STATE OF THE WORLD's INDIGENOUs PEOpLEs - CINU

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EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionthan other inmates and suffer higher rates of inmate abuse. 67 In Mexico, reports indicate that indigenouswomen tend to be abused and harassed while in detention, and may become involved in drug andprostitution schemes operating in prisons. 68Indigenous peoples have frequently faced detention due to the criminalization of social protest activities.According to the Special Rapporteur, “[o]ne of the most serious shortcomings in human rights protectionin recent years is the trend towards the use of legislation and the justice system to penalize and criminalizesocial protest activities and legitimate demands made by indigenous organizations and movements indefence of their rights.” 69 The Special Rapporteur has reported, for example, receiving “many reportsfrom countries such as India, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia and Thailand, ofarbitrary arrest or fake criminal charges made against members of indigenous and tribal peoples, as wellas other forms of threats and intimidations, as a result of their mobilization to defend their rights againstState authorities. In Mexico, the Special Rapporteur received complaints about indigenous communityactivities being prosecuted on “fabricated” charges for their participation in social mobilization overrights issues. 70Cases of ill-treatment and torture during detention, as well as extrajudicial killings have also been widelyreported. In relation to his 2006 visit to Kenya, the Special Rapporteur received numerous reports of arbitrarydetention, police harassment, and incidents of torture and rape suffered by local residents as a resultof the punitive application of security measures. Reportedly, many police abuses took place in relationto social protests associated with land rights claims, with vocal community members being ill-treatedand arrested. 71 The Special Rapporteur has voiced concerns regarding abuse of indigenous individuals indetention in a number of instances, including in cases reported from Bangladesh and Botswana. 72Sources: See FootnotesTestimony of abuses by State-controlled military or paramilitary forces has also been repeatedly given. InMyanmar, according to information received by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamentalfreedoms of indigenous people, members of the village of Tagu Seik, near Einme, were tortured and theircommunity ransacked on the basis of purported communications with another armed opposition group. 73 In thePhilippines, a similar military attack upon indigenous peoples took place. This was again on the basis that theindigenous individuals were allegedly members of a “splinter group of communist terrorists”. 74Needless to say, these and numerous other gross human rights violations and abuses are perpetratedagainst indigenous peoples—as collectivities or as individual men and women—on the basis of their identityand marginalization, and, in the case of indigenous women, on the basis of their sex. Unfortunately, suchdiscriminatory actions have been constant, from the time of first contact with outsiders to the present. Little haschanged, despite the groundswell of developments in the area of human rights standards specifically addressingindigenous peoples’ human rights.67Stavenhagen (2005), para. 56.68Stavenhagen (2004), para. 26.69Stavenhagen (2006a), para. 19.70Stavenhagen (2004), para. 49.71Stavenhagen (2007a), para. 60.72See for example,Anaya (2008), para. 70 and Stavenhagen (2007a), para. 5373Stavenhagen (2003), para. 60.74Stavenhagen (2003), para. 66.HUMAN RIGHTS | 207
EMBARGOED UNTIL 14 January 2010STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLESNot for distributionConcrete and urgent action must therefore be taken by the international communityto curb such abuses and violations, and to actually move toward implementingthe instruments discussed in this chapter. In so doing, indigenous peoples maythen have some potential for genuinely exercising their human rights. In order toimplement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, for example,it may be useful for indigenous peoples to develop, either independently or incooperation with states or others, benchmarks for the realization of human rights.Apologies for Past WrongsIn February 2008, the newly elected Government of Australia, at its firstsitting of Parliament House apologized for the removal of Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities andtheir country. In a statement, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd apologized“for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governmentsthat have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellowAustralians…For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations,their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To themothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breakingup of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity anddegradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we saysorry. We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apologybe received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of thenation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in thehistory of our great continent can now be written. We today take this firststep by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embracesall Australians. A future where this Parliament resolves that the injusticesof the past must never, never happen again”.little has changed,despite the groundswellof developments in thearea of human rightsstandards specificallyaddressing indigenouspeoples’ human rightsOn the 11 June 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the apologyin Parliament House, Ottawa, to the indigenous peoples of Canada forforcing aboriginal children to attend state-funded Christian boardingschools aimed at assimilating them. Mr Harper said aboriginal Canadianshad been waiting “a very long time” for an apology. “I stand before youtoday to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools.The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapterin our history”. He said the system had been based on the assumptionthat “aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal”.He went on: “We now recognize that, far too often, these institutionsgave rise to abuse or neglect and were inadequately controlled, and weapologize for failing to protect you. The government of Canada sincerelyapologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of thiscountry for failing them so profoundly. We are sorry”.Sources: Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples House of RepresentativesParliament House, Canberra (13 February 2008); BBC News Canada apology fornative schools (11 June 2008).208 | CHAPTER VI
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