The UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples concluded its third session. The session took place from 12 to 16 July 2010, at the United Nations Office in Geneva. The Expert Mechanism is a new United Nations mechanism on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and was created by the Human Rights Council to continue the work of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 2007. This year’s session focused on the right to participate in decision-making.
In celebration of the first International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples (1995/2004), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) launched the Indigenous Fellowship Programme (IFP) to give Indigenous Peoples the opportunity to learn about the UN system. The program offers insights into mechanisms dealing with human rights in general and Indigenous issues in particular so Native Peoples can assist their organizations and communities in protecting and promoting the rights of their people.
The Ecuadorian government is investigating Marlon Santi (president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, or CONIAE) for alleged sabotage and terrorism in connection with his participation in a protest against government exclusion of Indigenous representatives from a high-level, international meeting about Indigenous issues.
International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is officially observed every year on August 9th in recognition of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva in 1982. The United Nations and the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues commemorated the day by celebrating Indigenous film making and screening four short, Indigenous-made films:
Brazil: Marangmotxingo Mïrang (From the Ikpeng Children to the World)
On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution declaring the right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation” a fundamental human right. Presented by the Bolivian government, the resolution received favorable votes from 122 countries, while 42 countries—including Canada, the US, and Australia—abstained. No country voted against the measure. More than 884 million people around the world lack access to drinking water, 2.6 billion are without access to basic sanitation, and 3 billion have no running water within a kilometer of their homes.
According to a report issued by the Samburu Women for Education & Environment Development Organization (SWEEDO), Kenya’s new constitution “is a clean break with the past and provides several avenues for the pursuit and strengthening of Indigenous peoples’ personal and collective rights.”
In a historic constitutional referendum on 4th August, 2010, sixty-eight percent of Kenyans who turned out to vote supported the proposed new constitution.
On July 21, the Botswana High Court ruled against the San Bushmen, barring them from re-opening a vital waterhole in the Kalahari desert, which is key to their way of life and survival.
Oxfam Australia has just published a Guide to Free, Prior and Informed Consent to help Indigenous communities understand and demand this right, which is guaranteed by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security initially refused to allow the Iroquois Nationals Lacross Team to travel to England for the World Lacrosse Championships using their Haudenosaunee passports. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton finally granted the team a "one-time-only waiver" allowing them to make the trip without US passports. However, the United Kindgom refuses to grant them visas to enter the country.
In the last two weeks, there have been further incidents of police brutality against the Samburu people of northern Kenya. Following Cultural Survival’s investigation and publication of our report, police have not inflicted more military-style assaults on entire Samburu villages like those of 2009 and January of this year. But we are receiving reports of apparently random beatings meted out on Samburu men.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
