Indigenous Peoples - excluded and discriminated

ABSTRACTS

Indigenous peoples

Who they are and their position in international law

Indigenous peoples are the guardians of the cultural diversity of the earth. Their wealth consists in the many languages and cultures, the wisdom of their religions and their relationship with nature. There are today some 350 to 400 million people belonging to the approximately 5,000 indigenous peoples in 75 countries. In the past three decades the situation of the indigenous peoples in international law has changed fundamentally. The establishment of the UN Working Group for Indigenous Populations was an important milestone in 1983, like the creation of a UN Special Correspondent for Indigenous Affairs, and the creation of a Permanent Forum for Indigenous Affairs during the first UN decade for the indigenous peoples of the world 1994 to 2004. January 2005 saw the beginning of the second decade. The Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was passed by the UN-Human Rights Council, which superseded the UN-Human Rights Commission at its first meeting in June 2006, and passed on to the UN Plenary Session for the final vote. The Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has also great importance as an instrument of international law for the human rights of indigenous peoples. In Germany the Society for Threatened Peoples as a member of the coordination group ILO 169 has been working for the ratification of the Convention by the German government. Apart from the Convention ILO 169 however these mechanisms are merely expressions of intent of the states towards their own indigenous inhabitants.

Siberia

The wealth of Russia- A curse for the Russian indigenous population

Siberia is the treasure-chest of the Russian Federation. Apart from mineral oil and natural gas, gold, diamonds, silver, copper and other resources are mined here. It is also the home of the indigenous people of Russia, who with less than 50,000 members each from 43 peoples make up a population of about 200,000. The ruthless extraction of oil and gas by the Soviets and since the political change of system increasingly by the foreign companies has led to serious environmental damage, above all in West Siberia, the centre of the Russian oil industry. This is the home of the Khanty, Mansi and Nenets. Their life expectation lies about ten years below the Russian average. In their republic more than ten rivers and streams are contaminated. The burning off of excess gases over many decades has contaminated the air to such an extent that cancer and respiratory illnesses are now widespread. Unemployment among the indigenous people is extremely high, with the consequence of criminality and alcoholism. Germany is one of the main importers of Russian oil and gas. 30% of the oil and 38% of the gas used there come from Russia, especially from West Siberia. When the Baltic Sea pipeline, whose managing director is former German premier Gerhard Schroeder, is completed the share of gas could increase to over 60%. In order to be able to exploit the country more effectively from a commercial point of view land, water and forests will be privatised. This presents the indigenous people with new problems. New mining projects open up regions which were formerly less industrialised, such as the islands of Sachalin and Kamchatka in the far north-east of the Russian Federation. Although the rights of the indigenous groups are partially anchored in the constitution, these are not implemented at the regional level. The ILO Convention 169 has not so far been signed by Russia, although the indigenous NGO RAIPON has called for this for a long time.

Finland

Sámi Reindeer breeders demand landrights and the protection of their traditional ways of life

The 7,000 Sámi who live within the Finish borders hope that the Finish government will this year find a legal solution to the question of land rights, which has long been controversial, and will ratify at the same time the ILO Convention 169. With the massive deforestation of the old forests in the north of the country by the state timber industry Finland has since the beginning of the nineties disregarded the culture and the traditional land use of the Sámi. It is particularly the Sámi reindeer breeding which is dependent on the intact habitat forest. In the autumn of 2005 the Finish government stopped the logging in the Inari region on the recommendation of the UN Human Rights Commission following the request for help from three Sámi to this body. Nothing other than the constitutional recognition of their rights can provide real protection for the Sámi, their culture and means of supporting themselves.

Canada

The Lubicron Cree Nation - the guilty conscience of Canada

The Cree of the Lubicon Lake, who number today about 500, in the Canadian province of Alberta, are in danger of finally losing their land and their way of life. Although the negotiations between them and the government of the province and of the federal government in Ottawa have by no means been completed, Alberta is already issuing licences for part of the controversial land to be exploited. The Lubicon have made no land rights agreements with the state, for when in 1899 Canadian officials travelled through the land to make treaties with the First Nations, the native peoples of Canada, they were quite simply overlooked. Forty years later they were "discovered” and they were promised a reservation, which they have never received. In 1979 mineral oil was discovered in the north of Alberta. The province became the "Oil dorado” of Canada. However the supply is now gradually running out so now the large-scale exploitation planned is that of the tar sand reserves lying deep under the land of the Lubicon. For this reason procedures will be needed requiring a great deal of land, energy and water.

