IWGIA: Launch of "The Indigenous World 2014"

Written on 23 May 2014. Posted in About IWGIA

There was a full house when the 2014 edition of "The Indigenous World" was launched in New York during the second week of the UN Permanent Forum. IWGIA's Director, Lola Garcia-Alíx had gathered an extensive group of panelists including the new Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, Ms. Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, Ms. Myrna Cunningham, the former Chair of the UNPFII; Raja Devasish Roy-Wangza, Member of the UNPFII; Chief Wilton Littlechild, Chairperson of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Mr. Adelfo Regino Montes, Secretary of indigenous issues of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.

During the presentation, the panelists acknowledged the work of documentation undertaken by IWGIA over the last 45 years. The recently elected Special Rapporteur highlighted the role of IWGIA and its enduring support to the indigenous movement “without ever speaking on their behalf”. “This is an exceptional characteristic and IWGIA should be congratulated for maintaining it consistently”, said Vicky Tauli-Corpuz. For her, the yearbook summarizes the most important developments in the national and international processes, a task the Permanent Forum had set and didn’t manage to achieve. “As Special Rapporteur, it will be a very useful tool," closed Vicky Tauli –Corpuz. A result of a huge collective effort IWGIA’s Executive Director, Lola García-Alix, emphasized that the yearbook is not an IWGIA’s book, but rather the result of a huge collective effort based on voluntary contributions. “If a country does not appear is not because it doesn’t have indigenous peoples, but because we could not get someone to write a report on time,” she said. Lola Garcia-Alíx explained that IWGIA’s purpose is for the book to be a useful tool in the struggle of indigenous peoples. Not least this year, in the context of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, when their rights will be on the agenda. “The struggles of indigenous peoples are many and diverse and it is not possible to give a complete and accurate picture here, but in this presentation we want to emphasize the preparations for the World Conference and the recommendations from the Alta Conference, which summarize the major themes of the current indigenous peoples’ agenda,” she added. “The Alta outcome document reflects the aspiration of indigenous peoples to improve their participation in the United Nations system, including in the work of the agencies at all levels. The UN will show itself incapable to meet its own obligations if indigenous’ participation is not ensured”, said Lola Garcia-Alix. Constructing self-determination The Miskito leader from Nicaragua, Ms. Myrna Cunningham, analyzed how the yearbook contributes through examples to the process of building indigenous autonomy and self-determination. She took the situation of her country as an example and said that in the post-conflict period, which has lasted 30 years, the indigenous peoples “have built a process of ethnic autonomy”. Myrna Cunningham addressed specific issues such as electoral participation and artisanal mining as challenges in the context of indigenous autonomy. She also highlighted the indigenous women’s global conference organized in Lima in 2013, where strategic recommendations were elaborated and which enabled the articulation of indigenous women’s local struggles with global processes. She also highlighted the challenges and opportunities presented by the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples as an opportunity to draw worldwide attention to relevant issues such as indigenous, family and peasant farming. IWGIA’s Yearbook as a source of reference Chief Wilton Littlechild (Canada), Chair of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, acknowledged the importance of written documentation for the indigenous world, which is based on an oral culture. “For an independent expert, the Yearbook is a great resource because it gives us a glimpse of the world. The first thing I read is the part referring to the North American region, but then I expand my horizon by reading the rest of the book”, he confessed. “In this edition, there is a very important reference to the issue of residential schools for indigenous children in Canada, where there is opposition against complying with a sentence that orders the government to collect the full story of what happened in indigenous residential schools”, explained Wilton Littlechild. “We do not write much, but it is good that there are people doing it because the reports can be used by the courts. The documentation contained in the Yearbook is a source of reference for both the courts and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions”, concluded the Canadian expert. Evaluation of peace accords Permanent Forum Member, Raja Devasish Roy, raised the debate on the need for a comparative study on peace agreements, since in his opinion, most of these have failed, thus prolonging the uncertainty and suffering of indigenous peoples. Taking as a reference the situation in Bangladesh, he expressed his concern of “being paralyzed in implementing the peace accord of the Chittagong Hill Tracts”, since it represents an internal political agreement that does not count with any supranational mechanisms to force the government to comply. Devasish Roy acknowledged IWGIA’s important information work and also its support and facilitation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, which carries out its work under very adverse conditions due to the lack of recognition of the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh by the government. Finally, Adelfo Regino Montes, Mixe and Secretary of indigenous issues of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, described the Yearbook as a window through which indigenous peoples “can see what is happening in other parts of the world”. Adelfo Regino Montes agreed on the need to assess and draw lessons learned from different peace processes, especially when peace is still pending such as in Chiapas. This and many more conflicts reflected in “The Indigenous World 2014” are currently affecting indigenous peoples around the world. The panelists made one concrete recommendation to the upcoming Special Rapporteur, Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, to undertake a study on the experiences of indigenous peoples with regards to peace processes and implementation of peace agreements in the context of the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.