STATE OF THE WORLD's INDIGENOUs PEOpLEs - CINU

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EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionIntroductionBy the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous IssuesThe United Nations is commonly seen as one of humankind’s most ambitious projects, striving to attain humanrights, development and peace and security for all. In many ways, the ambitious, lofty nature of its goals is boththe United Nations’ greatest strength and its greatest challenge. Despite unprecedented progress made duringthe United Nations’ first sixty years, there remains a lingering frustration that the poorest of the poor, the mostmarginalized and discriminated against, still do not enjoy their basic human rights, development or security.Indigenous peoples’ concerns have not always been represented at the United Nations and, for the first decadesof existence of the Organization, their voices were not heard there. This has slowly changed and the UnitedNations system has, in recent years, taken a number of steps to atone for past oversights, increasingly buildingpartnerships with indigenous peoples.There has been a vigorous and dynamic interface between indigenous peoples—numbering more than 370million in some 90 countries—and the United Nations, an interface which, difficult as it is, has produced atleast three results: a) a new awareness of indigenous peoples’ concerns and human rights; b) recognition ofindigenous peoples’ invaluable contribution to humanity’s cultural diversity and heritage, not least through theirtraditional knowledge; and c) an awareness of the need to address the issues of indigenous peoples throughpolicies, legislation and budgets. Along with the movements for decolonization and human rights, as well as thewomen’s and environmental movements, the indigenous movement has been one of the most active civil societyinterlocutors of the United Nations since 1945.The situation of indigenous peoples in many parts of the world continues to be critical: indigenous peoples facesystemic discrimination and exclusion from political and economic power; they continue to be over-representedamong the poorest, the illiterate, the destitute; they are displaced by wars and environmental disasters; theweapon of rape and sexual humiliation is also turned against indigenous women for the ethnic cleansing anddemoralization of indigenous communities; indigenous peoples are dispossessed of their ancestral lands anddeprived of their resources for survival, both physical and cultural; they are even robbed of their very right to life.In more modern versions of market exploitation, indigenous peoples see their traditional knowledge and culturalexpressions marketed and patented without their consent or participation. Of the some 7,000 languages today,it is estimated that more than 4,000 are spoken by indigenous peoples. Language specialists predict that up to90 per cent of the world’s languages are likely to become extinct or threatened with extinction by the end of thecentury. 1 This statistic illustrates the grave danger faced by indigenous peoples.A brief history of indigenous issues at the international levelFor centuries, since the time of their colonization, conquest or occupation, indigenous peoples have documentedhistories of resistance, interface or cooperation with states, thus demonstrating their conviction and determinationto survive with their distinct sovereign identities. Indeed, indigenous peoples were often recognized as sovereignpeoples by states, as witnessed by the hundreds of treaties concluded between indigenous peoples and thegovernments of the United States, Canada, New Zealand and others. And yet as indigenous populations dwindled,1Language Vitality and Endangerment. UNESCOINTRODUCTION | 1
EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionand the settler populations grew ever more dominant, states became less and less inclined to recognize thesovereignty of indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples themselves, at the same time, continued to adapt tochanging circumstances while maintaining their distinct identity as sovereign peoples.In 1923, Cayuga Chief Deskaheh, the representative of the Six Nations of the Iroquois travelled to Geneva, to theLeague of Nations, to plead for the cause of his people. He waited a whole year to obtain recognition from theLeague but was not received and returned home to North America. Although he was not granted an audienceby the League, he did sustain a remarkably successful PR campaign in Europe, where he found a much morereceptive audience in the media and general public than he did amongst the delegations in the League.A similar journey was made the following year by Maori religious leader W.T. Ratana to protest at the breakdownof the Treaty of Waitangi, concluded in 1840 between representatives of the British Crown and Maori chiefs inNew Zealand, a treaty that gave Maori ownership of their lands. Ratana first travelled to London with a largedelegation to petition King George V, but he was denied access. He then sent part of his delegation to Geneva tothe League of Nations and arrived there later himself, in 1925, but was also denied access.Indigenous issues received scant attention from the international community until the last three decades of thetwentieth century. One exception was in the 1950s, when concerns about situations of forced labour among“native populations” prompted the International Labour Organization to work on what became, in 1957, ConventionNo. 107, entitled “Convention Concerning the Protection and Integration of Indigenous and Other Tribal and Semi-Tribal Populations in Independent Countries”. This Treaty was later criticized as assimilationist by the indigenousmovement, which had become more visible at the international level in the 1970s. This would eventually lead tothe adoption of ILO Convention No. 169 in 1989.A great number of indigenous peoples’ organizations, were established at national and international level inthe 1960s and 1970s, spurred on by the decolonization era and a more general growth in non-governmentalorganizations. The issues that fuelled the movement ranged from broken treaties and loss of land to discrimination,marginalization, conflict and gross violations of human rights, including massacres. Although most of the activitiesof the nascent international indigenous movement took place outside the environs of the United Nations,indigenous peoples’ voices were at last being heard, and the UN was finally willing to listen to these voices.In 1972, the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minoritieslaunched a Study on the problem of discrimination against indigenous populations, later known as “the MartínezCobo study”, the name of the Special Rapporteur appointed to prepare the report. 2 The study began at a timewhen the international indigenous movement was growing rapidly throughout the Americas, the Caribbean, theArctic, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Bangladesh and elsewhere. This framed the nascent internationalindigenous movement in human rights terms—a landmark that has characterized the movement since.The Study created a momentum that, together with the advocacy work of the indigenous movement, led, in 1982,to the establishment of the first United Nations mechanism on indigenous peoples’ issues, namely the WorkingGroup on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission. In 1983, in an unprecedented breakthrough, the WorkingGroup decided to allow the participation of representatives of indigenous peoples and their organizations.Between 1984 and 1993, indigenous issues gained increased momentum, as witnessed by the establishment ofthe UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations (1985), the adoption of ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous2Martínez Cobo (1986/7).2 | INTRODUCTION
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