Gov’t not ready to ratify UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Apr 23, 2009 News

Groups representing indigenous people of Guyana and the Amazon fear that climate change is superseding the guarantee of actions towards ensuring the rights of the indigenous people.
Trevor Stevenson, Executive Director of the Amazon Alliance, is one of those who support this view. He was in Guyana last week for the meeting of indigenous leaders of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
Stevenson insists that while the Guyana Government is among those making bold efforts in the fight against climate change, it is failing when it comes to the rights of indigenous peoples.
Amazon Alliance supports the ecological and cultural vitality of Amazonia by ensuring that representative organisations of the region’s indigenous peoples have voice and power in all processes affecting their lands and communities. Founded in 1990, the Amazon Alliance is a unique vehicle for confronting environmental and cultural degradation in Amazonia.
It was Stevenson who questioned President Bharrat Jagdeo about the government’s willingness to ratify the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.
The President indicated that his government was not yet ready to do so, but could change its position if some issues can be resolved. He did not specify what reservations the government had with the convention.
Stevenson said while goodwill exists on the part of the government, historic systems are failing the indigenous people, as issues such as land rights and unregulated mining still continue to be sore issues for many Amerindian communities.
Referring o the past neglect of the Amerindians, President Jagdeo said, ”Part of it has to do with policy and a lot of it has to do location because many of them live in the hinterland location far from the coast; so what we have sought to do over the years was try to correct some elements of that disparity. Every community has access to a school, they have a health hut, and almost in everyone of these communities we have health workers who are being paid by the government.”
Mr Jagdeo also trumped up Government’s efforts to ensure the rights of indigenous people. He pointed to the fact that of the “Rights” commissions to be set up, the Indigenous People’s Commission is the only Commission designed to address the rights of one particular ethnic group.
He also made reference to the Amerindian Act. “We are one of the few countries that have actually come forward with sub-surface rights because they mainly had the right to use the land, the forest, to hunt and fish traditionally … But this Act (New Amerindian Act) has now given them a veto power, the community over small and medium scale mining. If they agree to do that on their land then they have to be paid a tribute.
“Supposing you found a huge deposit of uranium or something there you have to do it in consultation with the community. They have to benefit also from it, so that is how that Amerindian Act had dealt with the issue of mining.”
On the issue of land claims, the President noted that since his government got into office in 1992, the percentage has moved from about seven percent to 13 percent, and more claims are being processed.
“We are hoping that it will exceed some 20 percent of the land, that is titled land, that they will have all of these rights come forward on the communities. It is a bit difficult now because of its cost. I was told that it costs $250,000 to demarcate, sometimes, one community,… so funding is an issue now but I think because of the commitment we made we have to find the money to complete the demarcation, that includes land traditional plus requests for new lands, and expansion.” The non-binding declaration on the rights of the world’s more than 370 million indigenous peoples was adopted by the United Nations in September 2007.
Australia, one of four countries which rejected the declaration, recently reversed its position.

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