As UN Marks Day of Indigenous Peoples, Annan Renews Call to Ensure Their Rights

As UN marks Day of indigenous peoples, Annan renews call to ensure their 
rights

8 August – As the United Nations celebrated today the International Day of 
the World’s Indigenous People, Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that 
indigenous peoples still faced threats to their lives and destruction of 
their “belief systems, cultures, languages and ways of life.” 

Underscoring these threats, the UN refugee agency reported that virtually all 
of the 84 indigenous groups in Colombia face forced displacement or are 
threatened by it because of internal strife, while the UN Development 
Programme (UNDP) issued a new survey showing that Chile’s Mapuche people, the 
country's largest indigenous group, suffer many social and economic 
disparities. 

“The human family is a tapestry of enormous beauty and diversity. The 
indigenous peoples of the world are a rich and integral part of that 
tapestry,” Mr. Annan said in his message for the Day, usually marked on 9 
August but observed today. “They have much to be proud of and much to teach 
the other members of the human family. The protection and promotion of their 
rights and cultures is of fundamental importance to all States and all 
peoples.” 

Noting that the establishment of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has 
given indigenous peoples a home at the UN, he added: “As a mechanism for 
partnership between indigenous peoples, the Member States and the United 
Nations system, the Permanent Forum gives hope that the motto of the Decade – 
‘partnership in action’ – is being turned into reality in the areas of 
economic and social development, environment, health, education, culture and 
human rights.” 

Celebrating “the existence, diversity and achievements” of indigenous 
peoples, the Secretary-General declared: “We honour their struggles to 
preserve their cultures, protect their lands and combat discrimination. We 
pay tribute to those who, without relinquishing their identity, move 
comfortably between the traditions of their ancestors and the wider, rapidly 
changing modern world.” 

The Chairman of the Permanent Forum, Ole Henrik Magga, noted the abuses 
indigenous people still faced and made a vibrant appeal for preserving their 
culture and languages. 

“We deplore and condemn the egregious violations of human rights, including 
extrajudicial killings and involuntary disappearances, the discrimination in 
the criminal justice system, the forced displacement, the extreme poverty, 
the danger of extinction of isolated indigenous communities, the continuing 
threat to indigenous cultures and indigenous lands that indigenous peoples 
still suffer,” he said in a message. “But now that indigenous peoples have a 
place within the family of nations we look forward to a real and constructive 
partnership with States and intergovernmental organizations. The Permanent 
Forum on Indigenous Issues is a vehicle that will allow us to gain a higher 
profile and come closer to the end of exclusion and discrimination and have 
our human rights respected.” 

On Colombia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said a new report 
by the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC) painted “a grim 
picture.” It shows that nearly 13,000 indigenous people fled their original 
homelands in 2001 and 2002. During the first half of this year, over 50 
indigenous persons had been murdered and as many as 3,000 had to flee their 
homes in fear for their lives. 

On the inferior conditions of Chile’s 600,000 Mapuche people, who account for 
about 4 per cent of the population, UNDP reported that their human 
development index (HDI), based on income, life expectancy and education 
levels, is 0.642, compared with 0.736 for other Chileans. 


SOURCE: United Nations, New York