International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, 9 August 2010

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is the sponsor for the 2010 International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. The theme for this year is Indigenous Filmmaking. The program will take place from 2:00 to 5:30 P.M. in New York.

International Day of the World's Indigenous People

July 8, 2010

The International Day of the World's Indigenous People will be observed at the United Nations Headquarters in Conference Room 1 in the temporary North Lawn building, on Monday 9 August from 2 pm to 5 pm. It is organized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in cooperation with the NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. The theme of the observance at UN Headquarters will be celebrating indigenous filmmaking.
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The International Day of the World's Indigenous People will be observed at the United Nations Headquarters in Conference Room 1 in the temporary North Lawn building, on Monday 9 August from 2 pm to 5 pm. It is organized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in cooperation with the NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. The theme of the observance at UN Headquarters will be celebrating indigenous film making.

Those who wish to attend the observance should register by Thursday 6 August, by sending an email with full name at: indigenous_un@un.org.

Please note that those who have not registered will not get a day pass, and will thus not be able to attend.

Holders of valid UN grounds passes do not need to register.

The event will begin at 2 pm. Participants must enter the UN grounds through the Visitor’s Entrance on 1st. Avenue facing 45th Street. After going through the entrance, participants should go directly to the table where SPFII staff will hand out day passes to those who have registered. Day passes will be available at the table from 1 pm until 2:15 pm. It is essential that participants bring photo ID when picking up their day passes.

The program for the day’s observance is not yet complete. It will include messages from the United Nations Secretary General, the Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs and the Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, as well as a screening of films made by indigenous filmmakers and a Q&A session with an indigenous film maker.

Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Third Session 12-16 July 2010

The Third Session is now under way in Geneva:http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/ExpertMechanism/3rd/index.htm

The Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a new United Nations mechanism on the rights of indigenous peoples. This mechanism has been created by the Human Rights Council following an informal meeting on the most appropriate mechanisms to continue the work of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

The Expert Mechanism is a subsidiary expert mechanism of the Human Rights Council with a specific mandate. Composed of five experts, the Expert Mechanism will provide thematic expertise on the rights of indigenous peoples to the Human Rights Council, the main human rights body of the United Nations. This expertise will be provided in the manner and form requested by the Council:

* The thematic expertise will focus mainly on studies and research-based advice;
* he mechanism may suggest proposals to the Council for its considerations and approval, within the scope of its work as set out by the Council.

The Expert Mechanism held its first session from 1 to 3 October 2008 at the United Nations Office in Geneva. The second session has taken place from 10 to 14 August 2009 and the third session will take place from 12 to 16 July 2010, at the United Nations Office in Geneva. Registration for the Expert Mechanism is now open and the deadline is 25 June 2010. For further information please see the accreditation page.

Finally, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has been requested to provide human, technical and financial assistance to the Expert Mechanism for the effective fulfilment of its mandate. The Office can be contacted for further information.

US Review of UNDRIP through 15 July 2010

The U.S. is undertaking an official review of the U.N Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. You can comment at the address below:

The U.S. Government looks forward to hearing from all interested parties as it undertakes its review of the Declaration. The U.S. Department of State, together with other Federal agencies, will be holding consultations with federally recognized Indian tribes and meetings with interested nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders on the review of the Declaration. Exact dates and locations will be announced on this website. Anyone unable to participate in these consultations or meetings in person can send comments by email to declaration@state.gov or by mail to

S/SR Global Intergovernmental Affairs,
U.S. Department of State,
2201 C Street NW.,
Suite 1317,
Washington, DC 20520

Please send written comments by July 15, 2010 to ensure that they can be given due consideration in the review.

For discussion see, The UNDRIP. It’s time, Uncle Sam..

Minority Rights Group, State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, 2009 report

State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009

Minority Rights Group’s flagship annual report, produced this year in
conjunction with UNICEF, is on the theme of education. State of the
World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples is an invaluable reference for
policy makers, academics, journalists and everyone who is interested in
the conditions facing minorities and indigenous peoples around the
world.

Read more:
http://www.minorityrights.org/990/state-of-the-worlds-minorities/state-of-the-
worlds-minorities.html

UN OHCHR Forum on Minority Issues

The Forum on Minority Issues was established

"[p]ursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 6/15 of 28 September 2007, a forum on minority issues has been established to provide a platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, as well as thematic contributions and expertise to the work of the independent expert on minority issues. The Forum shall identify and analyze best practices, challenges, opportunities and initiatives for the further implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities."

