As negotiations for the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples remained stalled in the final weeks before the deadline set for its passage, six indigenous activists held a hunger strike at the site of the meetings in Geneva.
The strike, which took place from November 29 to December 2, protested the failure of the United Nations Working Group on the Draft Declaration to fulfill its mandate to pass the declaration by the end of the International Decade of the WorldÂ’s Indigenous People on December 31. In 10 years of negotiations, the Working Group has reached consensus on only two of the declarationÂ’s 45 articles. Indigenous supporters blame the states involved in the negotiations, especially the United States and United Kingdom, for creating roadblocks against further progress.
The declaration was one of the primary goals of the U.N. Decade, and would solidify international recognition for indigenous peoples' human rights, including their right to self-determination.
"We will not allow our rights to be negotiated, compromised, or diminished in this U.N. process, which was initiated more than 20 years ago by Indigenous Peoples," the hunger strikersÂ’ press release asserts. "The United Nations itself says that human rights are inherent and inalienable, and must be applied to all Peoples without discrimination."
The Commission on Human Rights created the Working Group on the Draft Declaration in 1995. Indigenous representatives, non-governmental organizations with consultative status to the U.N. Economic and Social Council and other state representatives were allowed to take part in the proceedings, but member governments of the commission were the only participants entitled to vote on the articles.
During the strike the protesters met with a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights and the vice president of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, who offered to schedule a meeting between the Office of the Human Rights Commission and indigenous people prior to the Human Rights Commission session in March 2005. The U.N. officials also agreed that if the Working Group's time is extended they would establish new procedures for participation that would guarantee that the voices of indigenous peoples and organizations unable to go to Geneva also would be heard.
At the conclusion of their fast, which was marked with a traditional Lakota ceremony of thanks and prayer, the strikers said they were weak and tired, but were grateful for the positive outcomes they achieved. "The government representatives realized that [indigenous peoples] are not afraid to take action," said Adelard Blackman, one of the strikers and a member of the Buffalo River Dene Nation in Saskatchewan.
Blackman said the hunger strike was an effort "to pull together before the end of the Decade and put the rights of indigenous peoples on the human rights agenda." Hundreds of faxes and e-mails from indigenous leaders and organizations arrived at the U.N.Â’s Palais des Nations in support of the hunger strikers. But, Blackman noted, "there was just not enough press coverage."
The U.N. General AssemblyÂ’s Third Committee, which covers human rights, recommended on November 4 that the General Assembly proclaim a Second International Decade of the WorldÂ’s Indigenous People beginning January 1, 2005. The General Assembly is scheduled to vote on the recommendation this month. Blackman and other indigenous peoples who have been involved in declaration negotiations hope that the General Assembly will use the opportunity to encourage rapid adoption of the declaration.
