NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ALLEGE WIDESPREAD VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

EVENING
HR/CN/99/47
19 April 1999


Commission on Human Rights Concludes Debate
on “Indigenous Issues”


Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) speaking before the Commission on Human Rights this evening charged that abuses were being committed against indigenous peoples in numerous countries.

They also called for rapid completion of a draft United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, claiming elaboration of the document had been dragged out for years. And they sought the quick creation of a permanent forum to represent the interests of indigenous peoples within the United Nations system.

A representative of the Sammi Council said the draft Declaration was immensely important, yet had been worked on for 15 years and still wasn’t finished. He contended that the Declaration and other indigenous issues had been given low priority by the Commission.

Other NGOS alleged violations of the human rights of indigenous populations in Chile, the United States, Mexico, Malaysia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Philippines, Colombia, West Papua, Australia, Burma, and Siberia.

A number of the organizations called for the appointment by the Commission of a Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples.

At the end of the evening session, the Commission concluded its discussion of indigenous issues. It will reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 20 April, to take up the annual report of its principal subsidiary body, the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

Speaking this evening were representatives of AGIR Group for Human Rights; Society for Threatened Peoples; World Council of Churches; International Educational Development; United Methodist Church; Asian Legal Resource Center; International Federation of Rural Adult Catholic Movements; Transnational Radical Party; World Federation for Mental Health; Franciscans International; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; Inuit Circumpolar Conference; International Organization of Indigenous Resource Development; Latin American Federation of Associations of Disappeared Persons; Worldview International Foundation; Rural Reconstruction Nepal; Commission for the Defence of Human Rights in Central America; Interfaith International; Survival International; Anti-Slavery International; International Indian Treaty Council; International Organization for the Development of Freedom of Education; Association Napguana: International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs; Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North; Latin American Human Rights Association; Indian Movement “Tupaj Amaru”; and Movement against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples.

A representative of Venezuela spoke in exercise of the right of reply.

Statements

DAVID TORO, of AGIR Group for Human Rights, called attention to the situation of the Mapuche indigenous people of Chile; the Mapuche were poorest group in the country and had been culturally, linguistically and educationally suppressed.

Continuing violations of the rights of the Mapuche were leading to a potentially explosive situation. The Commission must call for reconciliation and conciliatory efforts by the Government of Chile to improve the living conditions of the Mapuche and to allow them to freely exercise their human rights.

DANIEL ZAPATA, of Society for Threatened Peoples, said the Commission must pay attention to the matter of the Mount Graham International Observatory in the United States and its affect on the traditional religious rights of the San Carlos and White River Apache people. The Commission, the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the European Parliament and many international non-governmental organizations had been concerned about this matter for many years.

Although objections to any new construction on the mountain had been explained in detail to the Government, the US Forest Service continued to expand facilities and was building a power line for the telescopes in defiance of the environmental laws of the USA. The UN should investigate this matter and help preserve a vital Native American sacred site, dzil nchaa si an (Mt. Graham).

EUGENIO POMA, of World Council of Churches, said that for over 25 years, the member churches of the Council had given expression to the aspirations and demands of indigenous peoples through programmes, ecumenical events, and in the case of Australia, a series of high-profile visits by ecumenical delegations to Aboriginal communities. The WCC was not in a dissimilar situation to the UN itself; indigenous demands for justice -- especially in regard to land -- had been received, and their voices were heard in church councils and meetings. The Council tried its best to work and act in solidarity with them.


The very fact that indigenous peoples were present within the WCC meant it could learn what needed to be learned in ways that respected indigenous integrity. The WCC had moved from speaking about indigenous issues to making indigenous peoples part of the WCC itself.

LARS-ANDERS BAER, of the Saami Council, said the Council represented the indigenous Saami organizations and communities in Finland, Russia, Norway and Sweden. The importance of the work on the draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples -- an instrument that would represent minimum international standards for the rights and freedoms of indigenous peoples -- was immense. Therefore it was difficult to understand why the process had taken so long at the Commission level. The draft Declaration had been worked on for 15 years.

