First Week of UN Indigenous Forum Ends

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice addresses the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at UN Headquarters this week

United Nations, NY (UCTP Taino News) – The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a UN body mandated to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights ended its first week of work today. Government representatives, UN agencies, and indigenous representatives from around the world presented reports and statements on key areas of concern.

One highlight of the week was the surprise proclamation by the Government of New Zealand stating that it would now support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice also surprised those in attendance by stating the Obama Administration would formally review its position on the Declaration. In 2007, the governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States opposed the adoption of the landmark human rights legislation. Australia was the first of the four countries to reverse its position now leaving the U.S. and Canada as the only UN member States still opposed to the Declaration.

During the week the United Confederation of Taino People (UCTP) presented a statement to the Forum on the issue of Human Rights and Caribbean Indigenous Peoples. The Confederation recommended that the Forum facilitate a Special Regional Consultative Session to focus on the unique situation of Caribbean Indigenous Peoples. The UCTP presentation also noted that because of Boriken’s (Puerto Rico) colonial status, indigenous representatives from the island are continuously discriminated against and or denied funding opportunities to participate in meetings, conferences, regional specific consultations, and capacity building sessions.

UCTP delegates also contributed to joint presentations along with other indigenous representatives participating in the Tribal Link Foundation sponsored Project Access Training and Capacity Building Project.

On Friday, the Confederation engaged the Convention on Biological Diversity with a call to increase Caribbean indigenous participation in related initiatives. The UCTP called on the Convention’s Secretariat to organize a Caribbean sub-regional capacity building session in collaboration with local and regional indigenous organizations.

The Permanent Forum will continue its session next week with a focus on future work, its report for this current session, and the development of an agenda for its 10th Session in 2011.

UCTPTN 04.23.2010

Biological Diversity Convention Working Group Meets in Geneva

Geneva (UCTP Taino News) — The sixth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) opened on 21 January 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Continuing the work of the fifth meeting of the Working Group, held in October 2007, the Working Group will work toward the elaboration and negotiation of an international regime on ABS.

The meeting is being attended by over 520 participants, representing Parties to the Convention and observer States, indigenous and local communities, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, United Nations sister agencies, and the business community.

Representatives of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, International Indian Treaty Council, Foundation for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge, Juventud Indigena Argentina, Consejo Autonomo Aymara, Centro Estudios Multidisciplinarios Aymara Bolivia, and the United Confederation of Taino People are among those actively engaging the process.

In a statement to the plenary, these organizations affirmed that the proposed “international regime should only apply to genetic resources, derivatives and products and associated traditional knowledge that have been accessed with the free prior and informed consent of, and mutually agreed terms with, Indigenous peoples who are the owners of such resources and knowledge under traditional systems and customary law and consistent with international human rights law.”

The results of the deliberations of the Working Group are scheduled to be submitted for consideration by the Conference of the Parties to the CBD at its ninth meeting, to be held from 19-30 May 2008, in Bonn, Germany.

Photo (IISD): Indigenous representatives attending the sixth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS)

UCTPTN 01.25.2008

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See also:

Access, Benefit Sharing, and the Convention on Biological Diversity
http://uctp.blogspot.com/2007/10/access-benefit-sharing-and-convention.html

TAINO AND NATIVE HAWAIIAN CONCERNS EXPRESSED AT UN PRESS CONFERENCE ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND CLIMATE CHANGE*

Press Conference by Representatives of Indigenous Peoples: John Scott (right) from the Secretariat of the Convention of Biodiversity, addresses a press conference to brief correspondents on the indigenous peoples' vulnerability to climate change, at UN Headquarters in New York. With him are (left to right) Malia Nobrega from Hawai, Lakhan Bibi from Hindu Kush, Roberto Borrero, Taino from Puerto Rico, and Mattias Ahren, a Saami from Norway. Location: United Nations, New York. Date: 22 May 2007

Indigenous and tribal peoples -- especially those living on slowly sinking small islands and in increasingly polluted mountain ranges -- were now the “human face” of the devastating effects of global warming, and the traditional knowledge that their communities possessed should be tapped in the search for answers on how to craft an international response to climate change, an official from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity told reporters…

See the full story at:
www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2007/070522_Indigenous.doc.htm

*See the 22 May 2007 Archived Video at: http://www.un.org/webcast/pc2007.htm