UNDRIP Report - English FINAL - International Forum on Globalization

to get traction to implement the Declaration. Bolivia’s
adopting the Declaration as national law and a court
decision in Belize that invoked <strong>UNDRIP</strong> were
important developments. “But to open it up to more
people and to make <strong>UNDRIP</strong> an easily accessible
tool, where are those different spaces and processes
where we can actually get traction from the
Declaration’s different principles?” asked Menotti.
Juan Carlos Jintiach of the Amazon Alliance
responded to previous comments by saying,
“Sometimes, the government makes contracts with
some indigenous leaders by convincing and
corrupting them with their own politics. They know
how to trick the people.” He hoped that NGOs
would help indigenous people identify coercion and
corruption within these questionable negotiations. In
addition, he hoped NGOs would help indigenous
groups who are fighting against mining and oil
concessions, but do not have the funds or support
and don’t know how to use media resources. “We
must advise the legitimate alliances and
organizations to work together,” said Jintiach.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz said, “In my view, any
Declaration will be a living document if there is a
constituency that is pushing its implementation.” She
compared <strong>UNDRIP</strong> to the UN Declaration on Human
Rights in terms of its basic principles. Conventions,
which are legally binding, usually follow the passage
of declarations, she explained. Tauli-Corpuz called
the Declaration “an international instrument that
defines the minimum standards that should be
observed to ensure that the rights of the indigenous
peoples are being respected and protected.” She
countered previous arguments by the World Bank by
stating, “Now that there is a Declaration, institutions
cannot excuse themselves from using it as a standard.
Actually, now there is a thin dividing line between
conventions and declarations, because the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights has become customary
law.”
Because of the common language in human rights
documents, Tauli-Corpuz said that “maybe some of
the Declaration is legally binding because many of
this is already found in the conventions that have
already been adopted.” In addition, she stated that
the Declaration is now influencing all the other
policies being developed by other agencies. “They
have now come up with the agency called the UN
Development Group, which…will be a guide at a
local level to ensure that when they come up with
their own country’s strategy and programs, [they]
will really fall within those [Declaration] guidelines,”
said Tauli-Corpuz.
She named a number of conferences that create
spaces for discussion of the implementation of the
Declaration, such as a November 2008 Southeast
Asian Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Reduced
Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation
(REDD), followed by a global conference on REDD.
There will be workshops at the 2009 Permanent
<strong>Forum</strong> held by facilitators from regional processes to
help indigenous peoples identify their own
indicators for well-being, sustainability and poverty.
“We want to develop this very strongly, because
these are also indicators of how the Declaration is
being implemented,” said Tauli-Corpuz.
Responding to Menotti’s question about how to gain
traction in the implementation of the Declaration, she
explained that the UN Permanent <strong>Forum</strong> has a
dynamic, representative body with ample resources
to direct toward implementation issues. “In March
2008, the UN Human Rights Council mandated
James Anaya, who is an indigenous person and a
lawyer, as Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Human
Rights. His six-year mandate is to monitor how the
Declaration is being implemented,” said Tauli-
Corpuz. The Human Rights Council also has an
Expert Mechanism on Indigenous Peoples Rights
composed of five experts who are monitoring the
implementation of the Declaration. There is also
crossover with several other bodies in the UN system
that can support the Declaration, such as is the case
regarding the rights of indigenous children to have
bilingual education, and not to be taken away from
their communities; these aspects of the Declaration
are also supported by legislation supporting
children’s rights. So several existing committees and
instruments, such as the Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the
Committee on Discrimination Against Women, can
aid in the implementation of <strong>UNDRIP</strong>.
She also cited the Convention on Biological Diversity
and the UNCCC as future spaces for implementation
mechanisms. Tauli-Corpuz stated the need to
establish mechanisms in the form of tribunals of
indigenous peoples and their allies to collaborate as
independent experts on issues such as the UNCCC or
REDD. This way, countries such as Norway can
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