U.N. Standard-Setting Process

Urgent Need to Improve the U.N. Standard-Setting Process on Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights: Addressing the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Fourth Session, in New York

Date: 2005-06-07

Joint Statement of the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee), Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), Na Koa Ikaika Kalāhui Hawai’i, International Organization of Indigenous Resource Development (IOIRD), Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), Tebtebba Foundation, Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA), Native Women’s Association of Canada, Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, Saami Council, Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation (RAIPON), Assembly of First Nations, Association Tunfa (Niger), Tamaynut (Morocco), First Peoples Human Rights Coalition, Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association (MBOSCUDA - Cameroon), Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica (COICA), Communauté des Autochtones Rwandais (CAURWA Rwanda), Chin Human Rights Organization (Burma), Maasai Women for Education and Economic Development (MAWEED Kenya), Hill Tracts NGO Forum, Nepal Indigenous Peoples Development and Information Service Centre (NIPDISC), Maya Institute of Belize - Ukuxtal Masewal, Samson Cree Nation, Ermineskin Cree Nation, Montana Cree Nation, Louis Bull Cree Nation, Tauhgya (Bangladesh), Programme d'Intégration et de Développement du Peuple Pygmée au Kivu (PIDP-KIVU), Caribbean Antilles Indigenous Peoples Caucus and the Diaspora, Fédération des Organisations Autochtones de Guyane (FOAG), Metis National Council, African Indigenous Women's Organisation (AIWO), Mainyoito Pastoralist Integrated Development Organisation (MPIDO-Kenya), Taino Nation of Antilles and US, Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), Trinamul (Bangladesh), Kus Kura Sociedad Civil (Costa Rica), Centre d'accompagnement des Autochtones Pygmées et Minoritaires Vulnérables (CAMV/RD-Congo), American Indian Law Alliance (AILA), Indigenous Information Network (IIN Kenya), Peace Campaign Group (India), United Confederation of Taino Peoples, Traditional Kirati Peoples' Alliance (Nepal), Consejo General de Tainos Borincanos, South African First Indigenous and Human Rights Organization (SAFIHRO), Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, Ligue Nationale des Associations autochtones Pygmées du Congo (LINAPYCO), Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples (NCIV), Canadian Friends Service Committee, Rights and Democracy, Hawai'i Institute for Human Rights, American Friends Service Committee Introduction

1. In regard to Agenda Item 4(a), we welcome this opportunity to address the human rights of Indigenous peoples, particularly in regard to the intersessional Working Group that is considering the draft U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

2. We appreciate the support of the General Assembly, Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and many other U.N. bodies, specialized agencies and Special Rapporteurs, who highlight the crucial need to safeguard our rights. At the international level, a major objective is the adoption by the General Assembly of the draft U.N. Declaration.

3. However, as indicated by many Indigenous peoples at last year’s session of the Permanent Forum, there is an indisputable need to improve the U.N standard-setting process on Indigenous peoples’ human rights.

4. Since its inception in 1995, the Working Group has only provisionally approved 2 of the 45 Articles of the draft U.N. Declaration. The two approved Articles solely address existing individual rights and not the collective rights of Indigenous peoples. 

5. A principal reason why more progress has not been made in the Working Group is that some participating States – such as the United Kingdom, France, United States and the Netherlands – claim that our collective rights are not human rights. They insist, without substantiation, that the collective rights of Indigenous peoples must be excluded or segregated from international human rights law.

6. Such States fail to explain the inclusion of collective human rights in the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and other international instruments.

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