THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
19 May, 2014
Excellency,
I wish to again bring to your urgent attention Operative
Paragraph 9 of General Assembly Resolution 66/926, on "Organization of the
high-level plenary meeting of the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly,
to be known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples." In the said
paragraph, the Assembly decided that, "...the World Conference shall
result in a concise, action-oriented outcome document, and requests the
President of the General Assembly to prepare a draft text, on the basis of
consultations with Member States and indigenous peoples ..."
You will undoubtedly recall the various proposals from
Member States which my Office submitted for the collective consideration of the
Assembly, in order to arrive at an agreed basis for the consultations called
for in the aforementioned paragraph. None of these proposals has garnered
consensus among the membership.
In view of shortness of time and the need for the mandated
consultations to take place early enough to give Member States sufficient time
to consider a draft outcome text, I am pleased to submit the following proposal
for the consideration of the entire membership of the Assembly. This proposal
was initially shared with the Chairs of the Regional Groups, as well as the two
Ambassadorial Advisors from Member States, and one of the nominated Advisors
from the Indigenous Peoples, whom I have identified to assist me in the
consultations.
The proposal, which will be shared with all stakeholders, is
as follows:
I will convene, and personally preside over, an open and
inclusive consultation with Member States and with representatives of the
Indigenous peoples. At the consultation,
I will be assisted by the two Ambassadorial Advisers and the two Advisers
nominated by the Indigenous Peoples.
During the consultation, I will invite Member States to share
with me their ideas as to what should be the content of the Outcome Document. I
will invite the Indigenous peoples to do the same.
Following the consultation, I will prepare a zero draft of
an Outcome Document. The aforementioned Advisers will assist me with this
effort. The resulting draft document will be shared with Member States, as well
as with the Indigenous Peoples for their consideration.
A subsequent follow-up consultation will be held to enable
Member States and representatives of the Indigenous Peoples to share their
views on the zero draft. On the basis of these views, and with the assistance
of the Advisers, a revised draft document will be prepared that I hope will be
a fair reflection of the views and will be the basis for moving forward with
the negotiations.
I sincerely hope that this proposal meets with your
acceptance and allows us to finally move this much-delayed process forward.
If my Office does not receive any objections by 6:00 p.m. on
Tuesday, 20 May, I will consider the proposal accepted and will subsequently
notify you of the date of the first consultation, which l hope will be on or
before Thursday, 29 May.
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest
consideration.
John W. Ashe
*************
All Member States
and Permanent Observers to the United
Nations
