the structural<br />
causes of poverty, including discrimination <strong>and</strong> a lack<br />
of indigenous civic involvement as discussed above. 190<br />
Reflecting on the way that the MDGs have been<br />
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conceptualized <strong>and</strong> implemented, some consider the<br />
MDGs themselves as a significant obstacle in bringing<br />
indigenous peoples out of poverty.<br />
Past international Action<br />
Given the severity of the current conditions<br />
of impoverishment for indigenous peoples, the<br />
international community has a surprisingly wellestablished<br />
base of resolutions <strong>and</strong> declarations on<br />
the topic. The United Nations General Assembly has<br />
listed the right to development among the st<strong>and</strong>ard<br />
human rights in numerous resolutions over the<br />
past sixty years, beginning with the 1948 Universal<br />
Declaration on Human Rights. The International<br />
Covenant on Economic, <strong>Social</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> Rights<br />
of 1966 also includes various aspects of the right<br />
to development, including the right to work in a<br />
profession of one’s choice, the right to fair wages,<br />
the right to an adequate st<strong>and</strong>ard of living, <strong>and</strong><br />
the right to freedom from hunger. 191 this right<br />
was formalized in 1986 with the United Nations<br />
Declaration on the Right to Development, which<br />
defines development as “a comprehensive economic,<br />
social, cultural <strong>and</strong> political process, which aims at the<br />
constant improvement of the well-being of the entire<br />
population <strong>and</strong> of all individuals.” 192 it calls upon all<br />
states to work toward development for all peoples<br />
<strong>and</strong> to specifically protect equal access to basic<br />
resources, food, housing, <strong>and</strong> the fair distribution<br />
of income. Thus, the rights to development <strong>and</strong><br />
to freedom from impoverishment are thoroughly<br />
established in United Nations precedent.<br />
The first major international treaty to codify<br />
the developmental rights specifically accorded to<br />
indigenous peoples is the 1989 International Labour<br />
Organization (ILO) Indigenous <strong>and</strong> Tribal Peoples<br />
Convention. The Indigenous <strong>and</strong> Tribal Peoples<br />
Convention updated a previous ILO resolution,<br />
removing all calls for the assimilation <strong>and</strong> integration<br />
of indigenous peoples from the older document.<br />
it declares that states must help eliminate the<br />
socio-economic gap between indigenous <strong>and</strong> nonindigenous<br />
populations. It encourages governments<br />
to consult indigenous peoples in all developmental<br />
decisions. Finally, it lists a number of specific<br />
developmental rights that indigenous peoples are<br />
accorded, including the right to ownership over<br />
traditionally occupied l<strong>and</strong>s, the right to consultation,<br />
consent, <strong>and</strong> adequate compensation for relocation,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the right to freedom from discrimination in<br />
employment. 193 Despite its passage by the ILO, the<br />
Indigenous <strong>and</strong> Tribal Peoples Convention has only<br />
been ratified by 22 nations <strong>and</strong> is not legally binding<br />
in most countries.<br />
The most relevant <strong>and</strong> recent international<br />
agreement is the 2007 united Nations declaration<br />
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a l<strong>and</strong>mark<br />
document in the modern human rights movement.<br />
With the declaration on the Rights of indigenous<br />
Peoples, the United Nations General Assembly<br />
affirmed for the first time that all previous human<br />
rights accords, including the Universal Declaration<br />
of Human Rights <strong>and</strong> the International Covenant on<br />
Economic, <strong>Social</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> Rights, are applicable<br />
to indigenous peoples. the declaration on the<br />
Rights of indigenous Peoples goes on to enumerate<br />
a list of rights that are especially relevant for the<br />
problems that indigenous peoples face in the modern<br />
world. A number of these rights aim to secure<br />
the ability of indigenous peoples to emerge from<br />
impoverishment <strong>and</strong> to development economically<br />
while still maintaining their traditional cultures <strong>and</strong><br />
livelihoods. Article 20, for example, reserves the right<br />
for indigenous peoples to have security in whatever<br />
means of subsistence <strong>and</strong> development they choose.<br />
Article 23 explicitly protects the right to development<br />
for indigenous peoples <strong>and</strong> reads:<br />
“Indigenous peoples have the right<br />
to determine <strong>and</strong> develop priorities<br />
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<strong>and</strong> strategies for exercising their<br />
right to development. In particular,<br />
indigenous peoples have the right<br />
to be actively involved in developing<br />
<strong>and</strong> determining health, housing<br />
<strong>and</strong> other economic <strong>and</strong> social<br />
programmes affecting them <strong>and</strong>, as<br />
far as possible, to administer such<br />
programmes through their own<br />
institutions.” 194<br />
thus, the declaration on the Rights of indigenous<br />
Peoples makes a strong statement in favor of<br />
assisting the development of indigenous groups<br />
through measures that cater to their needs <strong>and</strong><br />
circumstances.<br />
the declaration on the Rights of indigenous<br />
Peoples also deals directly with a number of the<br />
causes of impoverishment in indigenous communities<br />
that were discussed above. Articles 18 <strong>and</strong> 19, for<br />
example, call on states to include indigenous peoples<br />
