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UN delays indigenous decision

While the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations held its week-long annual meeting here, only metres away the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) postponed until next year its review of the group's future.

"After 21 years of innovative but important developments in human rights, developed and coordinated by the working group, some governments are campaigning for the termination of this unique organisation," Kenneth Deer, a Mohawk Indian leader and leading member of the group told journalists.

The indigenous peoples accuse Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States of trying to shut down their annual assembly at the UN, replacing it with a more restricted committee.

The committee, dubbed the "Permanent Forum" when it was set up by ECOSOC in 2000, is composed of eight representatives of indigenous peoples and eight UN member states.

It can provide advice and recommendations to the United Nations on indigenous communities' affairs, such as development, educational, health, environmental and human rights issues.

But the indigenous peoples charge that the forum on its own would diminish their voice within the UN, jeopardising progress made since 1982 on issues like land rights, the protection of their heritage and treaties.

Every year indigenous peoples, many in traditional dress, outnumber diplomats milling around the drab corridors of the UN, as about 1,000 delegates gather at the working party in Geneva.

They include Alaskan Eskimos, Lapps from Nordic countries, Amazon Indians or Asian tribes.

"For the moment, for Africans like us, it is the only way we can make our voice heard as an indigenous people," Saoudata Aboubacrine, a Tuareg from Mali and founder of the non-governmental organisation Tin Hinan said.

"Visas for New York are hard to come by. There have been two sessions of the Permanent Forum there and I've always been the lone representative of my people, whereas here we're always about ten."

"We have a chance to work together in a network and to swap ideas with brothers from around the world," Aboubacrine added.

Mexico today leapt to their support, telling ECOSOC on behalf of 12 other Latin American countries that both bodies could exist side-by-side in the UN.

The Mexican delegate said the working group - which is an offshoot of the UN sub-commission on human rights - dealt mainly with issues relating to the rights of indigenous peoples, while the forum was more appropriate for economic, social, cultural and health issues.

Source:Agence France-Presse

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