The Commission was urged to ask ECOSOC to authorize the High Commissioner for Human Rights to ortanize a three-day technical mid-point review meeting. The Commission, it seemed, gave indigenous issues at a very low priority in terms of financial and human resources. Indigenous peoples had the right to expect something more from the High Commissioner. The Commission should appoint a Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples with a substantial mandate.

NANCY DARGEL, of World Organisation for Former Pupils of Catholic Education, said it was putting forward an appeal received from Mexican affiliates on behalf of the Indian population in Chiapas. Chiapas was one of the richest states in Mexico -- with oil, uranium, natural corn, coffee, and sugar -- yet it was the state most highly subsidized by the Government. It was also a state where 50 per cent of the 1.7 million population lived in poverty, and in fact were near starvation.

There was a difference between the view of land as a commodity and the Indians’ fundamental approach to Sacred Earth. History showed that the Indians in Chiapas had worked in serfdom in the last century, and highly discriminatory agrarian laws had lasted until the 1940s. Now there were various groups in confrontation: compassions rebelling against the Government/army -- and against landowners, paramilitaries, and private guards. In some cases family was set against family. The seeds of enmity had been sown and the harvest was grief and death. The Commission should take the situation in Capes into hand.

RANDY VASQUEZ, of International Educational Development, said the organization was concerned about the plight of indigenous peoples in Capes, Mexico. They were in a crisis situation. There were nearly 70,000 military personnel there, about one-third of the Mexican army. The sole purpose of this overwhelming presence was to intimidate the indigenous population and to disperse it from traditional lands. The trigger-happy army and the paramilitary forces had been responsible for some of the worst massacres of indigenous peoples this century.

On 11 April 1998 the Mexican authorities dismantled the Autonomous Municipality of Ricardo Flores Magnon. Human rights workers were expelled. A military encampment and police checkpoint were placed in the Center of the community. The village men fled to the mountains. In June 1998 another village was put under siege by Mexican authorities. The villagers encircled the town with a human barricade, but were overrun by charging soldiers. Twenty-one men and one woman were arrested and held in prison until October.

NATHANIEL ORTEZA/LEONARD BENALIY, of United Methodist Church, said help was needed to stop the shameful stealing of native lands and other goods and the cruel destruction of the culture, art, religion environment, and other living things on which the lives of indigenous peoples depended. Unfortunately this colonialist pattern continued in the life of the Dineh. There was an urgent crisis facing the traditional Dineh, the Navajo people living in what was known as Hopi partitioned land in the Black Mesa region of Arizona in the United States. In 1996, the US Congress passed a law requiring the final eviction by February 1, 2000, of the Dineh from their lands.

Some people were offered leases that allowed them to remain as tenants on their own ancestral lands with no civil rights and without a means of survival. It was time the US focussed attention on its own marginalized peoples living in conditions not unlike many Third World countries. The Commission should appoint a Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples and should continue to support the land-rights study now under way.

TEODORO DE MESA, of Asian Legal Resource Center, said it was concerned about the phenomenon of globalization that had increased the massiveness and the intensity of violations against indigenous peoples and their civil, political economic, social, and cultural rights. Many non-governmental and people's organizations and institutions from the Asia-Pacific had affirmed this phenomenon, which resulted in a domino effect -- some rights were violated and that led to the violation of other rights, such as the right to health, the right to food, and the right to life.

There was concern about the reversing of protections of indigenous titles of Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders through amendments to the Native Title Act of 1993. In Malaysia, some indigenous peoples had been severed from their means of subsistence upon their ancestral lands; they had been compelled to stay in resettlement areas far from their traditional hunting grounds. The allegations just presented could have been more pertinently deliberated on in a permanent forum.

