Much more needs to be done for indigenious people, says UN Deputy General

(May 09, 2012) Five years after the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted, a great deal remains to be done to realize the objectives contained in that landmark document, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said on Tuesday. “We continue to hear stories of struggles and exploitation of indigenous peoples around the world. It is time for those stories to change,” Migiro said at the opening of the 11th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, at UN Headquarters in New York. “Let us instead move towards the day when indigenous peoples are heard, listened to and empowered,” she added. Almost 2,000 indigenous participants from all regions of the world are taking part in the two-week session, engaging with members of the Forum, Member States and UN agencies on advancing the rights and well-being of indigenous peoples, who number some 370 million worldwide. Issues to be discussed during the session include the rights of indigenous peoples to food and food sovereignty, the situation of indigenous peoples in places such as Central and Eastern Europe, the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples slated for 2014, and the special theme of ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ – the way courts justified the annexing of indigenous lands – and the right to redress for past conquests. “For 11 years, different voices and different languages have united in this Forum behind one, single demand: recognition and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples,” Migiro stressed. “There are indigenous communities that lack clean drinking water, whose children go hungry, whose women suffer gross abuses and never see the perpetrators brought to justice,” she stated. “A great deal remains to be done to see the objectives of the UN Declaration become a reality,” she added. On 17 May, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will convene a high-level event to mark the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration, reflect on good practices and assess the document’s role in fulfilling the rights of the world’s indigenous peoples.