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Editors --- "Statement of the Indigenous Peoples at the Third Regional Consultation for Latin America and the Caribbean, FAO and NGO/CSO - Digest" [2004] AUIndigLawRpr 20; (2004) 8(4) Australian Indigenous Law Reporter 102

Indigenous Statements - International

Statement of the Indigenous Peoples at the Third Regional Consultation for Latin America and the Caribbean, FAO and NGO/CSO

Guatemala City

23–25 April 2004

We wish to thank the Indigenous Communities of Guatemala, particularly the Maya People for the hospitality they have provided us in their ancestral territories. Equally, we thank the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] of the United Nations and the International Planning Committee of the NGO/CSO [non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations] for Food Sovereignty (‘CIP’) for their invitation to attend this Third Regional Consultation.

In particular, we appreciate the initial comments from the Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative of FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr Gordillo de Anda, for his acknowledgement that the fundamental characteristic of this continent is the presence of Indigenous Peoples in the Region.

This comment reflects progress made in recognizing the importance of Indigenous Peoples and of the historical and moral debt held towards us by the States of the Region. The special obligations of the States of the Region towards Indigenous People have been acknowledged by several international agencies of the UN and the OAS. For instance, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States, in its pronouncement in the case of the Awas Tingni of Nicaragua (09/17/01) has recognized the rights of Indigenous Peoples:

By virtue of their very existence, indigenous communities have the right to live freely in their own territories; the close relationship of these communities with the land must be recognized and understood as the basis for their cultures, spiritual life, cultural integrity and economic survival. For indigenous communities, relationship with the land is not simply one of possession and production, it is also a material and spiritual element that they should be able to enjoy freely, as well as a means of preserving their cultural heritage and transmitting it to future generations.

The United Nations has also recognized the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Committee on Human Rights, monitoring agent for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, applies the right to free determination as a right of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, and has applied this principle to other States, including Mexico, as a legal obligation of the State. This same Committee on Human Rights has also recognized, in its General Comment 23, that the right to the use of their language, culture and religion implies the access and use, by Indigenous Peoples, of the land and natural resources.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the Monitoring Committee of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, have established the rights to prior, free and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples of State legislation or actions that affect them.

For Indigenous Peoples, the collective right to food and food sovereignty are indispensable for the continuation of their cultures and Indigenous identity. Traditional forms and norms of land tenure and collective decision making of the affected Indigenous Peoples must be respected.

The freedom for self determination of Indigenous Peoples involves not only access to but also control and management of their territories and natural resources.

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[We particularly support] the following considerations which ... apply to this Third Regional Consultation of the NGO/CSO from Latin America and the Caribbean:

• Retrieve and strengthen ancestral practices and the spirituality of our Indigenous Peoples.
• Foster alliances among communities, organizations, countries and Indigenous Peoples.
• Promote a development with identity, based on the cosmovision of Indigenous Peoples.
• We promote a fight for the recognition of legal collective rights where participation in decisive strategic instances may be obtained.
• We are actually working in the construction of our autonomies and free self determination as a People, from local power and indigenous municipalities.
• We reject exclusion, discrimination, subordination and male chauvinism (‘machismo’) from the Statal to the familial, expressed in a noticeable increase of violence against women and in the assassination of women in Guatemala and Mexico.
• We reject the progressive privatization, deprival of our lands and the expropriation of our natural resources.

The Indigenous Youth Association of Argentina and all those present denounce the serious events taking place in indigenous territories (concession of indigenous territories for mineral exploitation and extraction by multinational companies), whose consequences are the serious deterioration of the environment and an irreversible contamination of the places where they are produced (In Argentina, Catamarca, Esquel, Orosmayo and Liviara and others in Latin America).

We denounce the theft and ensuing commercialization of traditional knowledge (seed and medicinal herbs) without consultation or approval by the people.

We denounce the deforestation of and expulsion from indigenous territories by companies for the planting of monocultures (transgenic and others) and the negative effects this generates, as well as the construction of gas pipelines, electric pipelines, polio pipelines, among others, and their negative impact on the environment.

We denounce the utilization of the cultural and environmental heritage of Indigenous Peoples for profit, without safeguarding the participation of our peoples (Creation of the Biosphere Reserve of the Yungas, Recognition of the Humahuaca Gorge as part of the World’s Cultural Heritage.

