Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: Sixteenth Session - 13th Meeting

Speakers underline health risks and environmental threats posed to Indigenous peoples by extractive industries and energy projects, as permanent forum continues at 13th meeting.

• Categories: Meetings & Events
• Video Length: 01:14:57
• Production Date: 3 May 2017
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES - UNPFII
• Subject Topical: ENERGY; ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION; HEALTH HAZARDS; INDIGENOUS PEOPLES; INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT; INDUSTRIALIZATION
• MAMS Id: 1880813
• Parent Id: 1879755

Description

Extractive industries and energy projects continued to broach ancestral lands, threatening their environmental health and the people living on them, speakers told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today.

To address such corporate land grabs, Governments must provide effective protection measures, delegates said during the conclusion of a discussion on “implementation of the six mandated areas of the Permanent Forum with reference to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” — economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. (See Press Release HR/5353.)

Indigenous peoples’ speakers from North America said nuclear power plants in Canada and the United States were damaging their health and their lands and water. A representative of the Asemblea Nacional Indigena Plural por la Autonomia said Mexico had not fully respected the Declaration when it came to protecting natural resources.

In a similar vein, calls were made for the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization to examine cases involving indigenous lands in the United States, including the state of Hawai’i. Some speakers called for the Permanent Forum to offer new, stronger options to implement the Declaration. Other areas of concerns were highlighted, including elders who had not been granted citizenship in Thailand, discrimination facing the Boro people in India, killings in Peru and an ongoing health crisis in Chiapas, Mexico.

Concerns were also raised during the continuation of a discussion on “follow-up to the recommendations of the Permanent Forum”, contained in documents E/C.19/2017/3, E/C.19/2017/6, E/C.19/2017/7 and E/C.19/2017/8, on the issue of the empowerment of women. (See Press Release HR/5354.)

During the debate, a representative of the Ogaden People’s Rights Organization said thousands of indigenous pastoral women had been raped by the Ethiopian army and a local paramilitary force called the Liyu police. Women were also being arbitrarily detained and tortured, and forced to make perilous journeys to seek haven, exposing them to further abuse. States and the United Nations must invest time and resources into preventing conditions that led to violations of the Declaration, he said, recommending that a fact-finding mission be sent to the Ogaden region and that measures be taken to resolve the conflict there.

Delivering statements during the discussions were representatives of Indonesia and Ecuador, as well as a Member of Parliament of Mexico.

Also speaking were representatives of Boro Women’s Justice Forum, Coordinadora de Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica, Consejo Shiibo Konibo Xetebo Coshikox, Greater Sylhet Indigenous Peoples Forum of Bangladesh, Anishinabek Nation, Yamasi People, National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE), Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA) and the International Native Tradition Interchange.

Permanent Forum members from Denmark and Ecuador also spoke.

The Permanent Forum will meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 4 May to continue its work.