UN’s Indigenous Forum I Seventh Session

The annual Forum session provides a platform for indigenous peoples to voice their concerns and dialogue with governments and the UN system about their concerns. This year’s high level meeting attracted some 3,000 indigenous representatives and other attendees including parliamentarians, NGOs and academia, senior and other representatives Member States, UN system entities and other inter-governmental organizations.

The session’s main theme was “Climate change, bio-cultural diversity and livelihoods: the stewardship role of indigenous peoples and new
challenges”.

At the opening of the session, which began on 21 April, UN
Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon, in a video message, applauded the choice of climate change as the special theme, saying that indigenous peoples “can and should play a role in the global response” due to their accumulation of first-hand knowledge on the impacts of environmental degradation, including
climate change.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the Permanent Forum, said that both the problem of climate change and its solution were concerns for indigenous peoples who -- according to a World Bank report -- contributed the “smallest ecological footprints” on Earth, but suffered the worst impacts from climate change and mitigation measures, such as the loss of land to biofuel production.

The Forum urged States, the World Bank, and other multilateral and
bilateral financial institutions consider alternative systems beyond the
perpetuation of highly-centralized fossil-fuel-based energy supplies and large-scale bioenergy and hydropower dams.  The Forum called for an increase support for renewable, low-carbon and decentralized systems, taking into account the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams and recommended that States abandon old, centralized electricity grids, which are not suitable for the challenges of climate change.

Delegates told the Forum that indigenous peoples must have a say in
decision making processes on how to combat global climate change because solutions currently being implemented are often further violations of indigenous rights.

The Forum made a number of recommendations on the Millennium Development Goals and human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples among other issues.  It also examined the implementation of its previous recommendations,

Delegates also examined the value of increased collaboration of the Forum with the Human Rights Council and its various mechanisms, including its universal review mechanism and called for indigenous rights to be prominently addressed at those reviews.

Delegates from various indigenous organizations expressed their profound concerns about serious violations of human rights.  Ms. Corpuz noted that such cases pose a particular challenge to the Forum and highlighted the case of the Guarani people in the Chaco region of Latin America, who have been described as living in slave-like conditions, as representative of “the kind of situations that indigenous peoples are facing”.

Following a meeting it held in Siberia in July last year, the Permanent
Forum also decided to appoint Special Rapporteurs among its members to study the impact of corporations on indigenous peoples and promote indigenous peoples’ rights within this context


During the session, Forum members heard from delegates on the multiple ways in which their respective countries needed to take measures to implement the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and discussed how the body could be more effective in encouraging implementation.

 The Forum has decided to take a leading role on the promotion of the
implementation of the Declaration. It was announced that an international expert group meeting will take place before the eighth session to formulate
concrete proposals.

 Forum member Lars Anders Baer said the creation of the Declaration and the establishment of the Forum itself in 2003 shows “it is possible to reshape the United Nations.”  He also noted that the participation of President Evo Morales of Bolivia, who gave the first-ever address to the Forum by a Head of State, was a positive change.
 

For more information on the seventh session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, please see:
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_seventh.html