UN To Vote Soon on Indigenous Peoples Declaration (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

UN To Vote Soon on Indigenous Peoples Declaration

By Joe De Capua
Washington
10 September 2007
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-09-10-voa26.cfm

The UN General Assembly is expected to vote late this week or early next on
the declaration on indigenous peoples rights. The declaration was first
proposed over two decades ago, but never approved.

Among those following developments at the United Nations is Kali Mercier of
Survival International. The London-based group has been defending the
rights of the Bushmen in Botswana to live on their ancestral homelands.

Mercier spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about
the declaration.

“Basically, it’s a very wide-ranging declaration that recognizes rights that
they already have, such as the right to cultural integrity, the right to
education in their own language, the right not to be dispossessed of their
ancestral land and so on,” she says.

Asked whether it has much support at the UN, Mercier says, “There has been a
lot of support for it from some countries. Other countries have not been
quite so keen and they’re some of the countries in which we would have
hoped to have a much better example set. For example, Canada, the United
States, Australia and New Zealand, all countries with indigenous peoples,
have been very opposed to some of the wide-reaching rights recognized by
the declaration.”

Some conservatives in Canada have said the declaration could undermine
Canada’s constitution or undermine existing land deals. “I just don’t think
that’s the case
Canada’s been very supportive of the declaration right the
way through until recently when they had a change of government. And all
the opposition parties in Canada support the declaration,” she says.

What about affecting sovereignty? Mercier says, “I don’t think that’s the
case at all. I mean it’s more about recognizing their collective rights to
identity and culture. It’s not a threat to sovereignty in any way and the
declaration has to be interpreted in accordance with international law
that’s already in existence. It simply wouldn’t be possible to say split up
a country on the basis that you want self-determination as indigenous
peoples.”

If the General Assembly fails to vote on the declaration Thursday, a vote
could come early next week.