Comments on the Declaration

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Towards Re-empowerment

JURIST Guest Columnists S. James Anaya of the Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona, and Siegfried Wiessner of St. Thomas University School of Law say that the UN General Assembly's recent landslide adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a milestone in the re-empowerment of the world's aboriginal groups, and that, in important parts, it reaffirms customary international law in the field ...

Continued at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2007/10/un-declaration-on-rights-of-indigenous.php

UN General Assembly adopts Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

United Nations adopts Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

13 September 2007 – The General Assembly today adopted a landmark declaration outlining the rights of the world’s estimated 370 million indigenous people and outlawing discrimination against them – a move that followed more than two decades of debate.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been approved after 143 Member States voted in favour, 11 abstained and four – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States – voted against the text.

A non-binding text, the Declaration sets out the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues.

Continued: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23794&Cr=indigenous&Cr1=#

UN General Assembly to vote on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

**Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The Assembly is scheduled to take action on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at a plenary meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, 13 September, in the GA Hall. At the same meeting the Assembly will also pay tribute to the Presidents of the 30th and 24th sessions, Mr. Gaston Thorn of Luxembourg and Ms. Angie Brooks of Liberia, respectively, who passed away recently. Ms. Brooks was the second woman to serve as President of the General Assembly.

http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs//2007/db070911.doc.htm

International Day of the World's Indigenous People, 9 August

The Dag Hammarskjold Library has put up a web page for the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples 9 August 2007.

WIPO and Traditional Knowledge

WIPO held a meeting from 3-12 July 2007 on the protection of traditional knowledge. Here is a link to the meeting document"The Protection of Traditional Knowledge: Revised Objectives and Principles"

In Amazonia, Defending the Hidden Tribes

By Monte Reel

Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, July 8, 2007; Page A01

COLIDER, Brazil -- At first, few believed the story that two brothers told about four unknown Indians who suddenly appeared to them one afternoon on the outskirts of their village.

Like most Kayapo Indians, the brothers -- named Bepro and Beprytire -- live in a government-demarcated reserve, wear modern clothing and get energy from solar-powered generators. But the four unclothed visitors were a different kind of Kayapo.

They spoke in an antiquated tongue that seemed a precursor to the language spoken in the village, located in the Capoto-Jarina Indian Reserve in central Brazil. The four men had come from a tribe that had remained in the forest, the brothers said, untouched by the modern world.

Continued at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ content/article/2007/07/07/AR2007070701312.html?hpid=artslot

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Russian Indigenous Languages Disappearing

A BBC report on the loss of indigenous languages in Russia:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6389791.stm

UN General Assembly Defers Action on the Declaration of Indigenus Peoples' Rights

United Nations 20 December 2006 General Assembly GA/10563 ---

Department of Public Information o News and Media Division o New York Sixty-first General Assembly Plenary 82^nd Meeting (AM)

Concluding consideration of Third Committee reports, General Assembly adopts convention on enforced disappearance Defers Action on Indigenous Peoples' Declaration; Adopts Texts on Kidnapping, Trafficking in Persons, UN Crime Programme, African Institute, World Drug Problem

. . . . .

In other business, the Assembly adopted a resolution on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, by which it decided to defer consideration of and action on that document until sometime before the end of the current session. The deferment had been sought by delegations who had expressed concerns about the Declaration's potential effects on national sovereignty and land rights, though several other Member States, mainly from Latin America, had noted during the Committee's meetings that, after 24 years of drafting and revisions to address the concerns of many delegations, it was time to make the Declaration a reality. That resolution was adopted by a recorded vote of 85 in favour to none against, with 89 abstentions (see annex).

. . . .

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/ga10563.doc.htm

THIRD COMMITTEE APPROVES DRAFT RESOLUTION ON RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT; VOTES TO DEFER ACTION CONCERNING DECLARATION ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

THIRD COMMITTEE APPROVES DRAFT RESOLUTION ON RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT; VOTES TO DEFER ACTION CONCERNING DECLARATION ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Human Rights Council Second Session

The Human Rights Council ended it's second session on 6 October 2006 and deferred action on various human rights resolutions until it's session on 27 November 2006, see http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp? NewsID=20165&Cr=rights&Cr1=council