UNPFIP Network: TONATIERRA: The HLPM 2014 and the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth

Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth

The

TIME

NOW

Recommendation to the 13^th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples

12-23 May 2014 UN Headquarters New York

The UN High Level Plenary Meeting 2014

and the

Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth

Statement of Tupac Enrique Acosta, Huehuecoyotl

Callpolli Nahuacalco, Izkaloteka

In the Spirit of the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth

Good greetings to you all:

To the ancestors and the Nations of Indigenous Peoples of these territories, to the Memory and Spirit of each of the Indigenous Peoples of Tonantzin, Our Sacred Mother Earth now in attendance, to the members of the UN Permanent Forum and all the support staff at this 13^th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

A special greeting and congratulations to our Chairperson, Ms. Dalee Sambo Dorough and also a word of recognition for the deceased leaders and spiritual guides of our Nations of Indigenous Peoples who led the way in the struggle in the international arena for recognition, respect, and protection for the rights of Indigenous Peoples. We invoke their vision and strength once again here today, we call upon the leadership of Billy Frank, we call upon the strength of Tomas Banyacya, and all the others relatives of our Indigenous Peoples who acted upon the responsibility for our future in their time.

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Fundamental to the right of nationality, as members of the Nations of Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala, the Great Turtle Island which is referenced in article 6 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and evidenced unequivocally by the Treaty Status, namely international personality which was subject of the UN Treaty Study conducted by Miguel Alfonso Martinez, is the collective right of nationhood of Indigenous Peoples beyond the contextual constraints of the Westphalian system of sovereignty of states. It is a collective right, similar to how the present UN system of mutual international recognition as sovereign states provides the framework of jurisprudence for the purported jurisdiction of the states individually and then collectively at the global dimension under the dominion of the UN system, the jurisprudence which articulates the nationhood of Indigenous Peoples is also is a projection of jurisdiction at the planetary level, with mutual responsibilities towards the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth, and the well being of the Future Generations. The distinction being that our Rights of Nationhood emerge from the COGNITION, and then thus RECOGNITION, of our responsibilities as ONE of the Nations (two legged species of kindom) – among ALL of the RELATIONS to whom and with we share as human society collectively, the responsibility to act in complementarity within the equally shared environment of the Natural World.

We are Original Nations of Mother Earth, and will not consent to be diminished or to be dominated under the regime of the government states of the UN system as mere ethnic groups, or minorities.

In addressing the issue of the UN High Level Plenary Meeting 2014, it is necessary to recall and clarify the fundamental principles which provide context for the discussion.

The UN General Assembly High-level Plenary Meeting 2014 is Not a UN Conference.

“You can’t wake somebody up who is pretending to be asleep.”

The passage of UN GA1514 in 1960 marks the wakeup call to the age of decolonization in terms of the UN system. In consequence, UN GA1541 (1960) which outlined the criteria identifying “non-self governing territories” under section 73(e) of the UN charter also set the framework for the UN Decolonizing Committee which although still operational now some 54 years later, has yet to address substantively the violations of International Law in terms of the Right of Self Determination of Indigenous Peoples within the UN procedures for decolonization.

With the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, the recognition of Indigenous Peoples as Peoples, equal to all other peoples, establishes for the first time in UN protocols, including the procedures of decolonization, the mandate that all UN programs and plans of action must abide by this standard without exception and that the UN itself is honor bound to uphold the recognition, respect and protection of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other peoples.

The Alta Outcome document of 2013 proclaims unequivocally that the UN HLPM 2014 must be realized in the spirit of full and equal participation of Indigenous Peoples. Again the principle of equality in participation is in terms of equality as Peoples, equal to all other peoples.

In terms of the foregoing context, addressing the UN resolution bringing forward the call to convene in High Level Plenary Meeting and simultaneous announce that this plenary would be “known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples” the questions must be asked “By whom? And, why?”

· At this point allow me to report to this assembly of the UNPFII that when the question was asked during the deliberations of the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus conducted on the margins of this years session, “Who among us as Indigenous Peoples has given free, prior and informed consent to name the UN HLPM 2014 as a World Conference on Indigenous Peoples?” When the questioned was asked there was total silence in response and NO ONE came forward in the affirmative.

The concept of a world conference on Indigenous Peoples, when it was first introduced by the Government of Bolivia was an interesting concept. It is an interesting concept, and it will continue to be an interesting concept in the future. But unless the principles of Respect for the Right of Self Determination, Free Prior and Informed Consent, and Equality as Peoples, equal to all other peoples is firmly established in the conception, design, implementation and evaluation of such a conference the result will be what we now have before us: a pretense, a form of international peonage for the Indigenous Peoples to accommodate not a participatory agenda but one that is extractive, discriminatory and unjust.

In evaluating the UN HLPM 2014, the lack of respect and consideration to be considered in Equality as Peoples with all other Peoples in the proceedings is evident from conception, completely absent from the design, not even being considered in the implementation, and there are no mechanisms integrate equality in the evaluation of the HLPM 2014 which is not a UN conference.

The Writing is on the Wall

The HLPM is a semiotic schema (doctrine) being constructed to contextualize the process of INDIGENOUS CONSENT inside the Westphalian System of the Divine Right of States in order to subvert and domesticate the Universal Human Right in International Law of Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other peoples of the world.

We deny consent.

Instead we propose, determine and recommend:

We call for the restitution of the primary source materials and testimony that was lent to the United Nations system as fundamental to the evidence in document form of the systemic (system to system) nature of the legal relationships between the Nations of Indigenous Peoples and the member states of the UN system for the purpose of the Treaty Study conducted by Dr. Miguel Alfonso Martinez of Cuba.

Such delivery, should be initial act of good faith in terms of the continuing process of systemic documentation among the Nations of Indigenous Peoples and the UN system prior to and as a necessary act of condition to allow for the full and effective participation of the Indigenous Peoples with the UN HLMP2014 on an equal basis and without systemic discrimination in the process of producing the Final Outcome Document of the High Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly 2014.