United Nations Commission on Human Rights Fifty-seventh Session, March 19 - April 27, 2001 Oral intervention by the International Indian Treaty Council Agenda Item 10: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

International Indian Treaty Council

CONSEJO INTERNACIONAL DE TRATADOS INDIOS

	“WORKING FOR THE RIGHTS AND RECOGNITION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES"

United Nations Commission on Human Rights
Fifty-seventh Session, March 19 - April 27, 2001
Oral intervention by the International Indian Treaty Council
Agenda Item 10: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

For Indigenous Peoples, their Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are mutually interdependent. Traditional social systems, means of subsistence and cultural beliefs and practices are indivisible, forming an intricate web that maintains Indigenous Peoples' cultural identity, social and physical health, and their very survival.

Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights affirms that in no case a People may be deprived of its own means of Subsistence. The right of Self Determination as stated in Article 1 also upholds the right of all Peoples to freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development, thus firming linking in international law these interrelated rights.

Indigenous Peoples' cultural and spiritual relationships with the natural world are maintained through daily practice of subsistence hunting, fishing, gathering and agriculture. Their creation stories and clan systems underscore these fundamental and indivisible relationships which are the sources of spiritual strength and identity as Peoples, as well as food and sustenance. Mayan Indians are "Corn People" and Gwich'in Athabascans are the "Caribou People"

Indigenous Peoples are estimated to constitute only about 5% of the world population. They nevertheless represent about 90% of the world's cultural diversity. It is not a coincidence that 80% of the world's remaining biodiversity is also found within Indigenous Peoples' territories.

Considering only short term financial gains, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, timber, tourism, oil, mining, agribusiness and energy industries push state governments to weaken or disregard legal frameworks, including international standards for protection of Indigenous Peoples economic, social, cultural rights.

For example, the Traditional Native American Farmers' Association in the U.S. estimates that Indigenous Peoples cultivated 65% of the crop varieties consumed throughout the world. But this millennial knowledge and the seeds that have been developed over generations are in danger of being lost to unsustainable practices of agribusiness and bio-technology, as well as so-called intellectual property rights regimes.

The Gwich'in Nation of Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada are also threatened with the extinction of their cultural, religious and subsistence rights. The current US administration allied with the multi-national oil companies are determined to exploit the 1.5 million acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Porcupine Caribou Herd's birthplace and nursery for their young. The Porcupine Caribou Herd is central to the Gwich'in peoples' spiritual, cultural, social and physical well being. To the Gwich'in, this area is sacred and must not be intruded upon. Oil development of the Arctic Refuge would irrevocably harm the Gwich'in Peoples culture, social fabric, food security and means of subsistence.

Countless other cultural sites and holy places are under attack by outside economic interests, supported by state policies which blatantly disregard Indigenous Peoples' cultural rights. To name one other current example, the Washoe Indian Nation of California and Nevada in the United States is requesting assistance as they assert their cultural rights and spiritual responsibilities to protect what is now known as Cave Rock, or De-ek Wadapush in their language, on the shores of Lake Tahoe. "Cave Rock remains a pivotal part of the Washoe spiritual beliefs and human existence … This ancient place is the home of the Me-tsunge, who created all the lakes and streams in the region … ". Traditionally only chosen spiritual leaders were allowed to visit this sacred of holy place. But the United States Forest Service, while recognizing Cave Rock as a cultural site of the highest importance for the Washoe, has permitted it to become an international rock climbing destination, promoted for tourism and recreational use in direct disregard for the most fundamental cultural rights of the Washoe Peoples.

During the World Trade Organization Third Ministerial Meeting in Seattle in December 1999, national, international and local Indigenous organizations and networks from around the world drafted the Indigenous Peoples' Seattle Declaration. It identified the WTO Agreement on Agriculture as responsible for promoting entry of cheap agricultural products into Indigenous communities, thereby undermining and even destroying local economies, causing ancestral lands to become increasingly concentrated in the hands of agri-corporations and landlords. Community members are forced to migrate into cities, where they become homeless and jobless.

There is an urgent need for states to establish and implement legal mechanisms at the national level, including reforms in national constitutions, to safeguard the social, cultural and economic rights of Indigenous Peoples. These include the right to food security and directly tied to land rights protections. Of equal importance is the commitment by states to fully implement international laws and standards as applied to Indigenous Peoples in this regard.

The IITC takes note with appreciation of last year's resolution of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (E/CN.4/Sub.2/200/L.37) which calls upon the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights to "encourage studies with respect to the rights to food and adequate nutrition of Indigenous Peoples… stressing the linkage between their present general situation and their lands rights, and to develop further cooperation with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Progamme on indigenous issues".

The IITC recognizes the 16th session the FAO Committee on Agriculture which meet last week in Rome, in which several Indigenous representatives including a representative of our organization were included as participants, as a positive step forward in this regard.

In conclusion Mr. Chairman, the IITC requests that this Commission, as a follow-up to its resolution last year "Right to Food" under this agenda item (E/CN.4/2000.48), encourage the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food to focus attention on the full range of issues impacting this right for Indigenous Peoples. The IITC calls upon the Rapporteur to prioritize consideration of the cultural and spiritual, as well as economic indicators which form the basis for Indigenous Peoples' relationships to their traditional sources of food and subsistence.

For all our relations and the future generations.