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Indigenous representatives from around the world met this past fall at the United Nations to mark the International Day of the World's Indigenous People, and came away disappointed that a declaration on Native rights remained stalled after more than a decade of debate.

Tonya Gonnella Frichner, president of the American Indian Law Alliance, said the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand fear that self-determination could lead to secession. "That certainly is not what indigenous peoples are talking about," she said.

While the declaration will not be legally binding, Frichner said it would be an important guide to national governments on the rights of their forgotten peoples.

"Indigenous people ... are some of the poorest of the poor, and are also some of the most excluded in the development process," admitted Alfredo Sfeir-Younis, the World Bank's UN representative.

Earlier this year, indigenous women from throughout Latin America met in Mexico for a conference sponsored by the Organization of American States, and similarly protested the lack of progress in that body. An OAS indigenous rights statement has been stalled for more than 10 years by endless objections. Participants in the Continental Forum of Indigenous Women of the Americas called for the inclusion of gender issues. Indigenous leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela participated.

Participants said the Inter-American Indigenous Institute-the OAS body that organized the conference-should provide for a higher level of participation by indigenous representatives. Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu said the declaration remained "in limbo."

The OAS draft states that governments must guarantee respect for indigenous rights and recognize indigenous languages. It also calls for the return of alienated lands, and for governments to share profits >from natural resource exploitation on indigenous lands with indigenous communities. Indigenous organizations hoped that the two documents would be approved after the United Nations declared a Decade of Indigenous Peoples in 1993.

This article was provided by Native Americas' special-issue on "Global Warming, Climate Change and Native Lands." Published by the Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University's American Indian Program, Native Americas Journal keeps you informed of issues and events that impact indigenous communities throughout the hemisphere. You can find more information on this topic, as well as, how to subscribe to Native Americas on our web site.

"Nowhere else will you be able to find such powerful-knowledge filled writing."
--Wilma Mankiller, Editorial Board Member of Native Americas Journal