DPI/NGO Briefing

Changing Realities: Indigenous Peoples in the next decade

13 April 2006

Summary

The DPI/NGO Section held its regular weekly NGO briefing on 13 April 2006 on the topic of Changing Realities: Indigenous Peoples in the next decade.

During the panel discussion German A Ortega, Minister, Permanent Mission of Ecuador to  the United Nations; Marijke Velzeboer-Salcedo, Chief, Latin America and Caribbean Section, United Nations Fund for Women; Elsa Stamatopoulou, Chief, Secretariat, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Division for Social Policy and Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs; and Kent Lebsock, Executive Director, American Indian Law Alliance, talked about the upcoming 5th annual Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Minister Ortega stressed the importance of the Permanent Forum for indigenous peoples and called for governmental cooperation with them, also in the area of providing quality bilingual and intercultural education. He furthermore advocated for the need to create jobs and better access to technical and financial resources as the basis for sustainable development. Minister Ortega explained that there were more than 17 different ethnic groups in Ecuador, all recognized by his country’s Constitution. He also talked about some specific indigenous groups in Ecuador.

Ms. Velzeboer-Salcedo started by commending the video that was shown at the beginning of the briefing, entitled “Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations”. She talked about gender inequality within the indigenous community pointing out that women carried a greater burden because they faced double discrimination. She also stressed that women were actually key to preserving cultural diversity. An overview of the work of her agency, UNIFEM, then followed. Ms. Velzeboer-Salcedo highlighted a regional meeting of UN agencies and indigenous women held recently in Panama, with an interagency support group for women in indigenous communities as the outcome. She concluded by saying that progress for all women was progress for all. 

Ms. Stamatopoulou commented on the video, saying that this was actually its first screening as it was intended primarily for UN officials, but she was pleased with the positive feedback by the audience. She talked about the Permanent Forum and stressed that there was a real movement behind the Forum, whose membership composition was unique – eight members nominated by the governments and eight by the indigenous peoples. Although there was no specific mention of the indigenous peoples in the MDGs, they embraced them as their own and wished to benefit from them. Incidentally, 2015, the target date for MDGs was also the end of the Second International Decade of the World Indigenous Peoples. In order to achieve the global, one must look at the local, which includes the indigenous community. She furthermore expressed her appreciation for the fact that the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit included recommendations for the indigenous peoples, including the call for the adoption of the Declaration of Indigenous People. She listed the objectives of the Decade, which the General Assembly called “A decade for action and dignity”, combining the development with the human rights agenda. She also urged the international community to listen first and give advice later.   

Mr. Lebsock started by addressing the audience in his native Lakota language. He briefly described the area where his peoples lived as well as the way they lived. He also found the film very uplifting and a good tool to show the indigenous communities that they were part of the international community. Mr. Lebsock went on to present the work of his organization and urged fellow NGOs to advocate with private companies and foundations to support the indigenous peoples cause. In conclusion he stressed the danger of diseases such as HIV/AIDS for indigenous communities and the importance of awareness-raising.

The panel discussion was followed by a question-and-answer session.

A question was raised about whether there was a conflict between women’s rights and indigenous peoples’ rights. In response to the question, Mr. Lebsock said that typically two out of three representatives at the Forum were women. He also said that contrary to popular belief there was no gender discrimination in his own community. He stressed that instead it was about responsibility towards one’s community and not about individual rights. Ms. Velzeboer-Salcedo added that while she could not speak for indigenous women she had seen many studies in her work showing that there was gender inequality within indigenous communities.  

In a separate ad hoc briefing, the Second Annual United Nations Documentary Film Festival “Stories from the Field”, documentaries reflecting one or more MDGs, was presented by Isabelle Broyer, Chief, Guided Tours Unit, Public Relations Section, DPI and Linda Lopez, President, Tellmedia Communications Inc. On 22 and 23 April, 40 finalist will be screened, including five winners. For more information, please visit www.mcainy.org/unfilm

The briefing was well attended by about 70 representatives of NGOs, UN and Permanent Mission staff.

The event was webcast live and is available as archived at www.un.org/dpi/ngosection  and/or www.un.org/webcast

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