INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ CAUCUS FINAL STATEMENT FOR
THE MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE ON
GOVERNANCE, PARTNERSHIPS AND CAPACITY-BUILDING

PrepCom IV, WSSD, Bali, Indonesia
29 May 2002

          Thank you Mr. Chairperson for this multistakeholder dialogue segment which has given us space to speak about our concerns and our proposals for Johannesburg and beyond. Our proposals on the governance, capacity building and partnership have been forwarded and we hope that these will be given serious consideration by the member states of the UN.

          Let me first relay to you that we are disappointed on the weak and scattered references on indigenous peoples in the documents being negotiated. We tried our best to bring to the dialogue sessions our key messages. We know that what we are saying are the most politically sensitive issues for states, the UN and even for corporations and their globalization agenda. However, we have no options but to keep on raising our proposals because it is the very survival of indigenous peoples, who are under serious threats of extinction, which is at stake. This is why we insist that the human rights-based approach to sustainable development becomes the framework for the WSSD

So I will reiterate our key messages again.

We urge the WSSD to support the following demands of indigenous peoples.

  1. Our rights to our territories and our resources should be protected and promoted.

    2. This goes beyond the issue of access and control over lands. The protection of this right is crucial in ensuring our survival as peoples and allows us to contribute in achieving sustainable development. This is why the issue of corporate accountability is a key agenda. Corporations who are given more rights than us, such as the mining industry, should be held accountable for the devastation they have brought to our territories and the human rights violations they have committed against us. We, therefore, urge the WSSD to bring in corporate accountability into the Political Declaration and the Johannesburg Program of Action.

  2. Our right to self-determination and to be recognized as distinct peoples with collective and individual rights.

    3. This right includes the right to define how development should take place in our communities and therefore our right to free and prior informed consent to projects brought into our territories. This also includes our right to be recognized as distinct peoples. This is why the “s” in indigenous peoples is crucial for us. The WSSD has the chance to be the first international event which will finally end the debate between “people” and “peoples” and affirm the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination.

  3. Our right to have control over our traditional knowledge and our bio-genetic resources.

    4. The present text on the protection of traditional knowledge is very unsatisfactory and yet it is further being watered down. We are alarmed at the increasing incidents of biopiracy happening in our communities. Existing trade agreements, such as the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO encourage biopiracy by allowing the patenting of life forms.

    We are calling on the WSSD to include in its Program of Action the need to undertake impact assessments of trade and finance agreements on sustainable development. This will include the impact of agreements like TRIPS, Agriculture Agreement, General Agreement on Trade of Services, among others.

  4. A Global Conference on Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development

    5. The International Decade on Indigenous Peoples will end on 2004. It is appropriate to convene this conference before the end of the Decade. This will allow the international community and the states to have a serious dialogue with indigenous peoples to thresh out how a genuine equal partnership can come about. It is said that “there is nothing unequal as the equal treatment of unequals”. This inequity is the basis for the continuing threats to our existence as peoples. This conference can be an important step in addressing this inequality and the historical injustice done on indigenous peoples since colonization.

    The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues which just finished its first session in New York last week can play a role in organizing this conference. This idea was also floated in the Permanent Forum session and it received tremendous support from the indigenous peoples and some governments.

    We are sincere in our desire to become key actors in the WSSD process and in bringing about sustainable development. However, we cannot do this if our rights remain unprotected and unrecognised.