UNDRIP Report - English FINAL - International Forum on Globalization

Regarding the nuclear issue, Greensfelder said that it
is difficult question because it keeps popping back
up. “We debate how much time we should put into
it, but I think this is an area where we need to make
common cause with our indigenous allies because
they have suffered so disproportionately,” she said.
“You have to make a statement against nuclear,
because if you don’t, it’s as if there is no movement
against it,” she warned. Greensfelder said more
environmental activists and others around the world
are coming out daily, saying that they want to give
nuclear a second chance. “Even though we don’t
necessarily believe that it is going to happen, we
have to act as if we think it may happen and work
together to contain those governments that
increasingly work to bring it forward,” she stressed.
RE DD: HOW C AN OU R P RO P OS ALS A D VA N C E UN DRIP ?
UNFCCC proposals could compensate tropical forest
countries for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
and Degradation (REDD), promising indigenous
communities. But REDD proposals have also caused
controversy due to some of the financing
mechanisms. Looking through the lens of <strong>UNDRIP</strong>,
this session examines various proposals to explore
how they might actually advance indigenous
peoples’ rights.
Juan Carlos Jintiach, Amazon Alliance
Bard Lahn, Friends of the Earth-Norway
Roman Czebiniak, Greenpeace <strong>International</strong>
Paula Moreira, Instituto da Pesquisas Ambiental da
Amazonia
Juan Carlos Jintiach of Amazon Alliance read Article
34 of <strong>UNDRIP</strong>:
“Indigenous peoples have the right
to promote, develop and maintain
their institutional structures and
their distinctive customs,
spirituality, traditions, procedures,
practices and, in the cases where
they exist, juridical systems or
customs, in accordance with
international human rights
standards.”
Jintiach described how, when he was a kid, his
father, who was the president of the Shuar
Federation, would tell him, “We have our own
government, we have our own institutionality.”
Jintiach said this feeling that they came before, that
they were there even before the Ecuadorian
government, and that “the land, deep, deep down” is
theirs, is embedded within this Article of the
Declaration.
He said that this unity has inspired indigenous
peoples to prioritize organizing together, rather than
killing each other. He described how the indigenous
leaders had created the international umbrella
organization COICA. “Please give us that credit.”
Jintiach urged. “We are not savage, we are human.
We have our organizations.”
He explained how he had a mandate to represent his
people, to follow climate change, and now, to follow
the next step, which he believes is REDD. Jintiach
then explained how indigenous peoples had been left
out of the REDD process before. He remembered
how the REDD issue had been a surprise to him at
the June 2008 meeting of the UNFCCC in Bonn, and
how indigenous peoples had not been informed from
the beginning of the discussions on REDD.
“No one spoke to me before and explained to me that
the initial meetings on REDD were key meetings,” he
said. “I spoke to some colleagues and told them that I
want to put social concerns into climate change
mitigation. I told them, because I have a mandate, I
need their help to bring the real concept of REDD to
indigenous peoples to discuss.” Jintiach said
indigenous peoples, and even he himself, feel so
behind on the issue of REDD. “It makes me sad
because our colleagues, who are members of the
Amazon Alliance, who created this coalition, have a
lot of information to share.” Jintiach then urged the
group to “please make the effort to translate it into at
least Spanish, <strong>English</strong>, Portuguese, and Dutch,” so
that indigenous peoples can become more familiar
with the REDD discussions.
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