UNDRIP Report - English FINAL - International Forum on Globalization

what they were doing was trying to figure out how
to make a document popular, or how to make a
document move through institutions and
organizations to gain life and practicality. “It took the
Human Rights Declaration a very long time to gain
traction, but we do not have really a very long time,”
he explained. Despite this, Mander said he believes
that the meeting had been very useful, and said he
thinks everyone had contributed very, very well.
Mander extended his thanks to the indigenous
participants, who he called “the inspiration for all the
activity..
As to the creation of an alliance, Mander believes that
it does not really matter whether it is a “big A”
alliance or a “small a” alliance. “I think that on our
end, we probably will act as if we are a secretariat in
any case and propose that we constitute something,”
he said. Mander explained there is a plan to make a
primer of some kind about these issues, basically for
American audiences, but the IFG would probably
steal a lot of the information from the meeting to do
that, as well as from a primer that the IFG had
published before its first meeting on indigenous
rights.
Mander explained that he was very impressed with
the need to function on two levels. “We need to do
real organizing on real things, try to meet deadlines
and deal with institutions and try to move things
through that machinery…so I think it is very
important that we address all these meetings and
institutions and have a really competent plan,” he
said.
He also warned that there is a need to face the fact
that “bigger, monstrous problems” exist, and that
they are all related. “We really need to nail down the
kind of system we really want to live within, because
this one is a flop, and we have known that for quite a
long time, but here it is demonstrating that right
before our eyes,” he explained. He described how
there is a “gigantic economic suicide” taking place, so
it is really up to us to figure out what the next system
is going to be, because, currently, there is nobody in
charge.
Mander expressed both his optimism in the new
Obama government, but also pessimism about
whether his new administration would be able to
seize the moment, claiming that it is impossible to
really know for sure what Obama is going to be able
to do. “But in any case, there is certainly hope in the
air right now, and that is a good thing,” Mander
concluded.
Mander thanked Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, saying that
she had been on the board of directors for a long
time, and had been the one who helped the IFG get
into the territory of indigenous rights work, and that
he was much appreciative of her.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz thanked Mander for his
appreciation, and explained how he and the IFG had
been part of a wonderful new movement. “You
know,” she reflected, “every time we think about
Americans, we always say ’Actually, Americans really
do not need to help us. They just need to do something
about their own government, their own society. That is
the biggest help they could give us in the developing
countries, and for us indigenous peoples of course. I
still believe that, but the big part of the responsibility
is to really do something about your own
government and your own society.”
She explained that this was part of the initial reason
she had joined the board of directors of the
<strong>International</strong> <strong>Forum</strong> on Globalization, so that she
could begin a dialogue with Americans and inform
them of their responsibilities. “I think that by
working with the IFG, it has really allowed us to get
in touch with all of you and all the different activists
in the US,” she said. Tauli-Corpuz believes that it has
been a very good process for her in particular,
because she knows the ingredients that will really
bring about changes in any society. “So I think the
IFG, for all its limitations, still has played a really key
role in making the indigenous peoples’ issues more
visible, at least within the United States,” she added.
Tauli-Corpuz reflected on how when she made a
speech in the UN when the Declaration was adopted,
one of the messages that she brought was that
indigenous peoples would like to see the Declaration
become a living document, something to be used to
really push the changes that this world needs. “And I
think that is really what this whole thing is all about,
really making it a living document,” she said about
the meeting over the previous two days. She also
warned that this process would not be an easy thing.
“It is going to be an uphill struggle, and we need all
the allies that we can have to really be able to make it
that kind of document,” she said. “We did not fight
for it just to live on the shelf. We fought for it because
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