Vryburg , 20 July 2002

Dear Friends,

       The National Khoi-San Consultative Conference (NKOK), on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples’ Coordinating Committee for the WSSD (IPCC-WSSD), would like to formally invite you to participate in the International Indigenous Peoples’ Summit on Sustainable Development. The venue will be at Hoffe Park Conference Centre, 30 Birbeck Rd., in Kimberly, South Africa. This will be held from 20-23 August 2003, a few days before the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The WSSD will be held in Johannesburg from 26 August to 4 September 2002. The arrival date for the Indigenous Peoples International Summit is 19 August and the conference proper will be from 21-23 August. 20th August will be spent in visiting the villages of our hosts, the Khoi and San. Peoples. On the 24th of August, the participants who plan to participate in the WSSD will travel to Johannesburg.

       The main objective of this conference is to bring together indigenous peoples from all parts of the world to share their perspectives on sustainable development and their contributions in achieving this. This will also allow indigenous peoples to identify the main obstacles to their effective participation in bringing about sustainable development. This International Summit will come out with a Kimberly Political Declaration of Indigenous Peoples and an Indigenous Peoples’ Plan of Action for Sustainable Development.

        An Indigenous Peoples’ Coordinating Committee has been formed to organize this Summit and the National Khoi-San Consultative Conference (NKOK) is the local secretariat. Enclosed with this letter is the overall concept paper of the Summit and the tentative program and the registration forms.

        Funds have been raised to help defray the costs of accomodations, conference halls, translation expenses, secretariat expenses, reproduction of materials, and local travel of indigenous peoples from South Africa. However, these funds do not include the travel costs for international participants coming from other continents. So we are encouraging everyone to raise their own travel funds to be able to participate.

       If you are interested to participate please fill up the enclosed registration form and send these before 5 August 2002. Send it through e-mail or fax to the following addresses and numbers.

        E-mail to: Priscilla deWet-Fox : barendsegriqua@telkomsa.net
Vicky Tauli Corpuz: tebtebba@skyinet.net or vco@skyinet.net
Fax: Priscilla deWet-Fox: 27-53-9276925

       For further information please don’t hesitate to contact me. Other pertinent information which you need to know regarding the Indigenous Peoples’ Summit and the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development please check the following websites:

www.tebtebba.org    www.johannesburgsummit.org

        We look forward to receiving your registration form and seeing you in Kimberly.