No Declaration for Indigenous Peoples This Year - Maybe Next
Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 22 (IPS) - The long-awaited international declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples may see the light of day in 2006, after more than 10 years of complex efforts by a United Nations working group, experts announced.

The negotiations that took place this year gave rise to a glimmer of hope that the next session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, to be held in March and April, might approve the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The U.N. estimates that there are about 300 million people belonging to indigenous communities in more than 70 countries around the world. It points out that they are among the most marginalised people in the world in economic, social and cultural terms.

Over the space of a decade, the working group on the draft declaration on the rights of indigenous people, made up of representatives of governments and indigenous communities, had barely managed to reach agreement on two articles, and these in fact dealt with collateral issues.

But in the Dec. 5-16 session in Geneva, the working group finished drafting 10 paragraphs of the preamble to the declaration, as well as 14 articles, which can be considered as already approved, representing very concrete results, said Luis Enrique Chávez, from Peru, who chairs the group.

Victoria Tauli Corpuz, representing the Tebtebba Foundation, an indigenous association in the Philippines, said the adopted articles were very important because many of them are related to the key issues that indigenous people would like to see in the declaration.

But Tauli Corpuz acknowledged to IPS that the working group has not yet begun the process of provisionally adopting articles related to self determination, lands, territories, and resources, because "these are the most difficult articles to negotiate." "Anyhow, I think that it's a very good indication of progress," said Tauli Corpuz, one of the eight indigenous representatives on the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that functions at the U.N. headquarters in New York, and includes another eight state delegates.

However, Saúl Vicente Vázquez, from Mexico, representing the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), said indigenous people are disheartened by the ten-year dialogue with the governments.

The representatives of indigenous people analysed the possibility of accepting the draft text of some articles proposed by the governments, in order to finally obtain a declaration.

The draft declaration apparently bothers some member states, which have thrown up hurdles and attempted to limit the rights outlined in the text, said Vázquez.

Most governments have taken a positive attitude, although unfortunately there are some powerful states that are clearly opposed to the establishment of indigenous peoples' rights, he maintained.

He specifically mentioned Australia, the United States, Britain and New Zealand as the countries that are opposed to recognising indigenous peoples' rights to self determination, and to their own land, territories, and natural resources.

Chávez, however, said he had found goodwill on both sides during the debates, particularly in the negotiations over the more sensitive issues. "We have managed to close much of the gap between the texts, and although there are still differences, these are about ideas, not words," said the Peruvian diplomat.

The issue of self determination is limited to a debate between the indigenous peoples, who present their legitimate aspirations, and the states that describe what they think is reasonable and possible to respect and fulfil in given circumstances, Chávez said.

The two supreme treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, guarantee that "all peoples have the right to self determination."

"By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development," the covenants add.

A similar text was proposed by the U.N. Sub-Commission on Human Rights to solve the problem of self-determination in the draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

But Australia, the United States and New Zealand told the working group that Article 3 on self-determination in the draft declaration "cannot be a rote repetition" of Article 1 of the two international conventions.

The three countries said the working group "must explain in this declaration exactly what is meant by the term self-determination as relates to indigenous peoples."

In the working group debates, "We have also heard the assertion that the right in Article 3 may include secession or independence, or self-government, or free association, for example," the three countries said in a joint statement.

The text that they proposed states that self-determination "shall not be construed as authorising or encouraging any action which would dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent States."

Tauli Corpuz said the statement reflected the three countries' fears and concerns, and showed that they want to ensure that the right of self-determination does not lead to secession.

Indigenous peoples maintain that if it is agreed that they have the right to self-determination, limiting that right would be discriminatory. "Why is (self-determination according to the two international treaties) allowed for other people but not for indigenous peoples?" Tauli Corpuz protested.

In any case, those indigenous communities that have "an agenda for secession" will go ahead with or without any U.N. declaration, she insisted.

Tauli Corpuz gave short shrift to the idea that after a declaration which recognises their right to self-determination is adopted, indigenous people "will suddenly go out of their way and secede. That's not the reality in our world today."

In spite of these difficulties, Chávez believes it will be possible to present a text for adoption by consensus at the last session of the working group, to be held in Geneva Jan.30-Feb.3.

As a last resort, Chávez could turn to the Commission on Human Rights itself, with a draft declaration that could be adopted by the Commission as the highest U.N. body on the issue. Another option is for the Commission to authorise a new period of working group sessions to finalise the text of the declaration over the next year. (END/2005)