in the decision-making process on issues that affect<br />
them through inclusion in representative bodies <strong>and</strong><br />
consultation with indigenous institutions. Article<br />
21 protects “the right, without discrimination, to<br />
the improvement of their economic <strong>and</strong> social<br />
conditions,” including in the areas of employment,<br />
housing, <strong>and</strong> sanitation. 195 A number of different<br />
articles discuss the issue of indigenous l<strong>and</strong> rights.<br />
Article 10 states that indigenous peoples shall not<br />
be removed from their l<strong>and</strong> without consent <strong>and</strong> fair<br />
compensation. Article 26 gives indigenous peoples<br />
the rights to the l<strong>and</strong>s that they have traditionally<br />
occupied <strong>and</strong> used <strong>and</strong> calls upon states to give<br />
legal recognition to these claims. Finally, Article 27<br />
encourages governments to set up processes for<br />
adjudicating local l<strong>and</strong> rights disputes. 196<br />
As evident in this brief description of the previous<br />
international action on the impoverishment of<br />
indigenous peoples, there is a strong precedent for<br />
protecting the right of indigenous groups to equal<br />
opportunities for development. The dire conditions<br />
in which many indigenous peoples find themselves<br />
today, however, suggest that this legal <strong>and</strong><br />
theoretical precedent is not enough. In order to solve<br />
this problem, more calls for the protection of various<br />
human rights will not be enough; the international<br />
community must instead implement concrete plans<br />
<strong>and</strong> policies for reducing poverty among indigenous<br />
populations.<br />
Possible Solutions<br />
As suggested in the discussion of the problems<br />
with the framework of the Millennium Development<br />
Goals, the first step in solving the issue of poverty<br />
among indigenous peoples is the creation of a<br />
system for gathering more information on the<br />
situations that indigenous peoples face <strong>and</strong> for<br />
underst<strong>and</strong>ing the specific circumstances of<br />
each group. First, instead of broad statistics for<br />
development indices across the entire population, it<br />
is necessary for countries to collect disaggregated<br />
data for indigenous groups. 197 Collecting information<br />
specific to indigenous people would also encourage<br />
improved data collection techniques in general.<br />
Having better data on indigenous populations would<br />
raise awareness among the international community<br />
on the issues facing these groups <strong>and</strong> would provide<br />
an impetus for the implementation of policies that<br />
are specifically targeted toward them. 198 in addition<br />
to quantitative data, it is also vital to underst<strong>and</strong> the<br />
different circumstances that lead to poverty among<br />
various indigenous populations. Some populations<br />
are impoverished because they live in remote areas<br />
without access to infrastructure <strong>and</strong> basic services;<br />
others, because governments <strong>and</strong> private investors<br />
have taken their local l<strong>and</strong>s for development projects.<br />
Plans <strong>and</strong> policies for improving the economic<br />
situation of a specific population will, of course,<br />
depend on the causes that lead to impoverishment<br />
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in the first place. Additionally, as mentioned in the<br />
introduction, there is no definitive level of wealth<br />
that constitutes “poverty;” instead, it is necessary<br />
to develop policies that help each indigenous group<br />
reach their own version of economic sufficiency. 199<br />
Another way of making the MDGs more relevant to<br />
indigenous peoples is to require nations to discuss<br />
such populations in their regular MdG reports.<br />
Each of the causes of impoverishment among<br />
indigenous peoples discussed above requires unique<br />
solutions. The easiest one to solve is most likely<br />
the lack of participation of indigenous peoples in<br />
the development discussion. Most governments<br />
simply do not seek input from indigenous groups<br />
concerning developmental polices <strong>and</strong> initiatives,<br />
<strong>and</strong> it should not be very difficult for governments to<br />
create methods of encouraging participation. Such<br />
solutions could involve more budget transparency for<br />
development programs or the creation of indigenous<br />
advisory councils. 200 Some suggest that the process of<br />
political empowerment only occurs over a long period<br />
of time <strong>and</strong> that local direct empowerment may have<br />
a more immediate effect. There is evidence from<br />
other aspects of development that this strategy may<br />
work. In some rural, impoverished districts in Mexico,<br />
for example, parents were given the ability to allocate<br />
small sums of money for various education programs;<br />
Specialized proposals are necessary for each indigenous group to<br />
lift them from poverty <strong>and</strong> improve their well-being.<br />
after this system was initiated, the st<strong>and</strong>ardized test<br />
scores of these schools improved. 201<br />
Other causes of impoverishment among indigenous<br />
peoples may be more difficult to solve. The Declaration<br />
on the Rights of indigenous Peoples explicitly protects<br />
indigenous l<strong>and</strong> rights, but most countries have failed<br />
to implement these policies on a national level. Thus,<br />
the framework exists to solve this problem, but it is<br />
now a matter of putting it into practice. A successful<br />
solution to this problem will involve the creation of<br />
a system for evaluating indigenous l<strong>and</strong> rights <strong>and</strong><br />
adjudicating disputes between indigenous peoples<br />
<strong>and</strong> private corporations. Such a proposal could also<br />