PIERRE MIOT, of the International Federation of Rural Adult Catholic Movements (FIMARC), said in Ecuador the major concern of indigenous communities was the recuperation and the reappropriation of their cultures. These communities had long suffered profound discrimination under the dominating imported culture brought by colonization. Similar discriminatory situations against minority indigenous groups existed in Karnataka State, among the Mapuche in Chile, in Guatemala, in the Philippines and in Colombia.

FIMARC supported the call of Alexis Tiouka for restoration of the rights of the indigenous peoples of French Guyana. States must recognize the identities, cultures and interests of indigenous peoples and accord them the aid they needed to achieve lasting development.

GIULIA SPAGNOLETTI ZEULI, of Transnational Radical Party, said in many countries where indigenous peoples were located, policy and legislative reform was occurring in response to the demands of indigenous peoples to enjoy, without discrimination, the universally recognized human rights and freedoms.

There were events occurring in West Papua that strongly indicated a systematic genocide of the ethnic Melanesian people. These indicators included transmigration projects, indiscriminate shooting and summary killings, destruction of property, intimidation, arbitrary detention, disappearance, and other forms of human rights violations towards the indigenous peoples of West Papua who wanted independence. This unjust process had actually begun under the Bunker Plan as suggested by the United States and was supported by other countries in an effort to deny the existence and well-being of West Papuans.

WILDA SPALDING, of World Federation for Mental Health, said the process of the disintegration of a people clearly violated norms of international law, whether through the murder of one person or the massacre of a region through forced relocation or stifling assimilation, whether through assaults on ancestral lands or suppression of traditional languages, cultures and religious customs. The Dineh elders were here again, and this time their elder medicine man was offering free-will prayers in the Palais. Again, the elders brought to the Commission’s attention the ugly process of the assaults on their people and other indigenous peoples in relation to their ancestral lands.

For years, to highlight what appeared to be an endemic, negative psychological issue for indigenous people in particular, this observer had been citing a relatively neutral body of legal mechanisms and urging the protection of sacred places in joint statements with and from indigenous peoples. In 1999, the International Year of Older Persons, there should be solid, mutually respectful, traditional, cultural and contemporary ways, through education, mentoring and exchanges, to build healthy societies and pass on knowledge to help in the development of a healthy, balanced younger generation.

PHILIPPE LEBLANC, of Franciscans International, said some Governments still considered indigenous peoples as obstacles to national development. An example was the Mexican Government, which had adopted integration policies for assimilating indigenous peoples, not understanding their vision of the world, their harmonious relation with nature, their values, their historic memory, or their projects for the future.

The rebellion in Chiapas had demonstrated that a large gap existed between recognized rights and implemented rights for indigenous peoples. The federal Mexican Government had not fulfilled its commitment to grant rights to indigenous peoples, including rights to pluralism, sustainability, integrality, participation and self-determination. The Commission should give priority attention to the systematic violations of the human rights of indigenous peoples in Latin America, especially in Mexico, and should call on Mexico to respect the human rights of indigenous peoples and to honor the San Andres Accords which it had signed.

VICTOR BUFFALO, of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Commission, said Australia spoke loudly on human rights but did not have the action to back up the rhetoric. Australia's aboriginal and Torre people had suffered discrimination and had been put at a disadvantage. The Government had dismissed recommendations from the indigenous peoples.

Last month the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had heard about Australia’s treatment of its indigenous peoples. In 1996, a conservative coalition had come into power in the Australian Government, and the coalition was attempting to eliminate established protections for indigenous peoples. The Commission should appeal for the protection of the human rights of the indigenous peoples of Australia.

AQQALUK LYNGE, of Inuit Circumpolar Conference, said he represented an international organization for approximately 152,000 Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka in the Russian Federation. Along with other indigenous peoples from all over the world, the Inuit had been directly and actively involved in the process of drafting the declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples until the adoption of it by the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1994. They had also taken part in the discussion of the Working Group established by the Commission to reconsider the draft Declaration. The Inuit along with their indigenous brothers and sisters had accepted the draft Declaration as adopted by the members of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations and endorsed by the Subcommission on Prevention and Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in 1994.