USA

The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge is in danger

For the roughly 7,000 Gwich’in Indians in Alaska the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is holy, for here the cows of the roughly 152,000 heads strong Porcupine Caribou Herd give birth to bear their young and rear them. "We Gwich’in are caribou people", says Sarah James, their spokesperson. "The porcupine herd is part of our language, our songs and stories.” Home of the Gwich’in are 15 villages lying south of the Brooks Mountain Range along the trail of the porcupine herd in the north-east of Alaska and the north-west of Canada. The Gwich’in Darius Kassi says: "Our whole life revolves around the caribou. It provides us with more than 80 percent of our food." For this reason the Gwich’in call the ANWR "Izhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit" - "the place where all life begins". For the US government of George W. Bush the ANWR, more specifically "Area 1002" in the north, has become the object of a bitter tug-of-war, for while Democrats, environmentalists and of course the Gwich’in want at all events to keep it as a protected area, the opening of the ANWR for the oil industry is for the government and a majority of the Republican Party a matter of the national interest. President Bush wants to use the oil from the ANWR and other domestic sources to secure the independence of the USA from oil imports from the Near East or Venezuela and to lower the price of petrol. But for this purpose the amount of oil in the ANWR is much too small. And since it would take at least ten years for the first drop of oil to reach US American gas-stations the exploitation of these reserves would have no effect on present-day prices.

Mexico

Plan Puebla Panama and the NAFTA Free Trade Area threaten the indigenous peoples’ survival

The more than 56 peoples of Mexico with a population of some 10 million are faced throughout the country with a new dimension of expropriation. With the land they lose also the natural resources. Basic needs such as water and land are not fulfilled while the government - particularly in the Puebla-Panama Plan - concentrates on the exploitation of the biodiversity, mining projects, cheap labour factories, oil mining, road-building and dams. In many areas their means of subsistence are taken away from the indigenous people and further expropriation of land takes place together with expulsion. Instead of implementing the "Agreement on Indigenous Rights and Culture” of San Andrés reached 10 years ago the indigenous rights are being systematically violated. When the people defend themselves the state replies with repression, above all with military presence in the indigenous regions.

Ecuador

The Huaorani are overrun by logging and oil extracting companies

The approx. 2,500 Huaorani live in a part of the Ecuadorian rain forest which overlaps the world-famous Yasuní-National Park. On account of the very great diversity of its fauna and flora the Yasuní was declared a national park in 1979 already. In 1989 the UNESCO declared the park a biosphere reserve. Some Huaorani groups like the Tagaeri and Taromenanes live in voluntary isolation and refuse all contact with the outside world. The Huaorani are now being overrun by an invasion of illegal timber companies and trans-national corporations like the Brazilian Petrobas and the Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF. The exploitation of timber, oil and other resources has been accompanied by massacres which have so far gone unpunished. Wherever the Huaorani go through their traditional rain forest area in the Yasuní National Park and nearby to hunt and collect, to fish or farm the land, they come today across drill-holes, contaminated rivers, roads and cleared forest. Illegal tree-fellers cut down the trees, trans-national and national oil companies divide up the area into blocks, which they then exploit. The Spanish-Argentine firm Repsol YPF is in Block 16, the French Perenco in Block 7 and 21, agip from Italy in Block 10, the Brazilian Petrobas in Block 31 and Andes Petroleum, consisting of the Chinese state company CNPC and Sinopec, in Block 17. The Ecuadorian companies Tecpecuador and Petroecuador took over in May 2006 Block 15 from the US American Occidental. The Ecuadorian government is also looking for investors for a new block, called ITT (Ishpingo-Tapococha-Tiputini) in the east of the Yasuní Park. The Ecuadorian military is safeguarding the oil wells and shows resolute reactions in cases of protests against the oil drilling and pollution of the ecosystem.

