wfn.org | WCC release: Indigenous Peoples

[smm@wcc-coe.org]

World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
28 August, 1996

       DON'T DOMESTICATE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES WCC TELLS UN

Governments must accept that Indigenous Peoples are the ones to
set the agenda for initiatives designed to change centuries of
oppression and exploitation.  However, Indigenous Peoples often
find themselves invited at a late stage "to discuss already
formulated policies" and this amounts to "domestication".

That was the message given in a World Council of Churches' (WCC)
oral intervention to the Sub-Commission on Human Rights in Geneva
this week, following the publication of the latest report by the
UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

Bishop Eugenio Anaguaya Poma from Bolivia spoke on behalf of the
WCC where he is a Consultant on Indigenous Peoples Issues. 
Bishop Poma, who is a member of the Aymara nation, addressed his
remarks to the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities.

Poma gave examples of how "domestication" is currently at work -
examples which show how the thinking of Indigenous Peoples is
often disregarded.

Requests for the UN Working Group  to be renamed the 'Working
Group on Indigenous Peoples' have been rejected.  So, the "right
to name themselves" has been denied to Indigenous Peoples.

Current UN plans for an International Day of the World's
Indigenous Peoples do not respect "Indigenous processes for
collective decision making".

Bishop Poma said the WCC welcomed the Working Group's call for
the Human Genome Diversity Programme to be halted until all
affected Indigenous Peoples are informed and consent to the
project.  The

programme, in which human cell lines and tissues are collected by
the bio-technology industry, academic researchers and
governments, has enormous ethical, commercial and military
implications, and "is yet another example of the inadequacies of
consultative processes with Indigenous Peoples that exploit
Indigenous Peoples' resources, human or otherwise"

Poma also told the UN that the WCC endorsed the Working Group's
call for a special rapporteur to conduct a full study of the
problem of the recognition of, and respect for, Indigenous land
rights. However, he added, the study should be "conducted in
meaningful consultation with Indigenous People" who should set
its parameters.

Throughout his intervention Bishop Poma repeatedly referred to
ways in which Indigenous Peoples had been colonised. He
concluded: "Indigenous Peoples cannot tear down the wall of
colonisation by themselves.  They are pushing but states still
seek to maintain the status quo. The decolonisation process
begins with state acceptance that the alternatives offered by
Indigenous Peoples are legitimate and can replace this status
quo.  States still perpetuate the domestication of Indigenous
Peoples by inviting us into councils to discuss already
formulated policies which we can affect only minimally with
little overall change."

World Council of Churches
Press and Information Office
Tel:  (41.22) 791.61.52/51
Fax:  (41.22) 798 13 46
E-Mail: jwn@wcc-coe.org

P.O. Box 2100
CH-1211 Geneva 2