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Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 4
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum recalls the fourth preambular paragraph of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust. Legal and political justification for the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their lands, their disenfranchisement and the abrogation of their rights such as the doctrine of discovery, the doctrine of domination, “conquest”, “discovery”, terra nullius or the Regalian doctrine were adopted by colonizers throughout the world. While these nefarious doctrines were promoted as the authority for the acquisition of the lands and territories of indigenous peoples, there were broader assumptions implicit in the doctrines, which became the basis for the assertion of authority and control over the lives of indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and resources. Indigenous peoples were constructed as “savages”, “barbarians”, “backward” and “inferior and uncivilized” by the colonizers who used such constructs to subjugate, dominate and exploit indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and resources. The Permanent Forum calls upon States to repudiate such doctrines as the basis for denying indigenous peoples’ human rights.
Area of Work: Human rights
Paragraph Number: 156
Session: 7 (2008)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum has learned from indigenous peoples’ communications, which have been corroborated by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, that in the Chaco region there are Guaraní communities in a practical state of slavery. According to the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, as well as the articles 17, 26 and 28 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Forum strongly supports the efforts of the current Government of Bolivia and the commitment of the incoming Government of Paraguay to discontinue this enslaving practice and return indigenous lands to their lawful owners, the Guaraní themselves.
Area of Work: Human rights
Addressee: UNDP
Paragraph Number: 054 (Session 9 Appendix)
Session: 8 (2009)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum urges UNDP to further strengthen the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples by choosing indigenous peoples’ organizations as their implementing partners and responsible parties in their projects involving indigenous peoples, especially those with established track records in project implementation. As a corollary to the foregoing, government agencies created to promote and protect the rights and interests of indigenous peoples should be preferred as implementing partners in UNDP programming on indigenous peoples’ issues so that they can effectively perform their mandate
Area of Work: Human rights, Economic and Social Development
