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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: UN system
Paragraph Number: 82
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum recommends that the themes for the round tables of the World Conference be decided by Member States and indigenous peoples through the preparatory processes. The Declaration provides a substantial framework for the development of the focus of the World Conference.
Area of Work: Methods of Work
Addressee: Member States, WIPO
Paragraph Number: 52
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
Consistent with article 18 of the Declaration, the Permanent Forum requests Member States to explore and establish modalities to ensure the equal, full and direct participation of indigenous peoples in all negotiations of the Intergovernmental Committee.
Area of Work: Traditional Knowledge
