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GA / INDIGENOUS FORUM OPENER
STORY: GA / INDIGENOUS FORUM OPENER
TRT: 2.27
SOURCE: UNTV / UNICEF / CERF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 7 MAY 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – 2011, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
7 MAY 2012, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, opening of Indigenous Forum in General Assembly Hall
2. Med shot, ceremonial prayer by Mayan Elders Virginia Ajxup and Juan Sapil
3. Wide shot, press conference
4. Med shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Bienvenu Okiemy, Minister of Communication and Relations with the Parliament, Republic of Congo:
“The objective of our country is to provide them with a certain number of popular action mechanisms that will allow them to tell the government, look, this is what we want for our future. This is what we want for the organisation of our land, our community, and this is how we want to participate in the life of the Republic.”
FILE – UNICEF – 26 MAY 2009, MOSCOW VILLAGE, NE CONGO BRAZZAVILLE
6. Close up, Jongi
7. Wide shot, Jongi and villagers into forest
8. Pan, doctor to community
9. Wide shot, sister injecting
10. Close up, sister injecting
11. Med shot, injecting baby
12. Close up, polio vaccinating
FILE – CERF – 23-25 JANUARY 2012, REPUBLIC OF CONGO
13. Wide shot, teacher talking about cholera
14. Med shot, little schoolgirl in class
7 MAY 2012, NEW YORK CITY
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Grand Chief Edward John, Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues:
“Those schools were premised on this idea that indigenous peoples were inferior to the general population, their cultures and civilisations were inferior, their languages were not to be spoken, children had to be taken from their families and communities and placed in these institutions to begin the gradual civilisation and Christianisation of our peoples. As if our history and our cultures and our languages were not important.”
FILE – UNICEF – 21 FEBRUARY 2012, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
16. Close up, small indigenous boy writing with large pencil
17. Close up, pictures with descriptions written in both Spanish and a native language
18. Med shot, teacher in front of room, with girls seated on a bench in front of her
FILE – UNICEF – 29-30 JULY 2009, LONG LUTENG, MALAYSIA
19. Med shot, indigenous students working with computer spelling activity
7 MAY 2012, NEW YORK CITY
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Tonya Gonnella Frichner, native American activist and lawyer:
“We are recommending that the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues conduct an international study on this doctrine and look at the effects that the Doctrine of Domination has had on our health, our physical, psychological and social wellbeing as well as our human and collective rights.”
21. Med shot, journalists
22. Wide shot, end of press conference
Activists for indigenous rights today (7 May) said that five years after the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted, a great deal remains to be done to realize the objectives contained in that landmark document.
As the 11th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues opened today, Congolese Minister Bienvenu Okiemy spoke to reporters at a press conference at UN headquarters about the integration of indigenous people in his country.
He said the objective of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) was to allow indigenous people to “tell the government” what they wanted for the organisation of their land and community, and how they wanted to “participate in the life of the Republic”.
Other participants congratulated the Republic of Congo, one of the poorest countries in the world, on its recent adoption in 2010 of a law improving indigenous people’s access to education, health care and protection. The law has been hailed by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as a “milestone” and an example for other countries.
The Chairperson of the Permanent Forum, Grand Chief Edward John, said the developments in Congo were heartening and noted that in Canada, the impact of the system of Indian residential schools on the indigenous community was currently the subject of examination, and recalled his own experiences at such a school.
“Those schools were premised on this idea that indigenous peoples were inferior to the general population; their cultures and civilizations were inferior; their languages were not to be spoken; children had to be taken from their families and communities and placed in these institutions to begin the gradual civilization and ‘Christianization’ of our peoples, as if our history and our culture and our languages were not important,” he said.
Almost 2,000 indigenous participants from all regions of the world will meet at the UN over the next two weeks.
They will discuss issues including the rights of indigenous peoples to food and food sovereignty, the situation of indigenous peoples in places such as Central and Eastern Europe, the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples slated for 2014, and the special theme of “Doctrine of Discovery” – the way courts justified the annexing of indigenous lands – and the right to redress for past conquests.
Tonya Gonnella Frichner of the North American Onondaga Nation, told reporters that the Forum should conduct an international study on the effects of what she called the “Doctrine of Domination” on indigenous peoples’ health, physical, psychological and social wellbeing, and human rights.
She said the Doctrine of Discovery, which has its roots in the 15th century and was expounded by the United States Supreme Court in 1823 as a concept of public international law, was "incompatible" with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
On 17 May, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will convene a high-level event to mark the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration, reflect on good practices and assess the document’s role in fulfilling the rights of the world’s indigenous peoples.
Adopted by the General Assembly in September 2007 after more than two decades of debate, the Declaration is a non-binding text that sets out the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues.
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