Meeting prep: UNPFII 12

Twelfth Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
20-31 May 2013 (UN Headquarters, New York)

This session is marking a review year. The Forum will follow-up on its recommendations regarding health, education and culture; will hold a half-day discussion on the African region; will hold its comprehensive dialogue with UN agencies and funds, as well as with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; will discuss the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples; and will address issues related to the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The meeting will address a number of reports of relevance to TK, including: the report of the International Expert Group Meeting on “indigenous youth: identity, challenges and hope”; the report of the Inter-Agency Support Group Meeting on Indigenous Peoples; a study on resilience, traditional knowledge and capacity building for pastoralist communities in Africa; a study on engaging indigenous peoples more inclusively in the process of disaster risk reduction by respecting their linguistic and cultural practices; a consolidated report on extractive industries and their impact on indigenous peoples; and a study on how the knowledge, history and contemporary social circumstances of indigenous peoples are embedded in educational curricula. Visit the meeting’s website … View the meeting’s documents … Visit the meeting’s PaperSmart page …

 

Meeting review: Arctic Preparatory Meeting for the WCIP 2014

Arctic Preparatory Meeting for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples 2014
23-24 October 2012 (Nuuk, Greenland)

In preparation for the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, representatives of Inuit and Sami peoples met and issued the Nuuk Declaration. In the declaration, they urge for action-oriented outcomes of the World Conference. They reaffirm that traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources are integral parts of indigenous peoples’ right to cultures, livelihoods and identities, and contribute to sustainable development in indigenous territories; emphasize that indigenous languages constitute core elements of their cultures; and call for establishing a voluntary international mechanism to receive and consider communications from indigenous peoples regarding violation of their rights to territories, lands and resources, and their right to self-determination, in order to achieve the UNDRIP’s objectives. The declaration then addresses: indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination; indigenous peoples’ rights to territories, lands, waters, resources and traditional livelihoods; extractive industries; an optional protocol to UNDRIP, to be developed by the UNPFII, outlining a proposed structure and mandate for an international mechanism tasked with overseeing the implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, waters, coastal seas and other resources, and indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, based on communications submitted by States or by indigenous peoples; further measures for the implementation of rights of indigenous peoples; culture, language, education and health; indigenous peoples’ cross-border rights; and the UN system and international cooperation. Download the declaration [pdf] … Other preparatory meetings for the World Conference …

 

This week in review … Article focuses on Russia’s dying indigenous languages

Russia’s indigenous languages at risk of dying out
Russia beyond the headlines, 17 March 2013

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Around 250 languages are spoken in Russia, including Russian, which is spoken by some 150 million people. Russian, along with several Turkic-based languages, is doing fine. However, the linguistic situation for many lost tribes and Small Indigenous People in Russia is far more uncertain. Read the article …

 

This week in review … UN Expert on minority issues publishes study on languages

Thousands of minority languages threatened by assimilation, conflict and forced displacement – UN expert
OHCHR release, 12 March 2013

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND:  The UN Independent Expert on minority issues Rita Izsák warned that half of the world’s estimated 6,000 plus languages will likely die out by the end of the century, and urged world governments to take significant and urgent efforts to protect both minority communities and their language heritage. “Some groups are vulnerable to factors beyond their control, such as policies of assimilation that promote dominant national or official languages, the impact of conflict, or forced displacement from their traditional lands,” Ms. Izsák said during the presentation of her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council. “Some countries have aggressively promoted a single national language as a means of reinforcing sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity.” “Language is a central element and expression of identity and of key importance in the preservation of group identity,” she underlined. “Language is particularly important to linguistic minority communities seeking to maintain their distinct group and cultural identity, sometimes under conditions of marginalization, exclusion and discrimination.” In her view, protection of linguistic minority rights is a human rights obligation and an essential component of good governance, efforts to prevent tensions and conflict, and the construction of equal and politically and socially stable societies.
In her report, Ms. Izsák analyses various threats to the existence of minority languages and linguistic minorities, the importance of recognition of minority languages and linguistic rights, the use of minority languages in public life, education, in the media, in public administration and judicial fields, minority-language use in names, place names and public signs, participation in economic and political life and the need for provisions of information and services in minority languages. Read the release … Download the report [pdf] …

 

This week in review … National Geographic article comments on native languages

Silent Plains … The fading sounds of native languages
Frederic Briand
National Geographic News Watch, 28 February 2013

LONDON, UK: In this article, Frederic Briand of The Mediterranean Science Commission comments on the loss of linguistic and biological diversity and the parallels between them. He notes that “For each time a native language dies out, it is a distinct universe of mental constructs, with unique ecological wisdom acquired through millennia of direct contact with nature, which is lost. Gone is the refined Cheyenne technique of prairie management by fire in the dry mid-summers, almost gone the mysterious understanding of Namibian savanna animals by !Kung San hunters, and highly endangered the immense knowledge of the sea and its resources inherited by traditional fishing peoples from Oceania to the Arctic.” Read the article …

 

This week in review … BBC reports on revival of indigenous language in Australia

Lost indigenous language revived in Australia
BBC News, 22 January 2013

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: The Kaurna language once thrived and was spoken by the original inhabitants of Adelaide. But it began to disappear from daily use in South Australia as early as the 1860s. Ivaritji, an elder who was thought to be the last fluent speaker of Kaurna, died in the late 1920s. More than 80 years later, its unique sounds have been brought back to life. To restore this ancient tongue, researchers trawled through historical archives produced by religious groups and colonial officials to bring it back from the dead. “It is about self-identity and cultural identity as well,” explained Vincent “Jack” Buckskin, who runs evening courses for both Aboriginal and non-indigenous students. Read the article …

 

Resource: Australian Human Rights Commission’s Guide to UNDRIP

Community Guide to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010 | ISBN: 978-1-921449-17-8

This guide is intended to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia to learn about the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and discover how the rights outlined in it can be used in everyday life. It is divided into parts to reflect the key themes of the Declaration. It outlines and provides details on the rights enshrined in the Declaration; includes brief case studies on how certain rights are currently being used in Australia; and provides suggestions on how the Declaration could be used to address issues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. Access the guide …

 

Funding opportunity: Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations

Call for applications
OHCHR, December 2012

The deadline to submit applications to attend the 23rd session of the Human Rights Council, the 16th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group, as well as the sessions of treaty bodies taking place in Geneva between April and June 2013 (50th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 50th session of the Committee against Torture, 18th session of the Committee on Migrant Workers and 9th session of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) is 10 January 2013. Download the call [doc] … Further information on the fund …