The last session of the Working Group for Indigenous Populations was held Friday, July 25th 2003 in the afternoon at the United Nation. Agenda item 6 d, 6 e, and 7 of the program for the Working Group were discussed.

Three interventions of Indigenous delegates were made on the matter of the State of Voluntary Funds (6 d). Mr. Jorge Agurto, Servicios en Communicacion Intercultural, made a series of suggestions in order to optimize the resources of the Voluntary Funds, such as publicizing the ideas of the meeting, facilitating the process of self-selection through appropriate means by indigenous people, and having a distinction between Indigenous delegations and NGO's. Mr. Hassan Id Balkassam, IPACC TAMAYNUT, commented that political parties of Governments prevented funds of being higher and therefore suggested more engagement from the Working Group in this regard. Mr. Morales, Bolivia, commented that the Declaration adopted for the Decade has not been respected by governements because of a lack of will. He also suggested proper selection and democratization of delegates in order to prevent corruption.

The Working Group passed then to the agenda item 6 e, concerning the human rights situation of indigenous peoples in states and territories threatened by the extinction for environmental reasons. Mrs. Fançoise Hampson, member of the Working Group, briefed the room on this situation, and insisted on what will happen to the status of the concerned Indigenous People, mainly islanders of the Pacific. Since it is an unprecedented case in international public law she proposed that the Working Group should draft a resolution that request ECOSOC to set up a mechanism to consider all the aspects of the problem. Mr. Hati Ponika, Pacific Coprus, commented on the importance of the situation, and requested that actions be taken urgently by International Communities.

Mr. Manuel Mazaquiza, CONAIE Ecuador, made an intervention that was not related to the item 6 e, concerning the importance for Indigenous Population to exercise their own system of Justice. He insisted that each Indigenous community had effective systems of justice and that it was not recognized by governments.

Under agenda item 7, Recommendations and Conclusions, Mr. Martinez suggested the organization of two workshops on the relationship between indigenous people, mining companies and transnational corporations. Secondly, the Chairman stressed the importance of the indigenous delegates' participation at the World Summit on Information Societies, which will take place later in the year in Geneva. Thirdly, international financial institutions, the private sector and states were encouraged to contribute to individual projects in particular, and the sustainance of the WGIP in general. Finally, Mr. Alfonso Martinez proposed that a supplementary working document should be undertaken as a follow-up of previous debate and should include ideas of the content for the final report that will be submitted to the sub-commission.

By: Sélim Benaïssa, Raphaël Contel and Anna Magyarosi

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