Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ CAUCUS CLOSING STATEMENT
United Nations, Human
Rights Council, 30 June 2006
On behalf of the Indigenous Caucus, on this
momentous occasion, we would like to express our heartfelt thoughts on the
adoption of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples.
The League of Nations did not act on the demands of the
diplomatic envoys of the Maori and the Iroquois Confederacy, so the roots of the
present Declaration go back to 1974 and the voluminous Cobo report.
In
1977, the pivotal gathering of Indigenous peoples here at the United Nations
prompted the world community to turn their attention to Indigenous Peoples in
the Americas.
In this context, the important recommendation to establish
the Working Group on Indigenous Populations was made.
The significant
work of the five independent experts of the WGIP, two of whom are with us today,
Erica Irene Daes and Miguel Alfonso Martinez, reflect that our repeated demands
for recognition of our distinct status and rights would be addressed.
We
persisted in our efforts and remained vigilant against some of the most
formidable state forces in the world.
We relied upon our ability to
engage in substantive debate, with positions that remain consistent with
international law.
One of the most important outcomes has been that
throughout all of our expressions, sometimes in our own languages, we have
succeeded in educating the international community about the status, rights and
lives of Indigenous peoples in every corner of world.
We will continue to
do so in the Permanent Forum. The true legacy of the Declaration will be the
way in which we, the Indigenous peoples of the world, in partnership with
states, breathe life into these words.
The real test will be how this
will affect the lives of our people on a daily basis.
While these are
distinct and fundamental individual and collective human rights, it is their
implementation at the community level, which will have an impact and give our
children hope for a future where their lives and identity will be respected
globally.
It would be unfair for us to name States that have played a
leading role in reaching this point.
They know who they are and we know
who they are.
They have worked with us to ensure the realization of this
important human rights instrument.
We will not forget them and we will
ask our people to honor them.
We trust that each of you will stand with
us at the General Assembly as well.
Finally, we must express our thanks
to Chairperson-Rapporteur Chavez for staunch efforts to reach a conclusion with
this text. His patience to ensure that States and Indigenous Peoples could
contribute effectively and equitably to the final outcome deserves our
praise.
We express our wish as Indigenous Peoples for harmony in
accordance with the natural world and hope that our multiple futures as
Indigenous Peoples and States are brought together to embrace the positive
contribution that we make to humankind.