Yet five years later only two of the 45 articles in the draft had been adopted and upcoming discussions would not be easy because of unwillingness by some Governments to protect the rights of indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples saw the current text of the draft Declaration as an expression of minimum international standards for the protection and promotion of the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples.

MARGARITA GUTIERREZ, of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, said the organization wanted to make sure Mexico recognized its indigenous peoples. The only difference in Mexico between an animal and an indigenous person was that an animal did not have the right to vote. Recognition of indigenous peoples in Mexico did not come from the Government but rather from indigenous organizations.

Indigenous peoples in Capes were told that the constant military presence there was for their own protection. Indigenous women did not want the kind of security that was offered by members of the military. The women were the favoured booty of the soldiers, and were not protected at all. The new millennium should start with a new respect for human rights. Nothing was being requested that was not part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Mexico had signed. There was an urgent need for a Special Rapporteur on Mexico. There should be no more violence and blood.

W. LITTLECHILD, of International Organization of Indigenous Resource Development, said the organization was saddened by the brutal assassinations of their sisters and colleagues Ingrid Washinawatok of the Menominee Nation, Laheenae Gay and Terence Frietas, and awaited an appropriate investigation to bring about justice for their families.

On behalf of the Four Cree Nations of Hobbema, in a joint statement, the organization called for a number of items to be considered by the Commission: it recommended that the inter-sessional Working Group be moved to ECOSOC; stressed that the permanent forum must not replace the Subcommission’s Working Group on Indigenous Peoples; and recommended that the lack of establishment of the United Nations permanent forum and the lack of adoption of the Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples be part of the mid-term review of the state of the International Decade. The organization also was concerned by the regressive step of OAS Government experts in bracketing the term peoples/populations; and fully supported the draft resolution calling for appointment of a Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples.

MARIA GUTIERREZ, of Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared Persons, said there needed to be an explanation of what was happening in Mexico. She had been released from prison a few days ago after being detained violently by a policeman. She had been beaten on various parts of her body, and another six people were treated in the same way. Over 70 people had been detained since October 1998, including women and children. The police had threatened to detain the rest of the community.

She had had serious pains in her abdomen and neck, but the prison doctor had refused to treat her. She was forced to take off her clothes because the police said she had hidden drugs in her uterus. She had lived through this hell, but there were many more women there who suffered the same fate. More than 500 indigenous people who had marched on Mexico City in April to demand that the situation be stopped had been detained. The Commission should appoint a Special Rapporteur on Mexico.

SOE AUNG, of Worldview International Foundation, said that to many indigenous groups who wished to preserve their cultural identities, economic autonomy and rights to their traditional lands, the word "development" aroused very mixed reations. There continued to be many destructive so-called development projects which were a threat to local communities and the environment. These projects were motivated by greed and by the egos of Government or businesses, and usually caused long-term problems for the rest of the country.

In Burma, the military regime had drawn up cease-fire agreements with several indigenous groups after several decades of civil war, yet the people reacted with fear to the word "development" because the development projects of the regime caused hardship; they were implemented through use of forced labour, extortion and displacement. The situation of indigenous peoples in southern Myanmar was an example.

CUNG BIK LING, of Rural Reconstruction Nepal, said there was an urgent crisis in Chinland, which was situated in the western part of Burma. Ever since the Burmese Army took power in 1962, successive military regimes had persistently carried out cultural genocide against the indigenous Chin peoples.

Despite the fact that the Chin community provided textbooks and teachers, the language was taught only as an optional subject, and only up to second grade. In fact, the Chin textbook had been banned in 1990 because one phrase referred to the Bible. Since 1995, the regime also had banned the use of the Chin language between teachers and students in the classroom. In court and Government offices, only Burmese could be spoken. The Commission should ratify the Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples immediately to protect the existence of the Chin.

