Protecting Indigenous Communities Worldwide

The direction to keep some sense of human spirit in our life (in the future) is to maintain our true past, our true origins, our culture... Our culture is shaped by ourselves and by those around us. Extinction of a neighbor's culture will lead to a colder change within our lives and (an extreme outcome), possible extinction of the human soul in the future. This is one of the ways you protect everyone's culture, an article from the UN taking initiatives to protect Native People around the world.



September 13, 2007
U.N. Declares Rights for Native Peoples
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:43 p.m. ET

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. General Assembly adopted a declaration Thursday affirming the rights of native peoples worldwide over objections from the United States and Canada, ending two decades of deliberations.

The declaration, which is not legally binding, affirms the equality of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples and their right to maintain their own institutions, cultures and spiritual traditions. It also establishes standards to combat discrimination and marginalization, and eliminate human rights violations against them.

The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were the only countries that voted against the declaration, although 11 nations abstained. The opponents said they wanted to work toward a solution, but that key parts of the declaration would give indigenous peoples too many rights and clash with existing national laws.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairwoman of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said the declaration was ''a major victory'' for the United Nations in establishing human rights standards. But she said the real test will be whether countries implement it.

''(The declaration) sets the minimum international standards for the protection and promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples,'' she said. ''Therefore, existing and future laws, policies and programs of indigenous peoples will have to be redesigned and shaped to be consistent with this standard.''

The document calls on countries to prevent or redress the forced migration of indigenous peoples, the seizure of their land and their forced integration into other cultures. It also grants indigenous groups control over their religious and cultural sites and the right to manage their own educational systems, including teaching in their own languages.

Several of the opposing countries said the declaration set a poor precedent, calling it confusing and unclear.

''We're not standing against the issue,'' said Benjamin Chang, a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the U.N. ''We want one that is universal in its scope and can be implemented. What was done today is not clear. The way it stands now is subject to multiple interpretations and doesn't establish a clear universal principal.''

Australia's U.N. Ambassador Robert Hill said references to self-determination in the declaration could disrupt the territorial and political integrity of a country.

''The declaration's provisions on lands and resources could be read to require recognition of indigenous rights to lands without regard to other legal rights existing in land, both indigenous and non-indigenous,'' he said.

New Zealand's U.N. Ambassador Rosemary Banks cited several provisions that are incompatible with her country's laws -- the right of indigenous peoples to own and use their traditional lands, the right to financial compensation, and the implication in the text that indigenous peoples have a right of veto over a democratic legislature and national resource management.

The U.S. and Australia said sponsors excluded them from negotiations that resulted in an amended text.

The declaration was approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva in June 2006 and sent to the 192-member General Assembly for adoption. The assembly put off final approval last December but pledged to vote before its current session ends next week.

The Working Group on Indigenous Peoples was formed in 1982 and began work on the declaration three years later, completing it in 1993. The predecessor the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Human Rights, then set up a working group and has been reviewing the agreement annually since.

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On the Net:

U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/