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News Archive - International
2003-2005
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Recommendations for the 2nd Decade
September 2005
April 11, 2005 the International Round Table “Indigenous Peoples and the UN System”, held within the framework of the 5th Congress of Numerically Small Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation, was held in Moscow. The meeting resulted in a number of recommendations for the plan of events of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
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2nd International Indigenous Youth Conference in Vancouver, Canada
June 2005
17-21 June 2005, 181 young indigenous people from Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Turtle Island, Samiland, Africa, Philippines, Japan, Nagaland, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Manipur, Australia, and New Zealand met in Vancouver for the 2nd International Indigenous Youth Conference. The aim of the conference was to gather indigenous youth representatives from the world over in order to help define the role and tasks of the world indigenous youth movement and network. The theme of the conference was “Strengthening Solidarity Among Indigenous Youth In Asserting Indigenous Peoples Rights Amidst Globalization” and the issues that were dealt with during the conference were:
1. Land, Resources and Territory (development aggression, mining, tourism)
2. Culture, Traditional systems, Spirituality
3. Governance (traditional system, navigating the non-indigenous, policy/UN and other bodies)
4. Indigenous Rights (militarization and human rights violations)
Read the conference Declaration
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The Second Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
April 2005
The First Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (1995-2004) proved to be an important initiative for indigenous peoples all over the world. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was created, substantial progress was made in raising and promoting indigenous concerns within several UN programmes and indigenous peoples have become more aware of the international and regional human rights systems. Putting the international achievements and rights into practice regionally and locally has, however, been more difficult. Based on the experiences learned during the First Decade IWGIA has prepared a strategy for the Second Decade commencing on 1 January 2005.
Read IWGIA’s Strategy (Word)
IWGIA publication on experiences learned during the First Decade - The Indigenous Affairs 3/2004
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UN proclaims 2nd Decade of the World's Indigenous People
January 4, 2005
In late December 2004, the United Nations' General Assembly proclaimed a Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. The main goal of the new decade will be to strengthen international cooperation around resolving the problems faced by indigenous people in areas such as culture, education, health, human rights, the environment, and social and economic development.
Read IWGIA's update (Word)
Read a summary of the General Assembly resolutions (Word)
Read a summary of the Third Committee's recommendations to the General Assembly (Word)
Read the UN General Assembly's Programme of Activities for the 2nd Decade (PDF)
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Seminar on Indigenous Women and Gender Relations
April 2004
April 26-28 2004, indigenous women from four continents met in Fredensborg, Denmark to discuss gender relations in indigenous societies, as seen from a women's perspective. The seminar resulted in a set of recommendations that will be presented to the 3rd Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, taking place in New York from May 10-21, 2004.
The overall recommendation to the permanent Forum is that: The Forum should encourage all United Nations bodies whose activities have an impact on indigenous women to report regularly to the Forum on their policies and programmes affecting and in relation to indigenous women. More specific recommendations address issues like culturally appropriate education, gender dimensions of racial discrimination, the impact of development projects on indigenous women, health programmes that address indigenous women's particular needs while paying attention to their own cultural perspectives, and the impact of armed conflict on indigenous women and the need to involve them in conflict resolution processes.
Read the full set of recommendations (Word)
The papers written for the seminar by indigenous women from Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Circumpolar North are published in IWGIA's journal Indigenous Affairs vol. 1-2/04 |
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World Parks Congress
September 2003
From September 8 to 17 the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress took place in Durban, South Africa. Hundreds of delegates representing park authorities, governments, local communities living in the parks or close to them, conservationists, NGO activists, etc. were present and used the congress as an opportunity to discuss the future of the world's protected areas. Indigenous peoples were strongly represented, and through active participation in panel debates and workshops they managed to give their input to The Durban Accord and Action Plan - the official outputs of the congress.
Prior to the World Parks Congress indigenous peoples had their own preparatory conference. They jointly made a declaration formulating their concerns regarding the future of protected areas. Taking a starting point in the fact that indigenous peoples have a special relationship with their lands, territories and the resources therein, the declaration affirms indigenous peoples' position as rightsholders, not merely stakeholders, when it comes to management and decision making regarding protected areas. Among others it calls for implementation of policies that obliges states and conservation agencies to respect indigenous peoples rights, and it rejects any protected area and conservation policy which promotes the discrimination, exclusion and / or expulsion of indigenous peoples from their territories.
Read the Indigenous Peoples' Declaration to the World Parks Congress
Read more about the IUCN World Parks Congress |
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World Summit on the Information Society
December 2003
The UN WSIS took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from December 10-12 2003. Indigenous peoples call attention to the fact that all references to central concerns had been deleted from the final documents.
Read the Indigenous Peoples' Press Statement (Word)
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