To: Chandra Roy-Henriksen,
Bureau Chief, UNPFII Secretariat
From :
The Tadodaho Sidney Hill, Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) Confederacy
The Tadodaho Sidney Hill of the Haudenosaunee (Six
Nations Iroquois) Confederacy extend my greetings and good will to you, the
staff of the Secretariat and each of the 16 members of the UN Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). We look forward to seeing you, the
staff of the Secretariat as well as the UNPFII members at the upcoming 11th
session of the UNPFII, May 7 - 18, 2012, at UN Headquarters in New York
City. We deeply appreciate the work you do for all Indigenous Peoples and
your kind invitation for me, as Tadodaho, to participate in each of the opening
sessions since 2001.
We understand that the UNPFII has been
allocated Conference Room 1 in the North Lawn Building of UN Headquarters for
the UNPFII sessions. Although Conference Room 1 is one of the largest
meeting room in the North Lawn Building annex we realize that it may still not
be large enough to accommodate all the Indigenous delegates attending this
year's session. We acknowledge the difficulty this presents to the
Secretariat's yearly planning and we would, however respectfully request
clarification regarding the two options you are presenting to the
various Indigenous Peoples Caucuses to address this situation.
We understand that the blue regular ground
passes with the photo for each Indigenous delegate, which is an all area pass
for the two weeks of the session is confirmed. However, the
"secondary passes" for entry to the main meeting room will be limited
to 500 persons as advised to you by UN Security. You have requested Indigenous
Peoples to submit to you feedback pertaining to the two options for admittance
to this year's 11th session and we are respectfully submitting our feedback on
the two suggested options.
We understand the following information and
suggestions have been recently submitted by you to the Indigenous Peoples
Caucuses.
Option 1• One secondary pass per organization
irrespective of status, under this arrangement, all organizations, Indigenous
Peoples umbrella organizations, NGO's with ECOSOC status, etc. will
receive one secondary pass that they will have to rotate and share among
its members.
Option 2• A number of passes are provided to
each Caucus (limited to 20 - 30 passes per Caucus) and the remaining passes are
given out by the Secretariat in the UN lobby on a first come first serve basis.
We also note that it is necessary for the
UNPFII Secretariat to provide passes for admittance to academics,
parliamentarians, human rights commissioners and others.
Regarding the Side Events Passes, you have
stated the following.
1• These passes are given to the organizers of
the side events to distribute; or
2• As per previous practice, half of the passes
are given to the organizers and the rest are distributed by the Secretariat
staff in the UN lobby on a first come first serve basis.
As you are aware, the UNPFII is a forum created
from Indigenous People's aspirations and very hard work and has been
almost 40 years in the making, from the gathering in Geneva, Switzerland
of Indigenous leaders of the Western Hemisphere (1977), to the Working
Group on Indigenous Populations (1982) and now the UN Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues (2001) whose name we suggest should be replaced with the
title the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous delegates
are now, unfortunately being advised to limit their participation in a forum
where they feel a great deal of ownership.
The Haudenosaunee have been one of the
originators of this international UN process for Indigenous Peoples. From the
very beginning of this work we have been clear about our status as sovereign
nations. We are not a Confederacy of Non Governmental organizations, we
are a Confederacy of nations and conduct ourselves as sovereign nations on a
daily basis. We would be happy to pursue this discussion further with you,
as well as the current title of the UNPFII on our traditional territories if
you are available for such a discussion.
Indigenous Peoples need to participate in the
Permanent Forum fully and effectively to make our voices heard and our issues
recognized. Indigenous Peoples must fulfill our responsibility to our
respective nations and communities who have each incurred great expense in
valuable resources and preparation for this most important meeting.
We note the challenge you are having for
obtaining meeting space for such a large gathering. We also note that from the
first session of the UNPFII in 2001 to now, the UNPFII has been the
largest attended session of any other United Nations meeting, with close
to 2,000 Indigenous Peoples delegates attending each year and currently
460 organizations are registered for the 11th session promising to be
once again fully attended. Indigenous Peoples register to attend the
UNPFII each year in good faith with the understanding that their approval to
attend by UN authorities assures their admittance.
This successful forum generates a large
attendance from not only Indigenous Peoples but also member nations, UN
agencies, inter-govenmental organizations, academics, parliamentarians and
human rights experts and others who all wish to participate. We are pleased
with their interest in our issues and anticipate their full support.
Before our leaders, Chiefs, Faithkeepers and
Clan mothers attend an international meeting full consultation is conducted.
There are protocols that must be observed. International meetings are rarely
attended by one Haudenosaunee delegate. Our delegations always includes
individuals with specific duties and responsibilities to support the work of
our leadership.
We believe that UN member nations would agree
that it is difficult to complete this international work without a full
delegation present. Therefore, the two options that are being proposed by your
honorable office would limit the contributions the Haudenosaunee are able to
make each UNPFII session.
A possible consideration would be to have a
live feed of all the UNPFII sessions to an adjoining conference room to assure
full inclusion of Indigenous delegates. We would also respectfully request
the Secretariat to send out your presentations to the members of the
Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus prior to the caucus meeting so that our
limited time together can be allocated for a question and answer format.
We deeply appreciate your attention to our
concerns and comments and request that you forward our communication to you to
all the members of the UNPFII. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as
possible. I can be reached via this sending e-mail address, and
also via my cell phone: (315)
952-2712.
Dawnaytoh,
Tadodaho, Sidney Hill
Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) Confederacy
2303 State Route 11A
Lafayette, NY 13084
315-952-2712
blyons13120@yahoo.com
