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Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 11:29:55 -0800
To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
From: Native Americas Journal <bfw2@cornell.edu>
Subject: Indigenous Leaders Demand Action at United Nations, Organization
 of American States

The following article is provided by Native America Journal.
Published by the Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University's American
Indian Program, Native Americas keeps you informed of issues and
events that impact indigenous communities throughout the hemisphere.
You can find more information on this topic, as well as how to
subscribe on our web site at http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu.
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Indigenous Leaders Demand Action at United Nations, Organization of
American States
By Bill Weinberg/Native Americas Journal
© Copyright 2000

Indigenous representatives from around the world met this past fall
at the United Nations to mark the International Day of the World's
Indigenous People, and came away disappointed that a declaration on
Native rights remained stalled after more than a decade of debate.

Tonya Gonnella Frichner, president of the American Indian Law
Alliance, said the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
fear that self-determination could lead to secession. "That certainly
is not what indigenous peoples are talking about," she said.

While the declaration will not be legally binding, Frichner said it
would be an important guide to national governments on the rights of
their forgotten peoples.

"Indigenous people . . . are some of the poorest of the poor, and are
also some of the most excluded in the development process," admitted
Alfredo Sfeir-Younis, the World Bank's UN representative.

Earlier this year, indigenous women from throughout Latin America met
in Mexico for a conference sponsored by the Organization of American
States, and similarly protested the lack of progress in that body. An
OAS indigenous rights statement has been stalled for more than 10
years by endless objections. Participants in the Continental Forum of
Indigenous Women of the Americas called for the inclusion of gender
issues. Indigenous leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada,
Costa Rica, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela participated.

Participants said the Inter-American Indigenous Institute-the OAS
body that organized the conference-should provide for a higher level
of participation by indigenous representatives. Guatemalan Nobel
Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu said the declaration remained "in
limbo."

The OAS draft states that governments must guarantee respect for
indigenous rights and recognize indigenous languages. It also calls
for the return of alienated lands, and for governments to share
profits from natural resource exploitation on indigenous lands with
indigenous communities. Indigenous organizations hoped that the two
documents would be approved after the United Nations declared a
Decade of Indigenous Peoples in 1993.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Nowhere else will you be able to find such powerful-knowledge filled
writing."
-Wilma Mankiller, Editorial Board Member of Native Americas Journal

Native Americas Journal
Akwe:kon Press
American Indian Program
Cornell University
450 Caldwell Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-2602

Tel.    (607) 255-4308
Subs.   (800) 9-NATIVE
Fax.    (607) 255-0185
Email.  nativeamericas@cornell.edu

Native Americas Journal
        http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu

American Indian Program
        http://www.aip.cornell.edu

                **Help us put Native Americas in your library.**
          Please request that your local libraries subscribe to
Native Americas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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