UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been a key instrument guiding international norms on the promotion of the well-being of indigenous peoples. What has been the scope of its contribution and what more can we expect it to contribute?
The Declaration is the universal platform for defining rights of all Indigenous Peoples of the world. It is an instrument that will stand for the long term. I doubt that there will be a declaration or treaty that will overtake it as the most important norm for the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Declaration does not set out to describe those rights we hold as individuals. These rights appear in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and the treaties that have subsequently been established in accordance with the UDHR. Our rights as individuals are in no way different from the rights of everybody else. It is important to understand this. The rights contained in the Declaration are focused upon the rights of peoples, being collective interests that belong to whole societies which function as an entity.
The rights in the Declaration are not exhaustive and other rights, including rights to management of the environment and natural resources, are being defined in other instruments and through other agencies besides human rights bodies. The rights in the Declaration are the rights that most peoples take for granted, but are rights which have been historically denied to the Indigenous Peoples.
The right to self-determination is central to the Declaration. The many operative paragraphs in the Declaration are essentially defining the exercise of self-determination in specific detail. For example, the right to self-government, the right to collective ownership of the lands, territories and resources and the right to development are components of that status, the status of self-determining peoples.
The success of the Declaration strongly relies upon the revision of the relationship between States and Indigenous Peoples. States have, in the majority, been reluctant to revise that relationship and seem to prefer to approach the Declaration without acceptance of self-determination. This cannot lead to successful outcomes in realisation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The recent World Conference on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has concluded with a resolution of the UN General Assembly – known as the ‘Outcome Document’ – which sets in train specific actions to pursue the ends of the Declaration. Indigenous Peoples and States alike have carefully identified those actions as the priority requirements to achieve positive results in the recognition and exercise of rights of Indigenous Peoples.
What other guiding norms of principles have proven effective in promoting the well-being of indigenous peoples and how have they shaped your expectations of the UN, Member States and other stakeholders?
In my experience the effective norms and principles have been those articulated under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The International Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has given close attention to the situation of Indigenous Peoples under the terms of its treaty and provided general recommendations that detail how Indigenous Peoples have suffered racial discrimination in relation to a) their lands and resources, b) their participation in political processes and c) the charter, legislation and adjudication of the State.
In my opinion the anti-racism movement has been the strongest force at the global level to ensure human rights are respected. Abuses of human rights through racial discrimination are not tolerated.
The International Bill of Rights, incorporating the UDHR, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, should be sufficient to provide promotion and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, but as previously mentioned the exercise of these rights under the chapeau of ‘self-determination’ is not yet fully recognized, and thus the exercise of the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples have not been advanced.
ILO Convention No. 169 does not identify that Indigenous Peoples have the right of self-determination. Despite this omission the ILO Convention articulates many of the rights of Indigenous Peoples that pertain to Land Rights and to rights to Culture. The international community, with a central focus at the UN, has consistently called upon States to ratify ILO Convention No. 169 but there has been very little response by States to this pressure.
What are your expectations for the outcome of the World Conference on 22-23 September 2014? What do you anticipate will be its greatest contribution to improving the well-being of indigenous peoples?
The World Conference of Indigenous Peoples was a high-level plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. As such it was a forum of the Member States of the UN. For Indigenous Peoples the proposal by the UN to hold a World Conference on Indigenous Peoples immediately was seen as a threat, a threat to allow the States to revisit the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with a purpose to rewrite the articles or redefine the rights. It was this concern that motivated Indigenous Peoples to meet at the regional levels and then the global level to assert the right to be involved in the Conference, as equals to the States. The chant of ‘nothing about us, without us’ was heard around the world.
However the most important outcome from the World Conference has been the ‘Outcome Document’. This document is in fact a resolution of the UN General Assembly. It contains specific actions that are unambiguous. The actions relate to reaffirmation by the UN to promote and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, a commitment to strengthen the UN bodies and mechanisms to see the Declaration implements, and a roadmap for States, where Indigenous Peoples exist, to finally revise that relationship and engage effectively with Indigenous Peoples to pursue rights. The key of the document is the intention to follow-up the actions and recommendations contained in the document. The Human Rights Council, the Secretary General and the General Assembly have functions to carry out in following up the Outcome Document and ensuring the actions are undertaken.
Bio Les Malezer, Co-Chair National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples.
Mr. Les Malezer is from the Butchulla/Gubbi Gubbi peoples in southeast Queensland. He has extensive experience in campaigning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights and has represented community interests the local, State and national levels. Les has held senior positions during his career, including as head of the Qld Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs and as Chairperson of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA). He is now Co-Chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. He has been a delegate to United Nations forums on Indigenous issues since 1996. In 2008 he won the Australian Human Rights Award, and his contribution to coordinating Indigenous Peoples’ advocacy for the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the UN General Assembly is well known and respected.