UNDRIP Report - English FINAL - International Forum on Globalization

constantly under assault from global agricultural and
pharmaceutical corporations. The document lists
many other specific rights of indigenous peoples. For
example, to control the use of water, land, seeds, ice
and all their other resources. It also specifically cites
hazardous materials, yet another important issue for
indigenous peoples, whose lands have become a
dumping ground for toxics, uranium and other
dangerous waste of all kinds. All these rights are
among dozens of others specifically named in the
document. Mander said, “Perhaps the most
important right, in the present global context, is the
right of free, prior, and informed consent [FPIC].
Over centuries, indigenous lands have been invaded
and exploited without the slightest effort to consult
or gain approval from those who have lived there for
millennia.
To this day, corporations in countries use means as
varied as military intervention, double-dealing, and,
lately, WTO trade rules to deny indigenous peoples
their control over traditional resources. Wide
recognition of the right of free, prior, and informed
consent makes it exceedingly difficult for
corporations, nation-states, or militaries to continue
to act unilaterally on indigenous land. The
Declaration is surely the first major international
agreement to specifically confirm indigenous
collective rights—the rights of a people—in addition
to indigenous individual rights. Thus validating
indigenous traditional collective governance,
collective ownership, and collective decision-making
concepts.” Mander then pointed out that this
amazing concept is indicated several times
specifically in the document.
Elsewhere, it protects the religious and cultural
places, artifacts, languages, and arts, and the right to
worship and live in a traditional manner, including
the right to choose and practice subsistence
economies. Mander argued, “This latter point has not
gotten enough attention. It’s also entirely unique in
this document and very important for the protection
of fishing and hunting practices, as well as farming,
and also for the protection of the right not to develop
and to leave minerals in the ground, trees on the
land, and to choose not to become a part of a global
economy desperate for the world’s last resources.
This is all becoming exceedingly important for places
in South America, in particular Ecuador, Bolivia, and
others.” He then argued, “These articles and dozens
of others have advanced protections for indigenous
peoples beyond anything that has preceded them
and also have arguably protected millions of square
miles of land that might otherwise be ravaged in
today’s resource-starved, corporate-driven global
economy.”
Mander then talked about the Declaration vote, and
how after 25 years of roadblocks, the vote for passage
in the UN general assembly was 144 to 4, with 11
abstentions. The “no” votes came predominately
from countries that depend on indigenous lands for
resource extraction: the United States, Australia,
Canada, and New Zealand; though the latter two are
known for positive human rights stances. Russia, the
U.K., China, Botswana, and Namibia also fought the
Declaration at various stages, but relented in the final
vote, despite the political pressure applied
particularly to the African nations. “The situation of
native peoples cannot be separated from the
ecological crisis of the whole planet,” said Mander.
He then described the source of the momentum
toward growth that is the foundation of the global
economy, as well as the effects of continued
expansion on the natural world. “Modern corporatedriven
economic globalization is totally dependent
on sustaining a voracious rate of economic growth.
To achieve rapid growth requires every expanding
use of natural resources, especially oil and gas, fresh
water, forest products, fish in the seas, soil and key
minerals…All were developed at a terrible
rate…Much of that resource extraction was
performed on indigenous lands, usually by force,
fraud or coercion.” Mander concluded, “As a result
of this last century of plunder, all of those resources
are seriously depleted now, bringing the global crisis
of resource depletion.”
The fundamental idea of designing a global economic
system based on unlimited economic growth but
relying on the resources of a finite planet is flawed
and doomed from moment the moment of
conception. Mander recounted the particular plight
of indigenous people, a high percentage of whom
steward the remnants of the planet’s resources (some
say as much as fifty percent of the resources that are
left are located on lands where native people have
thrived). “Their lands are now even more the targets
of global corporations,” Mander said. In addition, he
noted that native people have become targets
precisely because they have been successful over
millennia at maintaining cultural, economic, and
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