Indigenous Caucus
Monday, 21.07.03
Having started on Saturday, yesterday was the third session of the Indigenous
Caucus. The Caucus' work was hindered by other events in the building
which kept some of the participants away from the work in Room XVI.
Relationship between WGIP and academics:
Claim: Not enough studies were produced about Indigenous People.
One of the suggestions was that some univiersities should or already give
credit to students for participating at the annual Working Group. G. William
Rice (Citizen Potowatomi) informed the audience about the American Indian
Law programme at the University of Tulsa (US) that aims providing legal
assistance to Indian tribes. Another participant told that they had had
previous initiatives between academics and WG, which for reasons of "politics"
and "personalities", it was shut down.
Draft Declaration:
Hjalmar Dahl (Inuit Circumpolar Conference) urged the participants of
the Caucus to speed up the drafting of the Declaration because the next
conference in September will be the final one before the end of the Decade
of Indigenous People. He suggested inviting the representative of the
Canadian Delegation to report on Wednesday to the Caucus. Michail Todyshev
(Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North) supported the
comments of the previous speaker and shared his concerns about not knowing
the results of ongoing government meetings. No final decision was made
by the participants.
Caucus Statement and globalization:
Prof. Unkum' J. Chiriap (Tsentsak Survival Foundation) declared that by
Tuesday's session of the Caucus, the Committee on Globalization will put
forward a statement on globalization. He told the audience that as the
Speaker of the Committee, he rejects globalization because it discriminates
against indigenous people. Furthermore, he rejects globalization because
the state does not include indigenous people in decision-making. A participant
from Cote d'Ivoire added that indigenous people must be able to have a
voice in globalization. Because of the monetary aspects of globalization,
he supported the view that indigenous people are against the present capitalistic
form of globalization.
By: Anna Magyarosi
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