include a method of compensation for past <strong>and</strong> future<br />
relocations. A complex plan is also needed to stop<br />
indigenous peoples from being denied basic services,<br />
housing, <strong>and</strong> employment because of their ethnicity.<br />
Some suggest that countries implement affirmative<br />
action-type programs for public employment, <strong>and</strong><br />
housing so that indigenous minorities that are unable<br />
to secure jobs <strong>and</strong> housing in the private sector are<br />
protected. 202 Alternatively, stricter laws <strong>and</strong> penalties<br />
can be enforced to prevent such discrimination in the<br />
public <strong>and</strong> private sectors.<br />
The effects of trade liberalization are perhaps the<br />
most difficult aspect of this problem to solve. Many<br />
scholars <strong>and</strong> politicians consider trade liberalization<br />
to be an instrumental part of the modern economy<br />
<strong>and</strong> a necessary condition for sustained economic<br />
growth, so it is unlikely that most governments<br />
would be willing to act to increase tariffs <strong>and</strong> keep<br />
out transnational companies to protect indigenous<br />
industries <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong> rights. Possible solutions will<br />
have to focus on preventing the effects of trade<br />
liberalization from harming indigenous peoples. Such<br />
measures could include programs to compensate<br />
indigenous workers for lost earnings or the creation<br />
of protected areas for indigenous groups to continue<br />
their traditional lifestyles free from interference from<br />
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the government or foreign companies.<br />
Questions a Resolution Must Answer<br />
(QARMA)<br />
1. How can governments protect indigenous<br />
peoples from the harms of trade liberalization<br />
without hindering overall economic growth<br />
<strong>and</strong> development?<br />
2. How can the international community protect<br />
indigenous l<strong>and</strong> rights in the face of significant<br />
resource extraction <strong>and</strong> infrastructural<br />
development projects?<br />
3. What measures can governments take<br />
to ensure indigenous participation in the<br />
development discussion?<br />
4. How can we guarantee access for indigenous<br />
peoples to employment, housing, <strong>and</strong> other<br />
social services without a fear of discrimination?<br />
5. Should the first MDG, <strong>and</strong> possibly the entire<br />
MDG program, be altered to reflect the needs<br />
of indigenous peoples? if so, how?<br />
Key Actors <strong>and</strong> Positions<br />
Perhaps the most important actors for this topic are<br />
the indigenous peoples themselves. Unfortunately,<br />
given the structure of the United Nations, non-state<br />
groups have no direct input into the proceedings<br />
of the committee. That said, however, it is essential<br />
that all states consider the severity of the problem<br />
of indigenous impoverishment <strong>and</strong> the effect<br />
that any policy proposal may have on indigenous<br />
populations. Given their traditional livelihood <strong>and</strong><br />
cultures, developmental initiatives will affect them<br />
differently than they would members of the majority<br />
ethnic population, <strong>and</strong> it is necessary to keep this in<br />
mind. One of the purposes of the united Nations is to<br />
give support to those that are normally not heard on<br />
the international stage, <strong>and</strong> the world’s indigenous<br />
peoples definitely qualify as such a marginalized<br />
group.<br />
In 2007, four nations voted against the UN<br />
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: the<br />
united States, Canada, Australia, <strong>and</strong> New Zeal<strong>and</strong>.<br />
These countries all have indigenous populations that<br />
have been almost completely eliminated by European<br />
settlers over the past four centuries, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
governments of these countries have confined the<br />
indigenous groups that remain to either territories<br />
that are a fraction of the l<strong>and</strong> that they traditionally<br />
controlled or territories in completely new areas.<br />
Though they have since announced their support<br />
for the initiative, these four countries originally<br />
opposed the declaration on the Rights of indigenous<br />
Peoples for a number of reasons. One concern was<br />
that it would give tribal law precedence over national<br />
law. 203 Another was that it put indigenous peoples<br />
at an unfair advantage against the non-indigenous<br />
population <strong>and</strong> essentially granted indigenous<br />
peoples the right to full self-determination. 204 Finally,<br />
the provision in the declaration that gave indigenous<br />
peoples the right to all of their traditionally-held l<strong>and</strong>s<br />
would mean that the entire territory of these four<br />
countries would have to be returned to indigenous<br />
control at the expense of modern, legal ownership. 205<br />
In general, these four countries have been resistant<br />
to significant steps to improve the economic situation<br />
of impoverished peoples. Additionally, companies<br />
from these four nations are primarily responsible<br />
for the negative effects that trade liberalization has<br />
had on indigenous groups in developing countries.<br />
Many of these developing countries, primarily in<br />
Africa <strong>and</strong> Asia, would be hesitant to oppose to the<br />
united States, Canada, Australia, <strong>and</strong> New Zeal<strong>and</strong> on<br />
issues concerning indigenous rights since they rely so<br />
heavily on investment <strong>and</strong> aid from these countries<br />
for economic growth.<br />
The nations that have been most supportive of<br />
indigenous rights on the international level are those<br />
from Europe <strong>and</strong> Latin America. Most European<br />