ANLILEO VIOLA, of Commission for the Defence of Human Rights in Central America (CODEHUCA), said the Mapuche people in Chile typified the continued marginalization of indigenous populations in Latin America. There was systematic appropriation of Mapuche indigenous territories by multinational companies -- principally the forested regions. Many indigenous peoples had been displaced by armed guards which acted more as paramilitary bands with total impunity for the Chilean State in favor of the Arauco companies and other wood companies in the conflict.

The situation had taken on a repressive political character and the Chilean State had violated the human rights of the Mapuche community. There should be a Coordinator of Communities in Conflict to denounce these violations and reinstate the rights of the Mapuche peoples.

DEANNA MORROW PATTY, of Interfaith International, said the issues of indigenous peoples were many and complex. Two of the major problems were the encroachment of others onto their traditional lands, and urbanization. Encroachment and urbanization were due to globalization, population growth and demands for natural resources, which caused migrations. Encroachments included those of industries which affected the hunting, fishing, food growing and gathering capacities of indigenous peoples who depended on such resources for survival.

In the Bering Strait (Alaska, Canada and Siberia) area, indigenous peoples were struggling to preserve their hunting and fishing lands from destruction by mineral exploration, production and transportation. In Africa and the Pacific Rim, indigenous peoples were suffering the devastating effects of pollution -- effects that eventually would be felt by all the populations of the world. In South America and many forested areas, the growing need for cheaper more plentiful food and housing had caused radical changed in topography.

TOM BEANAL, of Survival International, said Governments should be on the side of the people, especially when outside forces were involved. In reality, the Government that the people of West Papua had today was one that wanted to be served by its people. It was a Government that looked more after the interests of companies and its own interests than that of its people.

The indigenous people within the Papuan culture often had had tribal wars amongst each other, or with other indigenous peoples. War was made not because of a preference for war, but because of what was done to the indigenous peoples by Governments and companies, the ones that called themselves modern, such as the Indonesian government, or the PT Freeport corporation, and other Indonesian and foreign companies. Was this justice? Was this fair according to the international community, including the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations?

AUCAN HUILCAMAN, of Anti-Slavery International, said indigenous organizations supported the proposal by Denmark and recommended that it should be dealt with at the Commission’s 56th Session. The process should take into account the need for an international instrument that outlined the rights of indigenous peoples. The work on the draft Declaration on this subject had taken much too long.

Chile had violating the indigenous rights of the Mapuche; among other things, Chile had built dams in the region. The lack of instruments to regulate the logging interests in Mapuche territories was threatening the Mapuche and if this situation was not corrected it would seriously hinder their cultural, social and economic rights, and more.

ROSEANNE OLGUIN, of International Indian Treaty Council, said the Council welcomed the opportunity to address the Commission regarding critical developments impacting the human rights and survival of indigenous peoples around the world. The IITC continued to urge United Nations member States to consider and respond to the concerns of indigenous peoples without hypocrisy or discrimination.

The establishment of a permanent forum for indigenous peoples within the United Nations system was needed to monitor critical situations faced by indigenous peoples whose lands, lives, languages, cultures, and very existence were in danger of imminent extinguishment. The IITC urged the establishment by the Commission of a Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples' human rights. There were no mechanisms now in place to ensure the regular exchange of information and views between Governments, indigenous peoples and the UN system.

RIGOBERTO JUAREZ, of International Organization for the Development of Freedom of Education, said some Governments had to set aside their racism. A Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples should be appointed. It was clear that certain Governments wanted to slow down the progress of the relevant working groups. The working group on a permanent forum had made progress that was positive for indigenous peoples, and its members deserved to be congratulated.

The Maya people of Guatemala, who had suffered atrocities in that country, supported the work of their indigenous brothers in Mexico. It was sad to see that the country that had taken in thousands of Guatemalans was now inflicting suffering on its own indigenous peoples. A Special Rapporteur should be appointed to consider the case immediately. There was concern about indigenous peoples in Columbia who were suffering because of the ongoing civil war there.