We make our Declaration and Plan of Action of Guatemala at this Third Regional Consultation for Latin America and the Caribbean, on 25 April 2004.

Proposals:

1. The United Nations General Assembly, in the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People in 1994 proposed ‘strenghthening’ international cooperation towards the solution of the problems faced by Indigenous Peoples in areas such as human rights, the environment, development, education and health’. It is clear that it was not expected that international cooperation for the Decade to solve the problems of Indigenous Peoples would last only 10 years. Just as stated by the United Nations Secretary-General: Implicit in the subject of the Decade ‘Indigenous Peoples: participation in action’ and in the proposal to create a permanent forum (on indigenous issues), is the notion that Indigenous Peoples and Organizations should have recognized participation rights in the Governing Bodies of the United Nations with a formal or institutional role in the formulation of policies and in decision making in the areas affecting their lives.

Within the framework of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, the FAO has created a structure of Focal Points for Indigenous Issues made up by representatives from each department and regional office within its own structure. The Representatives of Indigenous Peoples and their organizations recommend that this approach of FAO be strengthened and that Indigenous focal points be assigned in each region, with whom to exchange information on points of view and develop a work programme for Indigenous Peoples.

Following up on this initiative, we recommend that FAO organize a Regional Consultation of the Americans between the FAO Focal Points for Indigenous Issues and the Focal Points of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas to formulate a workplan on Food Security and Indigenous Peoples.

2. We recommend that the FAO organize an International Conference of Indigenous Peoples on Food Sovereignty and Food Security.

3. We recommend that the FAO work in coordination with Indigenous Universities and Indigenous Research Institutions in order to study, research and collaborate on subjects related to Food Sovereignty.

4. We recommend to the FAO and the CIP the active participation of indigenous women in consultations on food sovereignty and security, in consideration of the responsibilities we face as the main axis of the family group and in consideration of our being the main caretakers of cultural heritage, preserving traditional knowledge, food diversity, medicinal herbs and natural resources, utilizing them rationally and thus guaranteeing the sustainability of our Peoples over time.

5. We recommend that the FAO promote and guarantee the creation, within Member States, of control instances, with indigenous participation, for adequate policies and legal norms that may be applied in the situations mentioned above.

6. We recommend that the FAO promote and guarantee the participation of Indigenous Youth in all processes related to food security and sovereignty at an international and national level.

7. We recommend that the FAO and the CIP contribute in the pursuit of a policy for food sovereignty and security in Latin America, taking our own food products as a basis, creating instances for self-education, and for the research and promotion of those products that constitute the identity and food sufficiency of our Region. This policy should include a framework for the legal protection, conservation, and economic and intellectual property compensation of their owners, as is the case of germplasm and traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples.

8. We recommend that the FAO undertake actions to open a line of technical and financial support for research and promotion initiatives relative to the retrieval of food that is safe and accessible to the majority of the population, submitted by organizations, trade unions and associations directly involved in the pursuit of solutions to food insecurity, such as members of the CIP.

9. The Indigenous women of the Americas believe that the FAO, the WFP and the WHO should seek instances for coordination and complementary actions to contribute to the eradication of child malnourishment, hunger and poverty mainly in rural and urban marginal areas.

10. The FAO should recommend Member Nations to prioritize policies and actions aimed at peace and at eradicating poverty and extreme poverty in their respective countries, as these are the main causes of social and political instability.

11. We recommend that States and international and regional organizations:

• Strengthen follow up capacities on international processes in defense of territorial rights, towards an integrated development from the point of view of our people.
• Consolidate territorial security: articulating the local experiences of various countries. Systematization, elaboration of guidelines from the indigenous vision, on the basis of technical training programmes.

12. Recommendations for the States:

• On the basis of Prior, Free and Informed Consent of the affected Indigenous Peoples, design a National Policy for the management, use, conservation and administration of natural resources on Indigenous lands and territories.
• Reform laws on protected areas and forest and environment law so that these can be managed by indigenous communities.
• Reject the concession of our natural resources by the State to transnational entities for their exploitation without the full consent of Indigenous Peoples.
• Increase political and budgetary support to social health, education, housing, employment, land distribution, utilization of natural resources and other services. Eliminate the privatization of basic services.

We demand that the Government of Guatemala repair the destruction caused by the internal armed conflict, particularly the burning of forests and jungles of Guatemala.

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