German government should finally ratify ILO Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous peoples

Angela Merkel should use her participation in the historic 100th session of the UN International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva as an opportunity to finally take the long overdue step of initiating the German government's ratification of ILO Convention 169 on the rights the indigenous peoples worldwide. The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) presented this appeal to the German chancellor last week. She is expected today in Geneva and will give a speech to the ILO.

"Germany now has the chance to take a stand for the protection of the indigenous peoples who are persecuted, repressed or discriminated against in so many countries. We strongly hope that Ms. Merkel will not let this opportunity pass," says the head of the STP's Indigenous Peoples Section, Yvonne Bangert. Convention 169 is the strongest legal instrument of the UN defining a wide range of basic rights for the more than 350 million indigenous people throughout the world. Primary topics include their rights to traditional lands and the control over their natural resources, as well as autonomy, participation and democratization. Other important fundamental rights concern having their own political, commercial and social systems and the advancement of local production, social security, and access to education and healthcare.

In their Ninth Human Rights Report, released in August 2010, the German government reported that the roughly 5000 indigenous peoples in 70 countries around the world make up 4 percent of the global population. In numerous countries, they are wholly or partially denied political and social participation. "The "Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989", as ILO Convention 169 is formally known, is the only international agreement that has as its subject matter the comprehensive protection of the rights of indigenous peoples."

"Ratification of this convention has already been debated repeatedly in the Bundestag (the lower house of the German parliament), most recently on a motion from the SPD and Bündnis90/Green parties on 9 June 2011," explained Bangert. "But nothing has been done so far, even though the living conditions of indigenous peoples are directly or indirectly affected by German foreign, industrial, trade, environment and development policies." Germany should do as other industrialized nations – Spain, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands – have done and ratify Convention 169 to show that the country has officially accepted and agrees to observe the rights the indigenous peoples. To date, a total of 22 nations have ratified ILO Convention 169.