UNDRIP Report - English FINAL - International Forum on Globalization

determine the Alliance’s priorities and strategies. In
addition to providing members with information and
technical assistance, the Alliance also ensures that the
perspectives of indigenous people are heard by
decision-making bodies around the world, including
governments and multilateral institutions. Jintiach
said that the importance of both traditional and
scientific knowledge should be addressed in this
meeting.
KE Y P ROVISI O NS OF THE U NI TED NA TI O NS DE CL AR A TION ON TH E RI GH TS OF INDIG E N O US
PE OPL ES: PR ES E N TA TI ONS
Jerry Mander of the IFG said he hopes to focus on
what is actually in the UN Declaration, and how it
can be used. He said, “The passage of the UN
Declaration after a quarter of a century was truly a
momentous event in human rights history, but it was
one momentous event that most people have never
heard of. Neither the fierce debate about the
Declaration over the course of 25 years, nor its
passage, received any notice in the mainstream press
in the United States, the United Kingdom or many
other countries. This is a continuing sign of the
invisibility of indigenous causes in this country. As a
result, many otherwise politically minded people
have little knowledge of what the document is, or its
potential impact,” Mander said, and declared that
this is one important situation we are dedicated to
reversing. He then said, “The Declaration is a unique,
profound, and conceptually daring document, which
is worthy of great study and long discussion, worthy
of being read and reread many times.” Mander said
that the Declaration formally sets out to codify for
the first time in any international body a set of
inherent rights and concepts for the world’s 350
million indigenous peoples that are at least equal to
the previous standard on these matters, the UN
Declaration on Human Rights, passed back in 1948.
Mander then said, “Among twenty-four pre-ambular
paragraphs and forty-six operational articles are
many that directly address and try to elevate the
difficult situations of Native peoples have faced
during the last millennium. For example, several
parts of the Declaration give official recognition for
the first time to the rights of indigenous peoples who
preceded nation-states and territory for centuries and
who continue to occupy that place, and to determine
what should happen to their own ancestral lands.
That is, whether and how development should take
place and for who’s benefit under who’s terms. In
some places, these are called prior rights or
aboriginal rights.” Mander noted that some
countries, notably from the CANZUS group, that’s
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United
States, fought this provision very fiercely as defying
their authority and potentially undermining a nationstate’s
ability to develop resources whenever and
wherever it seems fit. He argued that indeed, defying
the often arbitrary and legal state authority over
indigenous lands might have been one of the main
points to create a new tool for protection of
indigenous lands.
Mander said, “In another case, in the preamble and
again repeatedly in the articles, indigenous peoples
are recognized as “distinct peoples” within the
meaning of the charter of the United Nations and the
<strong>International</strong> Covenant on Economic Social and
Cultural Rights and the <strong>International</strong> Covenant on
Civil Rights and Political Rights.” Mander said that
now, for the first time there is recognition of the right
of self-determination for indigenous peoples: “the
right to freely determine their political status and
freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural
development and the right to freely determine their
relationship with the state in the spirit of coexistence,
mutual benefit and respect.” He then explained that
during negotiations this right was very worrisome to
some resource summary countries that were
concerned that indigenous peoples could practice
sovereignty, and break away. He said that many
indigenous peoples do not consider themselves to be
a part of any nation-state. Mander then said that the
Declaration specifically mentions the right of
nationhood, economy, and self-governances, to make
laws and to devise institutions as they deem fit, to
establish legal and judicial systems, language,
schools, and media (that’s a very important one), and
to protect their arts and culture from outside
exploitation and the like, including military
encursion. He said they also have the right to control
their indigenous knowledge of plants and medicines,
and to protect intellectual property, which is
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