By Mark Cherrington
On November 28 the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples suffered a major setback in the United Nations General Assembly. The declaration was supposed to be voted on by the General Assembly after being adopted by a strong majority of the Human Rights Council in June. Instead, Namibia proposed an amendment to the resolution that would delay the vote until the end of this session of the General Assembly on the grounds that delegations needed more time to consult with their governments before voting.
This claim struck the Indigenous Peoples Caucus and Cultural Survival as specious, given the 24 years of negotiations that have already been devoted to the declaration. Namibia was supported by the bloc of African nations, and their proposal passed by a vote of 82 to 67, with 25 abstentions.
Although the move was packaged as a delay, it effectively killed action on the declaration for the foreseeable future. No regular sessions of the General Assembly are scheduled after mid-December, and there is no budget authorized for a special session. Moreover, there is nothing in the resolution that would ensure indigenous peoples’ participation in any deliberations that did take place.
African states backed the delay because many of them are concerned that the declaration does not define "indigenous" and that it supports self-determination for indigenous peoples. Those states take the view that all Africans are indigenous, and that self-determination only applies to nations trying to free themselves from the yoke of colonialism.
But the real impetus behind the initiative came from the same very powerful states that have objected to the declaration all along: the United States, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. They are uncomfortable with the language in the declaration that gives indigenous peoples rights to their lands and resources and that ensures their free, prior, and informed consent before those rights are impeded upon. These nations spent the fall lobbying small states, including those in Africa, to vote against the bill.
After the vote, the mood in the office of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus was bleak. Some called it a deplorable setback. Others remarked that it was a huge insult to the newly established Human Rights Council. Two Asian indigenous rights groups stated in a press release: "Our common vision of ’all human rights for all᾿ will never be achieved as long as there are sections of the world’s humanity such as the indigenous peoples, minorities, and other disempowered and excluded groups and persons, who remain discriminated and have the least in rights and basic entitlements."
Sources and Further Reading:
[Indigenous Peoples Caucus] December 8, 2006