Self-Determination

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is commemorated annually on 9 August. Ten years after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, progress has been made in terms of the formal recognition of Indigenous peoples in several countries, but Indigenous peoples overwhelmingly continue to face discrimination, marginalization and major challenges in enjoying their basic rights.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, says she has found an inadequate process of consultation with Indigenous communities on the part of the national government during her visit to Honduras, where she was recently invited for a working visit to comment on a draft of a law regulating Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Indigenous Hondurans do not feel that they were adequately consulted on the content of the law. Further, the law does not meet widely accepted international standards of F.P.I.C.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, discusses with IRR Producer Shaldon Ferris the high rate of imprisonment of Australian Aboriginal individuals that she observed in her official visit to Australia. Disproportionate criminalization of Aboriginal people is evidence of systemic, structural inequality in Australia.

MUSIC

Song: "YAWLICHALLAY" by Luis Cisneros. Used with permission.

Avexnim Cojti (Maya K'iche') highlights the difference between consent and consultation with the help of Joan Carling, longtime advocate for Indigenous rights and former expert member to the UNPFII, in the context of decisions made by Indigenous communities regarding resource and land management. Joan explains that consent (or refusal of consent) is given at the conclusion of a process of consultation. Consultation, defined as an open, collective deliberation, is a crucial precursor to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.

MUSIC
"Yawkuchallay," by Luis Cisneros

Article 22 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states 1. Particular attention shall be paid to the rights and special needs of Indigenous elders, women, youth, children, and persons with disabilities in the implementation of this Declaration. 2. States shall take measures, in conjunction with Indigenous peoples, to ensure that indigenous women and children enjoy the full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence and discrimination. PRODUCTION Script by Shaldon Ferris (KhoiSan) Voiceover by Morisca Christians MUSIC “Dannyco” by The Hot Shots Dance Band

Article 14 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states:
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.

2. Indigenous individuals, particularly children, have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State without discrimination.

Article 13 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states:
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.

and

Article 12 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states:
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of their ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of their human remains.

and

Article 11 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that:
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artifacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature.

and

November 25th is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Cultural Survival remembers Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman who, under Dutch colonization of her homeland, was taken captive and coerced to participate in public shows and medical examinations which relied on a falsified science of racial difference. We honor her life as a testament to the urgent necessity of having an international day when the world renews its commitment to end violence against women, especially Indigenous women and women of color.