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countries do not have what would traditionally be<br />
considered indigenous peoples, <strong>and</strong> thus they see the<br />
issue of indigenous impoverishment as another aspect<br />
of human rights <strong>and</strong> international development.<br />
they were among the foremost proponents of the<br />
declaration on the Rights of indigenous Peoples<br />
<strong>and</strong> have included indigenous peoples as a priority<br />
group in some of their most important resolutions on<br />
development, including the 2005 European Consensus<br />
on Development. 206 The nations of Latin America also<br />
have a history of supporting indigenous peoples<br />
in international forums. Of the twenty-two states<br />
to ratify the International Labour Organization’s<br />
Indigenous <strong>and</strong> Tribal Peoples Convention, fifteen<br />
were from Latin America. Despite the support that<br />
these countries have given to indigenous rights issues,<br />
many of them do not have such positive records on<br />
actually implementing policies to aid indigenous<br />
groups. As discussed above, Latin America has among<br />
the highest poverty rates for indigenous peoples of<br />
any region in the world, <strong>and</strong> little improvement in<br />
the conditions that indigenous peoples face has been<br />
seen in recent years.<br />
Finally, the remaining countries, most of which are<br />
in Africa <strong>and</strong> Asia, have mixed policies with regard to<br />
indigenous development. Most of these countries<br />
have marginalized populations that are traditionally<br />
considered to be indigenous, even though these<br />
countries do not have the same colonial histories as<br />
North <strong>and</strong> South America <strong>and</strong> Australia <strong>and</strong> Oceania.<br />
These countries are generally still developing <strong>and</strong> thus<br />
are concerned more with overall economic growth<br />
than assisting a small minority of the population,<br />
which explains their historic policies on l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
trade liberalization. Often, these governments do<br />
not have the resources to create special programs<br />
for indigenous peoples <strong>and</strong> will need some assistance<br />
to implement the plans that the committee drafts.<br />
Some countries in Asia <strong>and</strong> Africa, however, do<br />
not recognize the existence of their indigenous<br />
populations in the first place. China, for example,<br />
has been committed to strong economic growth<br />
for its population, including for minority groups,<br />
<strong>and</strong> has seen success in reducing poverty among its<br />
minorities, but it denies that any of these groups are<br />
indigenous. By denying the indigenous status of its<br />
minorities, China has legitimized its use of resource<br />
extraction <strong>and</strong> relocation as methods of reducing<br />
poverty among its indigenous populations. 207<br />
Suggestions for Further Research<br />
There is a wealth of information about the<br />
impoverishment of indigenous peoples on the<br />
websites of various intergovernmental <strong>and</strong> nongovernmental<br />
groups. The United Nations has a<br />
number of different groups dedicated to indigenous<br />
peoples, including the Permanent Forum on<br />
indigenous issues <strong>and</strong> the expert Mechanism on the<br />
Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These organizations<br />
have published countless reports on issues of<br />
indigenous development <strong>and</strong> indigenous rights <strong>and</strong><br />
may be good places to start for general information<br />
on indigenous peoples. The World Bank also has<br />
extensive information about indigenous development<br />
<strong>and</strong> poverty, including some country-specific reports.<br />
The World Bank website is also a good resource<br />
to learn about economic development in general.<br />
Additionally, i would recommend doing some<br />
research on the first MDG; you can find information<br />
on the MDG section of the United Nations website or<br />
on the website of the United Nations Development<br />
Programme.<br />
it is also important to do research on the indigenous<br />
peoples that reside within the country that you are<br />
representing <strong>and</strong> your country’s policy toward them.<br />
Almost every country has some indigenous groups,<br />
<strong>and</strong> each indigenous group has a different history<br />
<strong>and</strong> current situation. Some indigenous populations<br />
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are doing as well as the majority ethnic group,<br />
though most lag behind in development levels. Some<br />
are most affected by the loss of local l<strong>and</strong> rights,<br />
while others face widespread discrimination. Some<br />
governments accept <strong>and</strong> protect the unique cultures<br />
<strong>and</strong> practices of indigenous peoples; others force<br />
them to assimilate <strong>and</strong> even deny their existence in<br />
the first place. Before developing creative solutions<br />
to this problem then, you must uncover the specific<br />
needs of the indigenous peoples within your borders<br />
<strong>and</strong> figure out what your country’s attitude toward<br />
such groups has traditionally been.<br />
Position Papers<br />
each delegation must turn in two position papers<br />
before the start of conference. The purpose of the<br />
position paper is to give each delegation the chance<br />
to summarize their underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the issue<br />
at h<strong>and</strong>, to delineate their nation’s stance on the<br />
issue, <strong>and</strong> to propose possible solutions that could<br />
be debated in committee. Please take this chance<br />
to immerse yourself in the two topics that we will<br />
discuss in <strong>SOCHUM</strong>; I hope you will see it more as an<br />
opportunity <strong>and</strong> a challenge than a chore.<br />