Links to it's reports are on the page linked above.

UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues

The reports of the UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Ms. Gay J. McDougall, can be found at this url:http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/minorities/expert/index.htm

OHCHR: Fellowship programme for persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities*

Fellowship programme for persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities*

The Minorities Fellowship Programme (MFP) was launched by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2005.

Through this Programme, the OHCHR aims to give persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities - particularly young minority women and men - an opportunity to gain knowledge on the UN system and mechanisms dealing with international human rights in general and minority rights in particular. The Fellowship Programme is intended to assist organizations and communities in protecting and promoting the rights of minorities the fellows belong to.

The MFP is held annually and currently has two linguistic versions: The English programme and the Arabic programme. The English programme has been running since 2005 and lasts on average 3 months. The Arabic programme started in 2007 and has been gradually expanding from 2 to 4 weeks.

The Fellows are based at the OHCHR in Geneva, Switzerland. The programme is interactive and consists of briefings on several topics (e.g. the UN system, OHCHR's work, human rights mechanisms and instruments) as well as individual and group assignments.

At the end of the Programme, all Fellow should have a general knowledge of the United Nations system, international human rights instruments and mechanisms in general and those relevant to minorities in particular and be capable of further training their communities/organizations.
Fellows are entitled to the following: a return ticket (economy class) from the country of residence to Geneva; basic health insurance for the duration of the Programme; and a grant to cover modest accommodation in Geneva for the duration of the Programme and other living expenses.

HREA Distance Learning Programme

The Human Rights Education Associates offer distance learning courses:

http://www.hrea.org/index.php?base_id=274

The Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law presents:

Human Rights Month

RSVP: www.wcl.american.edu/secle/cle_form.cfm

All panels will take place at:

American University, Washington College of Law, Rm. 603, 12:30 -2pm

Each year, the Academy sponsors a month of events dedicated to human rights theory. It is an opportunity to share experiences and network with fellow practitioners and internationally known scholars and activists. We hope that you can join us for some—or all—of these events. For more information, please visit us at: www.wcl.american.edu/hracademy

Panels

• June 3: International Law and Transitional Processes: Contemporary Challenges
  
• June 7: Assessing the Impact of International Law and Institutions in the Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Challenges Ahead
  
• June 9: The International Human Rights Status of Elderly Rights: Current Trends
  
• June 11: International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law: the Scope of their Relationship in Theory and Practice
  

V Annual Meeting on Human Rights

• June 14: A Regional Comparison of Human Rights Systems: Africa, America, Asia and Europe
  
• June 15: Recent Developments in the Inter-American Human Rights System: a Debate on the New Procedural Rules of the Commission and Court and their Future Application
  

The first ‘user conference’ for UN information.

Information about it can be found at: http://www.un-connected.org/

The first ‘user conference’ for UN information.

The vision for ‘UN-connecting the World’ is to hold a ‘user conference’ for providers and consumers of ‘UN information’ – much like the yearly user conferences of any notable IT company. User conferences provide a space where users and providers of information services can liaise, bringing critically needed user feedback into the information system to identify user needs and to develop creative ways to satisfy those needs. Per our definition, providers of UN information are any source within or outside the UN system disseminating the vast amount of newsworthy information pertaining to the wide array of UN thematic areas. Examples of providers range from any UN website or database - e.g. UNBIS, ReliefWeb, Universal Human Rights Index - to websites outside the UN system working to provide UN information to their stakeholders - e.g. Huridocs, UPR-info.org, whatconvention.org. Users of UN information, likewise, come from both within and outside the UN system and can be defined as anyone who uses or could find UN information beneficial to their activities. Examples include members of domestic or international NGOs, desk officers at national ministries and missions, journalists, corporate responsibility divisions of private sector companies, or students and professors.

The idea for the conference derived from two years of research on the part of [Making Communications Matter]MCM, which identified currently existing hurdles to effective information communication and knowledge exchange between providers and users of UN information. Through interviews with users (and potential users) of UN information, MCM has developed creative ways to lower these hurdles. In addition to two new information sources – UN-i.org and UN-informed.org –, which will be presented at the conference, MCM wanted to also provide a collaborative space where feedback could be more broadly and directly shared with information providers in the UN System and where providers could liaise with each other (in some cases for the first time) to identify potential partners or synergies.