MARCIAL ARIAS, of Napguana, said the working group on the draft Declaration and the working group on the permanent forum could make better progress, but it appeared that Governments were trying to delay the process. A good example was that many Governments had participated in the groups but now claimed they did not know what was being discussed. Representatives of Governments attending the meetings of the working groups should show political goodwill.

The draft Declamation had been discussed for 15 years and yet the working group had not made progress on more than two articles. In order to approve the Declaration, a definition was not indispensable. Meanwhile there were Government abuses of indigenous rights in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Burma. The Commission must move its work forward.

VIKTOR KAISIEPO, of International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs, said it was encouraging to see the recommendation to establish a permanent forum on indigenous peoples. It was also encouraging to see the proposal to re-establish the open-ended intersessional ad hoc working group to meet for eight to ten working days prior to the 56th session of the Commission on Human Rights.

The International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs endorsed the previous year’s statements by indigenous peoples on the draft United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. The indigenous caucus supported General Assembly Resolution 50\157 that said ECOSOC and the General Assembly should undertake a mid-term review of the activities of the International Decade with the full and equal participation of indigenous peoples.

SERGEY KIRILLIN, of Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, said the indigenous peoples of north Siberia occupied 64 per cent of the territory. This was an area rich in oil, gas and timber and as a result there was destruction of their ancestral lands. The indigenous peoples there were in a critical situation, with life expectancies 20 years lower than that of the rest of the country. It was not possible to find people of pensionable age there. Infant mortality was 1.5 times higher than in the rest of the region. The situation of the environment approached a crisis state.

The UN should create a permanent standing forum for indigenous peoples where they could express and realize their rights.

TUKUM UMAM, of Latin American Human Rights Association, said the Mayan peoples’ rights were the direct responsibility of national and international interests. The Mayan peoples had contributed to progress in Guatemala principally by their blood. The international community had shown too many years of inexplicable indifference.

To what extent did the Government really support Constitutional reform since there had been not an information campaign to inform the people of Guatemala of what had been at stake in the face of international monopolies and business interests? The Guatemalan Government must engage in an effective publicity campaign and support and initiate a true peace process.

LAZARO PARY, of Indian Movement “Tupaj Amaru”, in a joint statement with North-South XXI, said if the economic and military powers of the North did not set aside their rhetoric and seek a consensus, the draft Declaration would be condemned to die.

It would certainly die because of the weight of time. It would be the fault of the former and new colonial powers. Indigenous peoples would continue to insist on this Declaration of their rights until death. If there was a political will to save the Declaration, Governments should not insist on all or nothing, now or never.

RAUL GATICA BAUTISTA, of Movement Against Racism and For Friendship Among Peoples (MRAP), said that he, an indigenous person in Mexico and a representative of the Indigenous Popular Council of Oaxaca, had personally been tortured by the police in Mexico. He spoke the truth when he said torture was widely practiced in Mexico. The international community must investigate these violations and designate a Special Rapporteur from the United Nations to review the situation in Mexico.

The Mexican Government must take concrete action to guarantee respect, promotion and the enjoyment and exercise of all human rights and fundamental liberties for the indigenous peoples of Mexico. The authorities should liberate Georgina Olivera Sierra, Rosario Olivera Rios and Daniel Hernandes Ruiz, who were indigenous political prisoners, and stop the violence and aggression of the current Governor José Murat Casab against the peoples and individuals of the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca.

Right of reply

The Representative of Venezuela, speaking in right of reply, said much of the territory of Venezuela was protected areas and national parks. There was an act that limited mining activities. The Government had set up investigations to look into activities in the area, which was the home of indigenous people. There were false claims this afternoon when the Government had been described as racist. Venezuela was interested in ensuring the protection of its indigenous peoples and in ensuring sustainable development in their areas.