When writing your position papers, there is a<br />
simple format that you should stick to; it will make<br />
it easier for you to write <strong>and</strong> for me to read. The first<br />
paragraph of your position paper should describe<br />
what you feel are the most pressing <strong>and</strong> pertinent<br />
aspects of the issue, as well as some facts that you<br />
could use in debate or to support a point <strong>and</strong> how<br />
you nation relates to the topic. the second paragraph<br />
should be used to describe what your nation thinks<br />
about the previous international action taken on the<br />
issue. Finally, your third <strong>and</strong> last paragraph should<br />
contain your ideas for possible solutions as well as<br />
courses of action that you believe should be included<br />
in a resolution. each delegation should complete one<br />
position paper per topic area. When writing, make<br />
sure you use the third person; instead of saying “I<br />
believe” or “we believe,” say “the delegation of<br />
Nation X believes” or something similar. All position<br />
papers should be written in Times New Roman<br />
12-point font, single-spaced <strong>and</strong> be approximately<br />
one page in length.<br />
Closing Remarks<br />
Thank you for taking the time to read carefully<br />
about both topic areas. I know that these topic areas<br />
are complex, <strong>and</strong> I appreciate the effort that you<br />
have put in just by reading this study guide. As you<br />
have probably realized, however, this study guide<br />
only provides a limited introduction to each topic<br />
area, <strong>and</strong> there is a wealth of additional information<br />
in books <strong>and</strong> on the Internet that I encourage you to<br />
read. the more sources you consult in your research,<br />
the more you will underst<strong>and</strong> these topics <strong>and</strong> the<br />
more rewarding your experience at WorldMuN will<br />
be. I also urge you to become an expert on the facts<br />
<strong>and</strong> positions of the country that you are selected to<br />
represent, which will make your time in committee<br />
even more enjoyable.<br />
I am very excited to meet all of you in Melbourne<br />
in March. As my last WorldMUN, I know that it will<br />
be a truly memorable opportunity, <strong>and</strong> I hope that I<br />
will be able to make your experience as unforgettable<br />
<strong>and</strong> gratifying as possible. Please do not hesitate<br />
to contact me if you have any questions about the<br />
topics areas, WorldMUN, or Model UN, or even if<br />
you just want to say hello. I look forward to being<br />
there in Melbourne as you make <strong>SOCHUM</strong> the best<br />
committee at WorldMuN 2013!<br />
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Endnotes<br />
1 “<strong>Social</strong>, <strong>Humanitarian</strong> & <strong>Cultural</strong> – Third <strong>Committee</strong>.”<br />
General Assembly of the United Nations. 13<br />
September 2011. 24 July 2012.<br />
2 Peterson, M.J. The General Assembly in World<br />
Politics. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986, p. 36.<br />
3 eilan, Arieh. The General Assembly: Can It Be<br />
Salvaged? Washington DC: The Heritage Foundation,<br />
1984, p. 14.<br />
4 Peterson, p. 36.<br />
5 Luard, Evan. The United Nations: How It Works <strong>and</strong><br />
What it does. London: Macmilliam, 1994, p. 45.<br />
6 Luard, p. 73.<br />
7 Bailey, Sydney d. The General Assembly of the<br />
United Nations: A Study of Procedure <strong>and</strong> Practice.<br />
Westport: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1964, p. 104.<br />
8 Crystal, David. Language Death. Cambridge:<br />
Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 21.<br />
9 Crystal, p. 11.<br />
10 Crystal, p. 12.<br />
11 Pereltsvaig, Asya. “Endangered languages: does<br />
size matter?” Languages of the World. 22 April 2011.<br />
25 June 2012. http://languagesoftheworld.info/<br />
geolinguistics/endangered-languages-does-the-sizematter.html.<br />
12 Pereltsvaig, Asya. “Are dying languages worth<br />
saving?” Languages of the World. 21 September<br />
2010. 18 June 2012. http://languagesoftheworld.info/<br />
geolinguistics/are-dying-languages-worth-saving.<br />
html.<br />
13 Brezinger, Matthias. “Language Endangerment<br />
throughout the World” in Trends in Linguistics:<br />
Language Diversity Endangered. ed. Matthias<br />
Brezinger. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2007, p. x-xi.<br />
14 Tsunoda, Tasaku. “Language Endangerment <strong>and</strong><br />
Language Revitalization” in Trends in Linguistic:<br />
Studies <strong>and</strong> Monographs 148. eds. Walter Bisang et<br />
al. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2005, p. 58.<br />
15 Dorian, Nancy C. “Western language ideologies<br />
<strong>and</strong> small-language prospects” in endangered<br />
Languages: Language Loss <strong>and</strong> Community<br />
Response. Eds. Lenore A. Grenoble <strong>and</strong> Lindsay J.<br />
Whaley.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,<br />
1998, p. 4.<br />
16 Tsunoda, p. 4.<br />
17 Crystal, p. 72.<br />
18 Crystal, p. 73<br />
19 Crystal, p. 72.<br />
20 Crystal, p. 71.<br />
21 Tsunoda, p. 63.<br />
22 Tsunoda, p. 62.<br />
23 Crystal, p. 83.<br />
24 dorian, p. 5.<br />
25 Skutnall-Kangas, Tove. Linguistic Genocide in<br />
Education-or Worldwide Diversity <strong>and</strong> Human<br />
Rights? Nahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum<br />
Associates, Publishers, 2000, p. 428.<br />
26 dorian, p. 7.<br />
27 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 425.<br />
28 dauenhauer, Nora M. <strong>and</strong> dauenhauer, Richard,<br />
“Technical, emotional, <strong>and</strong> ideological issues in<br />
reversing language shift: examples from Southeast<br />
Alaska” in Endangered Languages: Language Loss<br />
<strong>and</strong> Community Response. Eds. Lenore A. Grenoble<br />
<strong>and</strong> Lindsay J. Whaley. Cambridge: Cambridge<br />
