Welcome to the United Nations
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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
Addressee: Member States and UN Agencies, Permanent Forum, Special Rapporteur and the Expert Mechanism
Paragraph Number: 136
Session: 18 (2019)
Full Text:
It is stated in article 4 of the Declaration that “Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means of financing their autonomous functions”. The Permanent Forum welcomes the international seminar to assess the global status and trends with regard to indigenous autonomies, held in Mexico City in March 2019, which was organized by the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. The Forum calls upon States and United Nations entities to continue to discuss these issues in each region. The Forum also encourages the convening of a global conference on the state of indigenous autonomies by the three United Nations mechanisms on the rights of indigenous peoples (i.e., the Forum, the Special Rapporteur and the Expert Mechanism) and invites Member States to host the event.
Area of Work: Human rights, Autonomy and Self-determination
Paragraph Number: 136
Session: 7 (2008)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum requests that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people identify the actions of transnational corporations that may breach the inherent rights detailed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and invites them to present a joint report to the Permanent Forum at its eighth session in 2009.
Area of Work: Human rights
