A Light at the End of the Tunnel for Declaration
Major headway has been made on the final draft of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with it now ready to be presented to the General Assembly. This development follows months of uncertainty over the document, but the general consensus is that the core tenets of the Declaration remain intact.
Below is a public statements issued by Elisa Burchett on 06 September 2007:
“We analyzed the document and we believe that this does not fall below existing international human rights standards. For this we really want to thank the co-sponsors and the African Group for endeavoring and putting in a lot of effort to come up with the amended version. We believe that the most important provisions of the declaration were kept in tact.” Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
There has been a major shift in outlook for the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Over the last week [26 August – 02 September 2007], Mr. Malezer said, an agreement has been made between the co-sponsors of the Declaration (represented by
The result of this agreement, presented to the Indigenous Caucus Steering Committee for review and response, consisted of five deletions and nine amendments to the original text. The Steering Committee is made up of representatives from each of the seven regions of Indigenous Peoples, Mr. Malezer explained, the regions of North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, Russia (or Eastern Europe) and the Arctic.
Through these representatives, they have had discussions to look at our responses to the latest developments, he said. A copy of the agreed text was then sent to all members of the Permanent Forum to ask whether they would endorse the amended text for adoption by the General Assembly or not. The response was positive.
Ms Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chair of The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues stated, “We believe that the most important provisions of the Declaration were kept intact and we, therefore, endorse that this text be presented at the General assembly for adoption. We are aware that this is a position also presented by the Steering Committee of the Global Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus to the co-sponsors. Thus, the Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus Steering Committee and the Permanent Forum (UNPFII) are of one mind.
The integrity of the amended text was tested by these criteria, as delineated by H.E. Permanent Representative Davide of the
Does it represent a genuine effort to address the various concerns? Does it build on, and not undermine, the efforts and achievements of the process at the Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Council? Does it preserve the purpose for the Declaration for Indigenous Peoples? Will it ensure that the Declaration does not fall below existing human rights standards?
The majority of the members of the Permanent Forum said that they support the amended version and endorse it for adoption by the General Assembly.
Ms Corpuz expressed her warm thanks to the African Group for their genuine efforts to arrive at a text that does not compromise existing international human rights standards and acknowledged the many hours they dedicated themselves to that end. The passage of the Declaration would represent a major achievement for the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Ms Corpuz said, expressing excitement to see what is going to happen next week. All who have been following this process are sitting on the edge of their seats with excitement and I doubt the authors of the Declaration will be getting any sleep before the end of the 61st session.
Elisa Burchett
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Please also see:
URGENT Indigenous Peoples Press Conference at U.N. Headquarters
Elisa Burchett: NGOs Show Support for U.N. Indigenous Rights Declaration