University Press, 1998, p. 64.<br />
29 Dauenhauer <strong>and</strong> Dauenhauer, p. 65.<br />
30 Tsunoda, p. 62.<br />
31 Crystal, p. 85.<br />
32 Crystal, p. 84.<br />
33 tsunoda, p. 33.<br />
34 dorian, p. 11.<br />
35 Ibid.<br />
36 Bhattacharjee, Yudhijiy. “Why Bilinguals Are<br />
Smarter.” The New York Times. 17 March 2012. 13<br />
June 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/<br />
opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html.<br />
37 Tsunoda, p. 59.<br />
38 Grenoble, Lenore A. “Language ecology <strong>and</strong><br />
endangerment” in The Cambridge H<strong>and</strong>book of<br />
Endangered Languages.” eds. Peter Austin <strong>and</strong> Julia<br />
Sallabank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,<br />
2011, p. 34.<br />
39 Dorian, p. 6.<br />
40 Tsunoda, p. 59.<br />
41 Grenoble, p. 34.<br />
42 Harbert, Wayne. “Endangered languages <strong>and</strong><br />
economic development” in The Cambridge<br />
H<strong>and</strong>book of Endangered Languages. eds. Peter<br />
Austin <strong>and</strong> Julia Sallabank. Cambridge: Cambridge<br />
University Press, 2011 p. 405.<br />
43 Crystal, p. 78.<br />
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44 Crystal, p. 14.<br />
45 Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16 th Edition).<br />
Ed. Paul Lewis. Dallas: SIL International, 2009. Online<br />
Version.<br />
46 De Dominicis, Amedeo. “Introduction” in<br />
Undescribed <strong>and</strong> Endangered Languages. ed.<br />
Amedeo De Dominicis. Newcastle: Cambridge<br />
Scholars Press, 2006, p. 1.<br />
47 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 301.<br />
48 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 302.<br />
49 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 33.<br />
50 Ibid.<br />
51 Tsunoda, p. 24.<br />
52 tsunoda, p. 17.<br />
53 tsunoda, p. 22.<br />
54 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 33.<br />
55 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 34.<br />
56 tsunoda, p. 27.<br />
57 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 33.<br />
58 Pereltsvaig, Asya. “Linguistic diversity <strong>and</strong> language<br />
endangerment in Papua New Guinea.” Languages<br />
of the World. 24 July 2011. 20 June 2012. http://<br />
languagesoftheworld.info/australia-<strong>and</strong>-papuanew-guinea/linguistic-diversity-<strong>and</strong>-languageendangerment-in-papua-new-guinea.html.<br />
59 tsunoda, p. 20.<br />
60 tsunoda, p. 17.<br />
61 Crystal, p. 19.<br />
62 King James’s Bible. Genesis 11: 1-9. 14 June 2012.<br />
.<br />
63 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 214.<br />
64 Ibid.<br />
65 McWhorter, John. “The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The<br />
Universality of English.” World Affairs. Fall 2009.<br />
13 June 2012. http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/<br />
article/cosmopolitan-tongue-universality-english.<br />
66 McWhorter. “The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The<br />
Universality of English.”<br />
67 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 260.<br />
68 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 269.<br />
69 Hale, Ken. “On endangered languages <strong>and</strong> the<br />
importance of linguistic diversity” in endangered<br />
Languages: Language Loss <strong>and</strong> Community<br />
Response. Eds. Lenore A. Grenoble <strong>and</strong> Lindsay J.<br />
Whaley.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,<br />
1998, p. 192.<br />
70 Hale, p. 194.<br />
71 Crystal, p. 56.<br />
72 Pereltsvaig, Asya. “Obituary: the Ubykh Language.”<br />
Languages of the World. 25 January 2012. 18 June 2012.<br />
http://languagesoftheworld.info/geolinguistics/<br />
obituary-the-ubykh-language.html.<br />
73 Austin, Peter K. <strong>and</strong> Sallabank, Julia. “Introduction”<br />
in The Cambridge H<strong>and</strong>book of Endangered<br />
Languages.” Eds. Peter Austin <strong>and</strong> Julia Sallabank.<br />
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 7.<br />
74 Crystal, p. 35.<br />
75 Crystal, p. 46.<br />
76 Crystal, p. 41.<br />
77 “Endangered Languages: Biodiversity <strong>and</strong> Linguistic<br />
Diversity.” United Nations Educational, Scientific <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>Cultural</strong> Organization. 18 June 2012. http://www.<br />
unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangeredlanguages/biodiversity-<strong>and</strong>-linguistic-diversity/.<br />
78 Michael, p. 136.<br />
79 Michael, Lev. “Language <strong>and</strong> Culture” in the<br />
Cambridge H<strong>and</strong>book of Endangered Languages.”<br />
Eds. Peter Austin <strong>and</strong> Julia Sallabank. Cambridge:<br />
Cambridge University Press, 2011 p. 134.<br />
80 Swoyer, Chris, “Relativism”, The Stanford<br />
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition),<br />
Edward N. Zalta (ed.). http://plato.stanford.edu/<br />
archives/win2010/entries/relativism/.<br />
81 Fishman, J.A. “Why is it so hard to save a threated<br />
language?” in Can Threatened Languages Be Saved?<br />
Ed. Joshua Fishman. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters<br />
Ltd, 2001, p. 3.<br />
82 Hale, p. 204.<br />
83 Fishman, p. 4.<br />
84 Ibid<br />
85 Crystal, p. 38.<br />
86 Skutnall-Kangas, p. 253.<br />
87 Crystal, p. 92.<br />
88 dorian, p. 17.<br />
89 Sallabank, Julia. “Language policy for endangered<br />
languages” in The Cambridge H<strong>and</strong>book of<br />
Endangered Languages.” eds. Peter Austin <strong>and</strong> Julia<br />
Sallabank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,<br />
2011, p. 279.<br />
90 Kelly Tara. “Google Endangered Languages Project<br />
Seeks to Save Forgotten Tongues.” The Huffington<br />
Post. 21 June 2012. 25 June 2012. http://www.<br />
huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/google-endangeredlanguages-project_n_1617106.html.<br />
91 Pereltsvaig, Asya. “Modern Technology Helps Save<br />
Dying Languages.” Languages of the World. 16 May<br />
