THIRTEENTH
SESSION OF THE
UNITED
NATIONS PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES
May 12
To 23, 2014
UN
Headquarters, New York
STATEMENT
OF THE
NORTH
AMERICAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ CAUCUS
Agenda Item 6: UN High Level
Plenary Meeting that is not a World Conference on Indigenous Peoples
Thank you Madame Chair. As
co-chair, I am honored to give this statement on behalf of the North American
Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus. The North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus
(NAIPC) met on March 1st and 2nd, 2014 at Thompson Rivers
University, in the traditional territory of the Secwepemcúľcw Nation. The
meeting was hosted by the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and Neskonlith Indian
Band. The NAIPC meeting was attended by
over 90 representatives from 41 Indigenous Peoples’ Nations and organizations.
AGENDA
ITEM 6: Discussion on the High Level
Plenary (HLP) To Be Known As the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (WCIP)
32. NAIPC will engage other regions and caucuses to move toward a global
consensus on the cancellation of the HLP also known as the WCIP. The following
text is the consensus position reached by the NAIPC calling for the
cancellation of the High Level Plenary Meeting (HLPM) to be known as the World
Conference on Indigenous Peoples (WCIP):
In March of
2013, at the NAIPC meeting at Sycuan, we established, through consensus,
standards of analysis and review regarding the proposed UN high-level plenary
meeting (HLPM), also known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples
(WCIP). These standards were applied by the North American delegation at the
meeting in Alta, Norway in June of 2013. The bedrock of the NAIPC position
regarding Indigenous Peoples participation in the HLPM is that participation
must be FULL and EQUAL. We decided
last March that we would revisit the question of the HLPM at the 2014 NAIPC
meeting, and decide upon any further participation in planning or participating
in the HLPM.
In the
months following the Alta meeting and in particular on February 26, 2013, the
President of the General Assembly (PGA), has made it clear in an Aide Memoir
that equal and effective participation by Indigenous Peoples WILL NOT be allowed at the HLPM. Therefore,
the NAIPC conditions that were established at Sycuan, and that were reiterated
at Alta, have not been respected and have been ignored by the PGA. Given this
chain of events, and given the short timeline between now and the scheduled
HLPM, we do not foresee our conditions for participation as equals in the HLPM being
met.
Therefore,
the NAIPC calls for the immediate cancellation of the HLPM by the UN General
Assembly. We also call on the state of
Mexico to cancel its planned technical meeting to begin drafting the outcome
document for the HLPM-WCIP; we call on the UNPFII to cancel any further
participation and additional preparatory or advisory meetings for the HLPM.
Additionally, NAIPC advances the position throughout Great Turtle Island, and to
the world's Indigenous Peoples, to call for the cancellation of the HLPM, and
to withhold any and all support and participation. We call for the withdrawal
of any support, active or tacit, for the HLPM by Indigenous Peoples anywhere in
the world.
33. By consensus
the above text was agreed upon and it was decided that the NAIPC will call for
cancellation of the HLPM and withdraw from the Global Coordinating Group of the
HLPM/WCIP. Debra Harry and Kenneth Deer, the two NAIPC representatives to the
GCG will go to New York to deliver this message to a group of states on Tuesday
March 4th, after which time the NAIPC formally withdraws from the
GCG.
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