UNWGIP 1st Session Document 82-11964 - Statements by the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, Indian Law Resource Center and Draft Resolution by the International Indian Treaty Council
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DOCUMENT: 82-11964.TXT
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL Distr.
COUNCIL RESTRICTED
E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1982/R.1 Original: ENGLISH
26 August 1982 GE.82-11964 (E)
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sub-Commission on Prevention
of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities
Working Group on Indigenous Peoples
First Session
STUDY OF THE PROBLEM OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST
INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS
Documents transmitted to the Sub-Commission by the
Working Group on Indigenous Populations, together
with its report on its first session
Chairman-Rapporteur: Mr. Asbjorn Eide
CONTENTS
Page
----
1. Statement submitted by the World
Council of Indigenous Peoples.......................... 1
2. Statement submitted by the Indian
Law Resource Center.................................... 2
3. Draft Resolution submitted by the
International Indian Treaty Council.................... 4
E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1982/R.1
Page 2
STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY THE WORLD COUNCIL
OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
We respectfully ask that the Working Group include the
following in its report to the Sub-commission.
1. The Working Group on Indigenous Populations makes
reference to existing norms of international law for the
protection of indigenous populations including, without
limitation, the Charter of the United Nations; Universal
Declaration of Human Rights; International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination; Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide; Vienna Convention on the Law of
Treaties; Declaration of Principles for the Defense of the
Indigenous Nations and Peoples of the Western Hemisphere;
and the Helsinki Accords.
2. The Working Group makes specific references, and
reproduces in its report, the Principles for Guiding the
Deliberations of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations
as a comprehensive and authoritative interpretation of the
standards which should guide the Working Group in
considering information which it receives. These draft
principles address each of the concerns and illustrative
experiences discussed by the participants in the Working
Group sessions.
3. Of all the situations involving indigenous populations
which have been brought to the attention of the Working
Group, the situation involving Indian peoples of Guatemala
requires the most urgent attention. It appears that mass
killing of Indians is taking place and that the very
survival of those Indian peoples is in immediate jeopardy.
4. The Working Group urges creation of a fund to
facilitate broader participation of indigenous populations
in the sessions of the Working Group in Geneva. The Working
Group also urges consideration of means whereby Working
Group sessions could be held in places more accessible to
indigenous populations, including the possibility of
individual members of the Working Group soliciting oral and
written information in specific regions.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1982/R.1
Page 3
2. STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY THE INDIAN LAW RESOURCE CENTER
PRINCIPLES FOR GUIDING THE DELIBERATIONS OF THE
WORKING GROUP ON INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS
1. Indigenous peoples and groups shall be entitled freely
and independently to practice, develop, and perpetuate their
own religions, languages, cultures, traditions, social
systems, and ways of life.
2. Indigenous peoples and groups shall be free from any
action or course of conduct which directly or indirectly may
result in the destruction or disintegration of their
physical, cultural, or political integrity.
3. Indigenous peoples shall not be deprived of their
rights or claims to land, property, or natural resources,
without their free and informed consent. No State shall
claim or retain, by right of discovery or otherwise, the
territories of indigenous peoples, except such land as may
have been lawfully acquired by valid treaty or other cession
freely made. In no circumstances shall indigenous peoples
or group be subjected to discrimination with respect to
their rights or claims to land, property, or natural
resources.
4. Indigenous peoples shall be free from any action or
course of conduct which directly or indirectly may result in
the destruction or deterioration of land, air, water,
wildlife, habitat, or other natural resources.
5. Indigenous peoples are, in some circumstances, under a
domination which is both alien and colonial in nature.
Indigenous peoples qualify as peoples possessing a right of
self-determination; hence, indigenous peoples have the
right to self-determination, that is, to possess whatever
degree of self-government in their territories the
indigenous peoples may choose.
6. Treaties and other agreements entered into by
indigenous peoples with other States, whether denominated as
treaties or otherwise, shall be recognized and applied in
the same manner and according to the same international laws
and principles as the treaties and agreements entered into
by other States. Treaties and agreements made with
indigenous peoples shall not be subject to unilateral
abrogation. The municipal law of any State may not serve as
a defense to the failure to adhere to and perform the terms
of treaties and agreements made with indigenous peoples.
Nor shall any State refuse to recognize and adhere to
treaties or other agreements due to changed circumstances
where the change in circumstances has been substantially
caused by the State asserting that such change has occurred.
7. The rights of indigenous peoples and groups shall be
free from infringement by States, individuals, corporations,
or other entities.
8. Indigenous peoples and groups shall not be deprived of
any other rights protected by the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, other international instruments, or
international law.
These principles represent certain of their basic
rights of indigenous peoples which should guide the
deliberations of the Working Group.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1982/R.1
Page 4
3. DRAFT RESOLUTION SUBMITTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL
INDIAN TREATY COUNCIL
DRAFT RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE GUATEMALAN PEOPLE, WITH
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIANS
WORKING GROUP ON INDIGENOUS POPULATION, 9-13 AUGUST 1982
SUB-COMMISSION ON PREVENTION OF DISCRIMINATION AND
PROTECTION OF MINORITIES
UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, GENEVA
GUIDED by the principles embodied in the Charter of the
United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the International Bill of Human Rights, and the
International Convention against Genocide, in particular
those provisions relating to the right of self-
determination.
NOTING General Assembly decision 36/435 of 16 December
1981, Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1982/31, and the
work of the Special Rapporteur appointed by the Commission
to make a thorough study of the human rights situation in
Guatemala,
BEARING IN MIND changes in the Government of Guatemala
which occurred in March 1982, and the declaration by that
Government of a state of siege on 1 July 1982,
DISTURBED by continuing reports of gross violations of
human rights in Guatemala and in particular allegations of
mass killings of indigenous peoples and destruction of their
villages and crops,
CONVINCED that urgent action is necessary in order to
establish the facts of the current human rights situation in
Guatemala and to protect the human rights of all people
therein,
EXPRESSES ITS DEEP CONCERN at reports of genocidal acts
carried out by members of the Guatemalan security forces
against indigenous Indian peoples,
CONDEMNS the reported massacres of thousands of Indians
by Guatemalan military forces since March 1982, and the
expulsion of more than one million Indians from their
indigenous communities, and hundreds of thousands from the
country itself,
REQUESTS the Secretary-General to forward all
information received by the Sub-Commission relating to the
situation of human rights in Guatemala to the Special
Rapporteur of the Commission,
FURTHER REQUESTS the Secretary-General to transmit
relevant information received by the Sub-Commission to the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the
International Committee of the Red Cross,
INVITES the attention of the Government of Guatemala to
these issues as raised in discussions during the thirty-
fifth session of the Sub-Commission and its Working Group on
Indigenous Populations,
FURTHER INVITES the attention of all Governments
concerned to the use being made of military arms and
materials that may by transmitted to the Government of
Guatemala,
FURTHER INVITES all Governments and International
Organs to consider that peoples of Guatemala are organized
and struggling for their human rights at all levels in their
search for justice.
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