2012. 24 June 2012. http://languagesoftheworld.<br />
info/geolinguistics/endangered-languages/moderntechnology-helps-save-dying-languages.html.<br />
92 Hinton, p. 307.<br />
93 Hinton, Leanne. “Revitalization of endangered<br />
languages” in The Cambridge H<strong>and</strong>book of<br />
Endangered Languages.” eds. Peter Austin <strong>and</strong> Julia<br />
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Sallabank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,<br />
2011, p. 299.<br />
94 Sallabank, p. 280.<br />
95 Ibid.<br />
96 Dorian, p. 14.<br />
97 dorian, p. 13.<br />
98 “Project History.” Wampanoag Language<br />
Reclamation Project. 24 June 2012. http://wlrp.org/<br />
History.html.<br />
99 Crystal, p. 1.<br />
100 Ibid.<br />
101 “Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging<br />
to National or Ethnic, Religious <strong>and</strong> Linguistic<br />
Minorities.” United Nations General Assembly<br />
47/135. 18 December 1992. Web.<br />
102 Ibid.<br />
103 “Universal Declaration on <strong>Cultural</strong> Diversity.”<br />
United Nations Educational, Scientific <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong><br />
Organization. 2 November 2001. Web.<br />
104 “Convention for the Safegaurding of Intangible<br />
<strong>Cultural</strong> Heritage.” United Nations Educational,<br />
Scientific <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> Organization. 17 October<br />
2003. Web.<br />
105 “Convention on the Promotion <strong>and</strong> Protection of the<br />
Diversity of <strong>Cultural</strong> Expressions.” United Nations<br />
Educational, Scientific <strong>and</strong> <strong>Cultural</strong> Organization. 20<br />
October 2005. Web.<br />
106 “Universal Declaration on Linguistic Rights.” World<br />
Conference on Linguistic Rights. 9 June 1996. Web.<br />
107 “What is SIL International?” Summer Institute of<br />
Linguistics, Inc. 26 June 2012. http://www.sil.org/sil/.<br />
108 Nye, John V.C. “St<strong>and</strong>ard of Living <strong>and</strong> Modern<br />
economic Growth.” The Concise Encyclopedia of<br />
Economics. 2008. Library of Economics <strong>and</strong> Liberty.<br />
12 July 2012. http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/<br />
St<strong>and</strong>ardsofLiving<strong>and</strong>ModernEconomicGrowth.<br />
html<br />
109 Freedman, Ethan. “Poverty Rates Strikingly High<br />
Among indigenous Populations.” Global Issues. 20<br />
June 2012. 23 July 2012. http://www.globalissues.<br />
org/news/2012/06/20/14078.<br />
110 “Marginalised Minorities in Development<br />
Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide <strong>and</strong><br />
Toolkit.” United Nations Development Programme,<br />
Democratic Governance Group, Bureau for<br />
Development Policy. New York. May 2010. Web.<br />
111 Riddell, Roger. “Minorities, Minority Rights <strong>and</strong><br />
Development: An Issues Paper.” Minority Rights<br />
Group International. New York. 1998. Print.<br />
112 “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” United<br />
Nations General Assembly. 10 December 1948. 12<br />
July 2012. Web.<br />
113 “United Nations Millennium Declaration.” United<br />
Nations General Assembly 55/2. 18 September 2000.<br />
14 July 2012. Web.<br />
114 “Indigenous <strong>and</strong> Tribal Peoples Convention.”<br />
International Labour Organization C169. 27 June<br />
1989. Web.<br />
115 Bhalla, A.S. <strong>and</strong> Qiu, Shufang. Poverty <strong>and</strong> Inequality<br />
among Chinese Minorities. Routledge: London,<br />
2006, p. 1.<br />
116 Bhalla <strong>and</strong> Qiu, p. 4-5.<br />
117 Bhalla <strong>and</strong> Qiu, p. 3.<br />
118 Bhalla <strong>and</strong> Qiu, p. 2.<br />
119 “Agreement on Agriculture.” World Trade<br />
Organization. 1995. Web.<br />
120 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
121 Ibid.<br />
122 “Eliminating discrimination against indigenous<br />
<strong>and</strong> tribal peoples in employment <strong>and</strong> occupation:<br />
A guide to ILO Convention No. 111.” International<br />
Labor Organization. 2007. Web.<br />
123 Nori, Michele et al. “Browsing on fences: Pastoral<br />
l<strong>and</strong> rights, livelihoods <strong>and</strong> adaptation to climate<br />
change.” International Institute for Environment<br />
<strong>and</strong> Development. London. May 2008. Web.<br />
124 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” United<br />
Nations Department on Economic <strong>and</strong> <strong>Social</strong> Affairs.<br />
New York. 2009. Web.<br />
125 Ibid.<br />
126 Young, Laura A. <strong>and</strong> Sing’Oei, Korir. “L<strong>and</strong>,<br />
livelihoods <strong>and</strong> identities: Inter-community conflicts<br />
in east Africa.” Minority Rights Group international.<br />
2011. Web.<br />
127 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
128 Ibid.<br />
129 Ibid.<br />
130 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
131 young <strong>and</strong> Sing-Oei, 2011.<br />
132 Ortega, Roque Roldán. “Models for Recognizing<br />
Indigenous L<strong>and</strong> Rights in Latin America. The World<br />
Bank Environment Department. October 2004. Web.<br />
133 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
134 Ibid.<br />
135 young <strong>and</strong> Sing-Oei, 2011.<br />
136 Mollers, Judith. “Survival Strategies of Ethnic<br />
Minorities in the Highl<strong>and</strong>s of Northern Thail<strong>and</strong> –<br />
Case Studies From Chiang Rai Province” in the Role<br />
of Minorities in the Development Process. eds Armin<br />
Bohnet <strong>and</strong> Matthias Hoher. Frankfurt am Main:<br />
Peter Lang, 2004, p. 131.<br />
137 Mollers, p. 129.<br />
138 Mollers, p. 135.<br />
139 Mollers, p. 134.<br />
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140 Mollers, p. 132.<br />
141 Mollers, p. 135.<br />
142 Simon, p. 64.<br />
143 Simon, p. 68.<br />
144 Simon, p. 71.<br />
145 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
146 young <strong>and</strong> Sing-Oei, 2011.<br />
147 Riddell, 1998.<br />
148 Khan. 2010.<br />
