Tuesday, May 20, 2014

STATEMENT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ CAUCUS


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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