INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' CAUCUS STATEMENT
ON THE HIGH LEVEL SEGMENT

12th United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development
29 April 2004, United Nations, New York, New York

Presented by:
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network/International Indian Treaty Council
& Joji Carino, Tebtebba Foundation

Honourable Ministers, and all participants at CSD12,

Indigenous Peoples Vital Role in Sustainable Development

At Johannesburg, governments reaffirmed the vital role of indigenous peoples in sustainable development. Today, we indigenous peoples reaffirm our commitment to honour, to care for and to protect water, as our fundamental contribution towards implementing Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Programme of Implementation (JPOI) and the Millennium Development Goals.

We thank the earth, our mother, for water, the essential element for life, healthy ecosystems, human settlements, and sanitation. Our lands, springs, river and water basins, and oceans are the fundamental base for our physical and cultural existence.

A Governance and Cultural Crisis

Today, we reiterate that underlying the water crisis is not just a governance crisis, but also a cultural crisis.

We urge this High-Level Segment of the CSD 12 to internalize water ethics into a holistic implementation framework of Agenda 21, the JPOI and the MDG, which would recognize the cultural values of water and human settlements from diverse cultural traditions. Relations between peoples and their environments are embedded in culture. Cultural diversity, developed during the millennia by human societies, constitutes a treasure of sustainable practices and innovative approaches. Water is life, physical, emotional and spiritual. It should not be considered merely as an economic resource. Sharing water is an ethical imperative and expression of human solidarity. The cultural relationship between water and peoples should be explicitly taken into account in all water policy and implementation processes, education and public awareness programmes and all decision-making processes. Specific to indigenous peoples, traditional knowledge holders should be full partners with scientists to find solutions for water-related and human settlement issues.

The Global Financial and Ecosystem Exacerbates Problems

In reviewing the millennium's social and ecological crises, we note that the global economic and financial system, which has produced tremendous wealth, has also delivered extreme poverty in its wake. The continued enclosure and privatization of nature's services and resources, including water, is undermining the earth and societies' capacities to meet the water, sanitation and housing rights as basic entitlements for all.

Social and Environmental Justice and a Rights-Based Approach

Social and environmental justice and equity requires that the rights of the poor, of indigenous peoples, women, farmers, workers, children and youth, be upheld as a condition for sustainable development including participation. One suggestion of fulfilling this commitment is maximizing the inclusion of indigenous resource persons on UN CSD panels. Indigenous peoples' historical and more recent experience suggests that the lack of legal recognition of our rights at all levels, including the slow progress in the adoption by the United Nations of a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples represents the biggest obstacle to realizing our fullest contribution to integrated resource planning and management. Violations of our customary land, resource and water rights, and our human rights in the implementation of destructive and inappropriate water, energy and extractive projects have also contributed to water degradation, pollution and depletion, the compounding change of climate change and global warming and to local communities' impoverishment.

The Importance of Traditional Knowledge

Indigenous Peoples' traditional knowledge and cultural practices to manage and protect the water are often being disregarded, disrespected and violated. Already there are eruptions of serious disputes within and among States and Indigenous Peoples and local communities over water.

Indigenous peoples' traditional practices are dynamically regulated systems. They are based on natural and spiritual laws, ensuring sustainable use through traditional resource conservation and water management practices. Indigenous peoples' proven systems of water management and use are based upon principles and practices that balance immediate needs with the needs of the environment and other living things, plants and animals, as well as other people, and the sustainability of future generations.

Implementing Integrated Water Resource Management

This traditional knowledge and expertise in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) must be built upon, as governments and professionals move towards the adoption of IWRM on a broader scale. This would require indigenous peoples' full and effective participation in water, sanitation and human settlements planning and implementation on the scale of biological regions guided by the ecosystem approach. This approach also means the recognition of the indigenous peoples' rights to self-determination and sustainable development as two sides of the same coin.

Continuing Collaboration of Civil Society

As we leave CSD-12, there is an urgent need for the development and inputs between the governments, major groups, intergovernmental organizations and partnerships. There must be mechanisms to continue action-oriented dialogue on means to address the constraints and obstacles identified here at the CSD-12 and mechanisms to ensure indigenous peoples, civil society and major group engagement.

Thank you.