UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. ? Indigenous rights activists around the world are anxiously waiting for the United Nations to issue a document that some fear could set back their cause by decades.
The document, actually two reports, will summarize results of the recent U.N. World Conference Against Racism. Indigenous delegates are trying to tone down language that they say would compromise international recognition of the rights of Native Peoples.
The reports are expected to issue shortly from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.
Andrew Huff, staff attorney at the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Mont., said two paragraphs in the draft declaration from the conference would put Native rights at the mercy of government interests. The well-organized Indigenous delegates at the racism conference in Durban, South Africa, fought hard to delete the objectionable language, he said.
‘I think that overall, we did fairly well,’ Huff said, adding he is waiting to see what the final version holds.
Huff, a Chippewa-Cree, was one of about 30 American Indians from North America and 75 to 100 Indigenous delegates from around the world to attend the highly contentious weeklong conference. The Native voices, he said, came primarily as members of Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs).
Also making the long trip to South Africa was Mashantucket Pequot member L. Buddy Gwin, the special assistant for legal affairs to Tribal Treasurer Michael J. Thomas. Even though the Indigenous rights issues were overshadowed in headlines by the Middle Eastern conflict and a walkout by United States and Israeli delegates, Gwin said they represented 25 years of struggle.
‘One of the struggles we’ve had as Indigenous people is that it is extremely rare that our views and our concerns are heard above the national and international din.’
Gwin suggested that the United Nations should sponsor ‘a world conference on Indigenous peoples’ issues before the end of the decade.’
Huff explained that Indigenous interests were threatened at the Racism Conference by paragraphs 27 and 51 of the draft declaration where wording withheld absolute support for Native rights.
He said Paragraph 51, by illustration, called for preservation of Indigenous peoples’ rights to their land, but added the crucial modifier ‘to which they are entitled under domestic law.’
Protests from the Indigenous delegates ‘did have a big impact’ in getting the attention of diplomats at the conference. Some of the objectionable language was modified, he said, ‘but it was still very bad.’
He said the Indigenous efforts had dramatized ‘the racist nature of the laws directed against us.’ And if the paragraphs remained unchanged, he said they would symbolize the prevalence of racism even in a world conference called to fight racism.
The North American Indian presence at the conference followed a generation of appeals to the United Nations, Gwin said. Leadership on the Canadian side of the border came from the Grand Council of the Cree, which sponsored the Mashantucket delegation at a preparatory conference in Geneva.
Dr. Ted Moses, grand chief of the Cree, was co-chairman of a consultative conference in August at the United Nations headquarters here to prepare for a Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. This body is set to become a part of the U.N. structure in the next few years, along with a Special Rapporteur for Indigenous peoples’ issues. Activists hope they will give Native concerns a much higher international profile.
‘When your community is invisible, the rest of the world does not know of your issues, needs and/or aspirations,’ Thomas said in a statement presented to the World Racism Conference.
‘The consequence is colonial acts of oppression and repression go unredressed.
‘The 21st century must usher in a new era, one where the decolonization of Indigenous peoples and their homelands by colonial governments becomes a reality.