NPMHR welcomes recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights
DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 16 (MExN): Welcoming the recent adoption of the declaration on rights of indigenous peoples by the United Nations General Assembly, the Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights today stated that the predominant debates on ‘territorial integrity’ and ‘self-determination’, though still continuing, will now be more “unpalatable” for “rogue states” to exercise the iron hand because of the acknowledgment of the existence of equal rights of indigenous peoples both in terms of the individual and collective.
“The state parties which form the formal membership of the United Nations have in the past bulldozed the so called populations within its respective territories under the screen of national security and greed sought to control and exploit the resources within their unit state, ignoring the peoples right and ownership of land, resource and culture leading to ethnocide, environmental degradation and genocide,” NPMHR Convener, Nagaland, Atoho Kiho read from a written statement during a press conference today. “Thus their opposition to the indigenous peoples claiming their collective rights to self determination.”
“NPMHR believes that the struggle for dignity is a continuous process and the adoption of the UN Declaration on indigenous peoples will surely provide a cue even to the Naga struggle for self determination and attainment of our space as a nation within the international community.
“With the United Nations Second Decade on indigenous peoples under the theme ‘partnership for action and dignity’ being commemorated, Naga people must work persistently and creatively to evolve ways to use this important instrument to gain our rightful position.”
The Naga rights group has consistently advocated the need for realization of rights of indigenous peoples and was largely responsible for the formation of the Asian Indigenous Pact.
Acknowledging with “great esteem and appreciation” the contribution made by the UN General Assembly through the adoption of the declaration on September 13 last, the Naga rights group stated, “We also take this opportunity to appreciate the contribution of all state parties, experts and fellow indigenous peoples for working with much endurance in the past 23 years which finally concluded with the first international document consistent with international law.”
The ILO conventions 107 and 169 which, in the past, enumerated the standards for state in relation with indigenous and tribal peoples proved inadequate and established the inevitability of formally acknowledging the legal entity of indigenous people in the international law as reflected in the recently adopted UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.
“We acknowledge roles of the various experts especially Martinez Cobo, Erica Irene Daes, and the contribution of Special Rapporteurs in the various studies undertaken to highlight the plight of indigenous peoples.
“NPMHR has from the early phase of studies on indigenous rights, monitored and participated in the different processes pushing for the gradual adoption and acknowledgment of our position as ‘peoples’ with equal rights within the larger framework of international law and human rights treaties to ensure the just enjoyment of all human rights for all peoples across the world.”
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