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IACHR RAPPORTEURSHIP APPLAUDS APPROVAL OF UN DECLARATION ON RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Washington, D.C., September 18, 2007 — The Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), applauds the approval of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007.
It took more than 20 years of negotiations to finally approve an international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples. The United Nations Declaration recognizes “the urgent need to respect and promote the inherent rights of indigenous peoples which derive from their political, economic and social structures and from their cultures, spiritual traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to their lands, territories and resources.”
Paolo Carozza, the IACHR Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, believes that the UN Declaration should constitute the minimum standard in the considerations of the Working Group charged with preparing the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples within the Organization of American States (OAS), a process that began in 1989.
The IACHR Rapporteurship hopes that the recently approved UN Declaration will facilitate the prompt approval of the OAS Declaration so that the rights of indigenous peoples of the Americas can be recognized and protected.
Press contact: Tel. (202) 458-3867 Cell: (202 215-4142 E-mail: cidh-prensa@oas.org. Commission’s Website: www.iachr.org |