Brazil

Indigenous peoples are fighting for the recognition of their land rights

"Indigenous peoples feel abandoned and persecuted by public authorities: on one hand there is a total lack of dialogue with the Government, and on the other hand a conflictual relationship with FUNAI. The President of FUNAI asserts that the trusteeship regime still exists, in blatant violation of the law, makes discriminatory statements against the Indians, decides who is Indian and who is not in violation of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), and does not provide the assistance required. Finally, the police threaten and kill leaders and members of the Indigenous communities and the judiciary largely keeps guaranteeing the impunity of the police, while criminalizing the actions of Indian leaders”, said the report of the UN special rapporteur on racism, race discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination, Doudou Diéne, in October 2005 when he carried out a journey through the country. The ILO is a member organisation of the UNO. Its Convention 169 is the only instrument of international law guaranteeing the rights of indigenous peoples. The situation of the indigenous peoples of Brazil, who in 235 groups number more than 730,000 persons, remains catastrophic. Poverty and the theft of land have driven more than half of them into the slums of the city centres. With reference to the population of Brazil as a whole 15.5% live in extreme poverty, while among the indigenous population the proportion is 38% (figures from the most recent survey made by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics of 2000).

Chile

Mapuche without rights

The Mapuche, who with 1.3 million people make up almost ten percent of the 15.8 million inhabitants of Chile, are fighting for their land. The indigenous people had used their forests communally and carefully for centuries until at the end of the 19th century with the emergence of the states of Chile and Argentina their territory was divided up into more than 3,000 small reservations. Through the land reform under the government of Salvador Allende (1970 - 1973) the Indians did in fact get back 700,000 hectares. However after the seizure of power by the dictator Augusto Pinochet they were mostly once more dispossessed. The land was taken over by large landowners, often forestry companies, planting in the tropical forest eucalyptus and conifers for the cellulose industry. The result has been erosion and the sinking of the water-table. Mapuche who defend themselves against the theft of land are criminalised. Some of their spokespeople have been sentenced to high fines and long terms in prison in accordance with the controversial Anti-terrorism Law (Ley 18.314). Michelle Bachelet, who was elected President of Chile in January 2006, announced in her election campaign that the improvement in the situation of the indigenous peoples of Chile would be one of her principal tasks. But neither has she done anything so far to abolish the Anti-terrorism Law, which is vigorously criticised by human rights experts, nor has she even provided the possibility of early release on probation, nor has she provided the native peoples of Chile at long last with basic rights and a place in the Constitution by ratifying the Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation.

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Central Africa

The pygmies are seen and treated as "sub-humans”

250,000 people ion the Central African countries are disparagingly called "pygmies”. They live inside the boundaries of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo, of the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Since the massive deforestation programmes in the forests where they had spent a semi-nomadic existence for thousands of years as hunter-gatherers the "pygmies” have been robbed of their habitat and driven out. In the majority societies they are seen as "sub-humans”, exploited and discriminated by them. They are also totally ignored in many fields, e.g. those of health and schooling. Being the poorest and most vulnerable social groups they are particularly exposed to violence and war. Many governments do not even recognize "pygmies” as citizens.

Mali and Niger

Nomads in Africa are starving

3,5 Million Tuareg and Peul Nomads live in Niger and Mali. Periodic famines, overgrazing, destruction of their herds, conflicts with peasants over land and grazing rights, marginalization and lack of support by the authorities threaten the survival of the nomadic societies. Tens of thousands of Tuareg and Peulh nomads found themselves after the famine of the summer of 2005 left with nothing. In several parts of Niger 80 percent of their animals had either died as a result of the drought or had to be slaughtered. Particularly decimated were the herds of sheep, which made up the greater part of their stock of animals. For the sheep as ruminates perished miserably since they ate with the grass, which was very short, also sand, which they cannot stomach. More resistant were by contrast the herds of camels and goats. The forced slaughter of many animals led to a drop in prices on the cattle markets, with the result that the nomads could not from the meagre proceeds buy sufficient food for the months ahead. For on the markets the prices for millet and other foodstuffs had risen drastically as a result of the scanty supply and through speculation

