The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues
Second Session, New York, 12-23 May 2003
Agenda item 4c, Health
Intervention by the International Indian Treaty Council, Indigenous
Environmental Network, Seventh Generation Fund, Yoemem Tekia
Foundation, Indigenous Youth Caucus, Asemblea Nacional Indigena
Plural por la Autonomia (Mexico), American Indian Law Alliance, Na Koa
Ikaiko o Ka Lathui Hawai'i, Native Children's Survival, Teton Lakota
Nation Treaty Council, Hawai'i Institute for Human Rights, FENOCIN-Ecuador,
Indigenous Peoples' and Nations Coalition - Alaska, Tebtebba
Foundation (Philippines), Pit River Indian Nation, Alaska Community
Action on Toxics, Indigenous World Association, Assembly of First
Nations (Canada), Instituto Tonanzin, Frente Indigena Oaxaqueno,
Mujeres Mayas de Jovel Maya’ik de Chiapas Mexico, First Peoples
Worldwide, Fundacion para la Promocion de Conocimiento Indigena,
American Indian Treaty Council Information Center, Asociacion Nabguana
(Panama), Coordinadora Nacional de Pequenos y Medianos Productores de
Guatemala, Association of Limba Shaman (Nepal), Kulung Rai Language
and Cultural Development Community (Nepal), International Organization
for Indigenous Resource Development (Ermineskin Cree Nation, Samson
Cree Nation, Montana Cree Nation, Louis Bull Cree Nation, Canada)
Oral Statement presented on May 19, 2003 by Andrea Carmen,
representative, IITC
____________________________________________________________________
Thank you Mr. Chairman and respectful greetings to all.
We respectfully call the attention of the Permanent Forum on
Indigenous issues to the devastating impacts of environmental
contamination and eco-system destruction on the health, well being and
traditional subsistence practices of Indigenous Peoples, and in
particular on the health and development of Indigenous infants,
children and future generations.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) currently the subject of an
internationally binding treaty which is yet to be implemented, include
many pesticides as well as industrial chemicals and by products such
as PCB's and dioxins. Their proven adverse effects on children, in
particular developing fetuses and nursing infants, include many types
of birth defects, diabetes, hormonal and reproductive disorders,
learning disabilities and neurological damage, cancers and immune
system disorders.
Despite these devastating known health effects, industrial countries
such as the US continue to allow the export of toxic chemicals,
including ones which have been banned for use in their own countries,
to developing countries, such as Mexico and Guatemala. It is
estimated that between 1996 and 2000, the United States exported
nearly 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides that were identified as known
or suspected carcinogens, mainly to developing countries to be used
for agriculture.
The results of such practices have been well documented in Indigenous
agricultural communities such as the Yaqui Pueblos of Sonora Mexico,
including high levels of multiple pesticides in breast milk and the
cord blood of new born infants, and serious developmental problems in
young children in high pesticide use areas.
Mercury contamination of subsistence foods by mining, coal-fired
power plants and other industrial sources, also affects the developing
brain, kidneys and nervous system of the unborn child. Indigenous
children from communities depending on fishing are among the most
affected. Mercury from abandoned gold mines continues to affect
Indigenous Peoples in areas such as Northern California, USA. UNEP
estimates that more than one million people, including many women and
children, in Latin American are still involved in small scale mining
activities in which mercury is used.
These examples reflect only the "tip of the iceberg", in which our
children and unborn generations are being robbed of their health and
development potential by industrial activities and toxic
contamination. We therefore call upon the Permanent Forum Second
Session to submit through ECOSOC the following recommendations to
begin to address these critical concerns:
1) That the Inter-Agency Support Group (IASG) facilitate and
coordinate WHO,UNICEF, UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization and other appropriate UN agencies, to
host a global seminar on Indigenous Peoples and environmental health
to enable Indigenous Peoples, UN agencies, experts, and Indigenous
traditional knowledge holders to identify critical concerns,
prioritize issues and develop strategies towards addressing
environmental health concerns affecting Indigenous Peoples and
particularly Indigenous children and women.
2) That nation-state meetings be held in states where Indigenous
peoples live prior to this seminar, with the full participation of
Indigenous peoples, for fact finding, assessing current conditions and
evaluating state-level initiatives concerning the protection of the
environmental health of Indigenous peoples.
3) That all states be encouraged to ratify the Stockholm Convention on
POPs, and that the Conference of Parties (COP) to the Stockholm
Convention implement mechanisms for Indigenous peoples to maintain an
active formal presence in the COPs as well as in the Global Monitoring
Programme's evaluation process of the Stockholm Convention.
4) That support be expressed for the work of the UN Commission on
Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Toxic Wastes rights
and Dangerous Products Fatma Zora Ouhachi-Vesely in her efforts to
address the ongoing health impacts of the stockpiling and exporting of
banned toxics, especially pesticides, and call upon the international
community to prohibit this continued practice by states.
5) That UNEP take immediate action on mercury contamination,
including the initiation of a global legally-binding instrument for
elimination, and other measures at the next UNEP Governing Council
meeting of the Environmental Ministers in South Korea in 2005, with
the structured, formal and full participation of Indigenous Peoples in
all related discussions.
6) That the UN Human Rights Committee examine reports submitted by
state parties to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights regarding
their full compliance with article one, which states in part that "in
no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence", in
particular regarding the effects of environmental contamination,
imposed development and loss of habitat on the subsistence resources
and practices of Indigenous Peoples and related health impacts
7) That the Committee on the Rights of the Child as the Treaty
monitoring body for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, examine
state parties' compliance with article 24, recognizing the basic
right of all children to "the provision of adequate and nutritional
foods and clean drinking water, taking into consideration the dangers
and risks of environmental pollution", paying particular attention to
the impacts of pollutants on the traditional subsistence foods,
lands, waters and health of Indigenous children; and that the Special
Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child focusing on
Indigenous children in September of this year also address this
critical issue.
Thank you, for all our relations.
