Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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September 10, 2007

UN To Vote Soon on Indigenous Peoples Declaration
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=195ADB6:A6F02AD83191E1601D68E7513FF93C149574F7DCC14957C0 US, Canada,
Australia among nations opposed





Survival International The UN General Assembly is expected to vote
late this week or early next on the declaration on indigenous peoples
rights. The declaration was first proposed over two decades ago, but
never approved.

Among those following developments at the United Nations is Kali
Mercier of Survival International. The London-based group has been
defending the rights of the Bushmen in Botswana to live on their
ancestral homelands.

Mercier spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua
about the declaration.

“Basically, it’s a very wide-ranging declaration that recognizes
rights that they already have, such as the right to cultural
integrity, the right to education in their own language, the right not
to be dispossessed of their ancestral land and so on,” she says.

Asked whether it has much support at the UN, Mercier says, “There has
been a lot of support for it from some countries. Other countries have
not been quite so keen and they’re some of the countries in which we
would have hoped to have a much better example set. For example,
Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, all countries
with indigenous peoples, have been very opposed to some of the
wide-reaching rights recognized by the declaration.”

Some conservatives in Canada have said the declaration could undermine
Canada’s constitution or undermine existing land deals. “I just don’t
think that’s the case…Canada’s been very supportive of the declaration
right the way through until recently when they had a change of
government. And all the opposition parties in Canada support the
declaration,” she says.

What about affecting sovereignty? Mercier says, “I don’t think that’s
the case at all. I mean it’s more about recognizing their collective
rights to identity and culture. It’s not a threat to sovereignty in
any way and the declaration has to be interpreted in accordance with
international law that’s already in existence. It simply wouldn’t be
possible to say split up a country on the basis that you want
self-determination as indigenous peoples.” 

If the General Assembly fails to vote on the declaration Thursday, a
vote could come early next week. 





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