November 29th, 2004

“Call to Action for Recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights by the United Nations”

Press Conference In Front Of The United Nations November 29th, 2004, 11 AM

At 11:00 AM on Monday November 29th, 2004 a group of Indigenous Organizations attending the 10th session of the Intersessional Working Group on the United Nations Draft Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva will hold a press conference at the “Broken Chair” in front of the Palais de Nations.

At that time they will announce an Action to protest the failure of the United Nations and its member states to significantly advance towards adoption of the Declaration in the 10 years since the Working Group was initiated. Indigenous Representatives will call world attention to the continued attempts by some states, as well as this UN process itself, to weaken and undermine the Draft Declaration developed in the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations and adopted by the UN Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in 1994.

This text has also been endorsed and supported by hundreds of Indigenous Peoples and organizations around the world as the minimum standard required for the recognition and protection of Indigenous Peoples' rights internationally.

This is the final month of the first International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, initiated by the UN General Assembly in 1994. Adoption of the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was one of the primary goals of the Decade, and has become one of the Decades most glaring failures.

At the press conference, Indigenous organizations and Nations will announce their Protest Action, and call for world support for adoption by the United Nations of the Declaration in its current text. Coordinators include: the International Indian Treaty Council, Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, International Organization of Indigenous Resource Development, Ermineskin Cree Nation, Movimiento de la Juventud Kuna (Kuna Youth Movement of Panama), Aotearoa Indigenous Rights Trust (New Zealand), Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council and others to be announced.

ENDS

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