Australia

Howard government continues the tutelage of the aborigines

The majority of the approximately 500,000 indigenous people of Australia, i.e. the Aborigines and Torres Straits Islanders are being forced increasingly by the present government’s policies into the role of supplicants, who are living on the edge of the white dominated society in an alarming social situation. Their everyday life is characterised by health problems, addiction and domestic violence. Alcoholism and sniffing of petrol or glue are widespread. Life expectation lies 17 years below that of the majority society. They lack education and employment. Racism towards the native people is also reflected in an over-proportionate share of indigenous inmates in the prisons and in conflicts concerning uranium mining and other economic uses of the land, which is for them of central religious importance. The action of the state against the identity, self-representation, their own institutions and political self-determination of the indigenous Australians in 2005 with the dissolution of the semi-official indigenous self-government organ "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission” (ATSIC) reached a new climax. For 15 years the Aboriginal Australians had with the ATSIC a self-governed political organ. Many aborigines themselves saw the need for reform in the ATSIC, but instead of taking with them the necessary steps towards its reconstitution the government quite simply abolished the Commission.

India

The indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar islands threatened by extinction

Indigenous peoples on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands live on an archipelago in the Indian Ocean with more than 500 islands which are adminstered by India. Only 36 islands are inhabited. Among the indigenous inhabitants are some particularly remote groups of often no more than a few dozen people (51 Andamans, 322 Jarawa, 99 Onge, 389 Shomps, 100 Sentinelese), which are seen as the peoples most threatened in the world. On account of the threat these groups are under the special protection of India and the law forbids any contact with them from the outside. And then on the island group of the Nicobars there are about 30,000 Nicobars, who are certainly indigenous people, but who maintain a lively contact with the immigrants coming from India. When in the spring of 2006 an epidemic of measles broke out among the 322 Jarawa it became clear how little is in fact being done for the survival of this ethnic group, which is 60,000 years old. For weeks the authorities ignored all warnings of aid organisations and human rights workers and played down the extent of the epidemic. The Jarawa who were admitted to hospital suffered from "heat blisters” according to the dry explanation of the Indian authorities. It was only when doctors confirmed that it was really a matter of measles that India in May 2006 sent a doctor to the indigenous people, who were threatened with extinction. In the meantime more than 50 children have been admitted to hospital with symptoms of measles

Malaysia

The Penan defend themselves against the chopping down of the forests

With blockade campaigns against tree-fellers the indigenous inhabitants of the Penan have been defending themselves against the destruction of their habitat in the Malaysian province of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. A great part of the tropical forest has already been cut down in the past 15 years. Today only a small number of the approximately 10,000 Penan are still living as semi-nomads. Most of the indigenous people have now settled down on account of the continuing destruction of the rain-forest because their habitat was continuing to decrease in size. But apart from the Penan, who are well-known in Europe, there are other indigenous peoples like the Punan, who number some 5,000 and who still live today as semi-nomads in Sarawak.

Vietnam

Discrimination and persecution of Vietnam’s native people continue

The 53 ethnic minorities of Vietnam account today for some 12 million people. Some of these ethnic groups like the Odu comprise only 200 people, others, like the Tay have more than 1.5 million. Three quarters of these ethnic communities which do not belong to the majority group of the Kinh live today fairly remotely in the mountainous region of north-west or central Vietnam. Since most of these indigenous communities live in mountainous areas they have been called since the days of French colonialism "Montagnards”, i.e. mountain people. They often differ very considerably in their languages, culture and traditions. But in spite of their very rich culture they are often written off by the majority as under-developed” savages” (moi). As a result of the migration of millions of people from the plains into their regions they are constantly being pushed back into more barren land. More than ten million people have been moved by the state into their territory or have settled of their own accord in the mountainous area. The montagnards accounted in 1940 for 99 percent of the population in the region, but today they make up barely 30 percent of the total population in the highlands.The coffee boom has tempted since 1996 more than 400,000 members of the majority population to settle in the Dak Lak province. The farmers who traditionally lived from the subsistence economy are steadily being driven out by the new settlers from the plains, who take over the most fertile tracts. For with the support of the World Bank and the international donor countries Vietnam has since the nineties been expanding agricultural production for export and setting up huge plantations for coffee, cashew-nuts and pepper.

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