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A milestone for
indigenous people
By Dr. JACOB L SIMET
In 1994 the United Nations General Assembly declared August 9 as
International Day of the World’s Indigenous People (IDWIP).
Its observance was tied to the International Decade of the
World’s Indigenous People which ran from 1995 to 2004.
However, a major objective of the Decade was the adoption of the
UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the
difficulties in achieving that and other goals of the Decade,
led to a second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous
People declared in 2004 which will run to 2014.
This day is promoted by the United Nations amongst its member
states.
In PNG, the National Cultural Commission (NCC) celebrated this
day by hosting the “Tumbuna” festival from 1995 onwards but this
petered out in 2000.
It is an important day to remember given the large number of
indigenous groups in this country.
The IDWIP is a day to celebrate “the contributions that
indigenous peoples make to humanity through their rich
civilizations”.
At the same time it is a day to remember those indigenous
peoples who continue to suffer discrimination, marginalization,
extreme poverty and conflict; who face dispossession of their
traditional lands and livelihoods, displacement, destruction of
their belief systems, culture, language and way of life – and
even the threat of extinction.
Altogether there are about 370 million indigenous people who
live in 75 countries around the world. Some of these live in
large populations and are part of the mainstream of life in
their countries but unfortunately may of them live in small
groupings and live on the margins of national life.
At the same time, despite the many eras of ideological
enlightenment which humanity has experienced over the last few
centuries, and which have admittedly had impacts on human rights
excesses such as slavery, apartheid and colonialism; many
indigenous groups still live under situations of servitude,
suppression and dispossession.
For centuries now, indigenous people have been waging struggles
against discrimination, marginalization, dispossession of their
lands, displacement, destruction of their belief systems,
eroding of their culture language and ways of life.
Some groups are even fighting against forces that may force them
into extinction; whether these be deliberate action or
unintended. While in some parts of the world, this struggle has
been fruitful, unfortunately in some other parts of the world,
not much progress has been made, and this struggle still has a
long way to go.
In the Pacific and nearby Asian region; many indigenous groups
are very much part of nation states; however unfortunately many
groups do not participate fully in mainstream national life. At
the same time there are some situations where indigenous groups
continue to remain subjected to repression and domination by
others; and as consequence continue to be denied their rights to
land and their cultural rights.
Since 1994, the indigenous peoples lobby has been working on a
declaration to have as a United Nations document to help
alleviate their situations.
This is the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
After more than a decade, this declaration was finally adopted
by the Human Rights Commission on June 21, 2006. This is an
important achievement as it was not easy to get to this point.
While many countries supported the declaration and its
importance for indigenous peoples; there were many countries
which were not ready to recognize the rights of indigenous
people and opposed the document.
On record; Australia and New Zealand are amongst the countries
which opposed the declaration in its then current form and
wanted to do some amendments.
There were differing reasons for the calls for amendments and
further editions. It seemed that most of this was related to
some degree of apprehension that the declaration would give
license to indigenous groups move towards positions having
increased rights over their land and move towards some degree of
political autonomy.
After some amendments were done and further discussions, the UN
Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People was finally
passed by United Nations General Assembly on September 13, 2007.
This was a major achievement for indigenous peoples around the
world. It marked a major milestone for indigenous people and the
culmination of over a decade of work.
A total of 143 member states of the UN voted for the
declaration. Eleven abstained and only four states voted against
the declaration; the United States, Canada, New Zealand and
Australia.
The four dissenting states all agreed that the declaration in
some parts seemed to open the way for some indigenous groups to
move towards positions of nationhood, within the states in which
they already lived.
Among the reasons for not supporting the declaration, Australia
had the added reason the concept/term “indigenous” needed to be
properly defined.
Interestingly, this same dissenting group was in the same camp
which formed the opposition to that blistering debate at the
UNESCO General Assembly on the “UNESCO Convention on the
Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural
Expressions; together with Japan and Israel.
When the Convention finally went through the UNESCO General
Assembly in October 2005 though, only the US and Israel were
formally listed as opposing this Convention while over 180
countries supported it.
Irrespective of the apprehensions and fears of some member
states, the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of
Indigenous People protects indigenous peoples against all forms
of human rights excesses which have been perpetrated against
then for centuries. At the same time it assures indigenous
people about many of their rights, which have either been taken
away from them or which threaten to be taken away from them.
The UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People does not
give indigenous people more protection than other people; nor
does it confer any new rights to them and nor does it give more
rights to indigenous than other people.
The Declaration simply creates the environment for indigenous
people to live normal lives just like everyone else, by
providing protection from persecution, suppression, dominance,
marginalization and dispossession.
At the same time it frees indigenous people from positions of
subservience, being treated as second-class citizens and even
relegations to be sub-human; to have the same rights just like
everybody else.
Next week: Articles in the Declaration relating to indigenous
cultural rights.
* Footnote – The author is a member and affiliated to a number
of international indigenous organizations, such as the
International Indigenous Forum for Biological Diversity (IIFB)
and with interest in indigenous issues particularly indigenous
cultural rights.
 
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