149 “Minority <strong>and</strong> Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the<br />
Millennium Development Goals.” Minority Rights<br />
Group International. 2003. Web.<br />
150 “Marginalised Minorities in Development<br />
Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide <strong>and</strong> Toolkit.”<br />
2010.<br />
151 Khan. 2010.<br />
152 Khan. 2010.<br />
153 Ibid.<br />
154 “Marginalised Minorities in Development<br />
Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide <strong>and</strong> Toolkit.”<br />
2010.<br />
155 “Factsheet: Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.”<br />
International Monetary Fund. 19 April 2012. 19 July<br />
2012. .<br />
156 Khan. 2010.<br />
157 Ibid<br />
158 “Eliminating discrimination against indigenous <strong>and</strong><br />
tribal peoples in employment <strong>and</strong> occupation: A<br />
guide to ILO Convention No. 111.” 2007.<br />
159 Khan, 2010.<br />
160 Ibid.<br />
161 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
162 “Eliminating discrimination against indigenous <strong>and</strong><br />
tribal peoples in employment <strong>and</strong> occupation: A<br />
guide to ILO Convention No. 111.” 2007.<br />
163 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
164 “Eliminating discrimination against indigenous <strong>and</strong><br />
tribal peoples in employment <strong>and</strong> occupation: A<br />
guide to ILO Convention No. 111.” 2007.<br />
165 “Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs: Global<br />
Monitoring Report 2011.” International Bank for<br />
Reconstruction <strong>and</strong> Development/World Bank.<br />
Washington DC. 2011. Web.<br />
166 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
167 “Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs: Global<br />
Monitoring Report 2011,” 2011.<br />
168 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
169 Hall, Gilette <strong>and</strong> Patrinos, Harry Anthony. “Indigenous<br />
Peoples, Poverty <strong>and</strong> Human Development in Latin<br />
America: 1994-2004.” The World Bank. 2005. Web<br />
170 Ibid.<br />
171 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
172 Ibid.<br />
173 “Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs: Global<br />
Monitoring Report 2011,” 2011.<br />
174 Ibid.<br />
175 “Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs: Global<br />
Monitoring Report 2011,” 2011.<br />
176 “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.” 2009.<br />
177 Ibid.<br />
178 Ibid.<br />
179 “The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012.”<br />
united Nations department of economic <strong>and</strong> <strong>Social</strong><br />
Affairs. June 2012. Web.<br />
180 Ibid.<br />
181 Ibid.<br />
182 “Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs: Global<br />
Monitoring Report 2011,” 2011<br />
183 “Minority <strong>and</strong> Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the<br />
Millennium Development Goals.” 2003.<br />
184 “Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs: Global<br />
Monitoring Report 2011,” 2011.<br />
185 Ibid.<br />
186 Corpuz, Victoria Tauli. “Making the MDGs relevant<br />
for indigenous Peoples.” Presented at the 2005<br />
ECOSOC, High-Level Segment. 16 March 2005. Web.<br />
187 “Marginalised Minorities in Development<br />
Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide <strong>and</strong> Toolkit.”<br />
2010.<br />
188 Corpuz, 2005.<br />
189 Ibid.<br />
190 Ibid.<br />
191 “International Covenant on Economic, <strong>Social</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>Cultural</strong> Rights.” United Nations General Assembly<br />
2200A. 16 December 1966. Web.<br />
192 “United Nations Declaration on the Right to<br />
Development. United Nations General Assembly<br />
41/128. 1986. Web.<br />
193 “Indigenous <strong>and</strong> Tribal Peoples Convention.” 1989.<br />
194 “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of<br />
indigenous Peoples.” united Nations General<br />
Assembly 61/295. 13 September 2007. Web.<br />
195 Ibid.<br />
196 Ibid.<br />
197 “Minority <strong>and</strong> Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the<br />
Millennium Development Goals.” 2003.<br />
198 “Marginalised Minorities in Development<br />
Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide <strong>and</strong> Toolkit.”<br />
2010.<br />
199 “Minority <strong>and</strong> Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the<br />
Millennium Development Goals.” 2003.<br />
200 “Marginalised Minorities in Development<br />
Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide <strong>and</strong> Toolkit.”<br />
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2010.<br />
201 “Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs: Global<br />
Monitoring Report 2011,” 2011.<br />
202 “Marginalised Minorities in Development<br />
Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide <strong>and</strong> Toolkit.”<br />
2010.<br />
203 “Indigenous rights outlined by UN.” BBC News. 13<br />
September 2007. 23 July 2012. http://news.bbc.<br />
co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6993776.stm.<br />
204 “Native rights declaration inconsistent with legal<br />
tradition: Strahl.” Canada.com. 13 September 2007.<br />
23 July 2012. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/<br />
news/story.html?id=23df9769-3423-4f43-b828a755725c2719&k=23677.<br />
205 “Maori Party’s head in the clouds.” New Zeal<strong>and</strong><br />
Government. 14 September 2007. 23 July 2012. http://<br />
www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0709/S00272.htm.<br />
206 “The European Consensus on Development.”<br />
European Council 2006/C 46. 24 February 2006.<br />
Web.<br />
207 “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of<br />
indigenous People <strong>and</strong> the uyghurs of east<br />
Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur<br />
Autonomous Region or XUAR, People’s Republic of<br />
China).” Uyghur Human Rights Project. Web.<br />
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