At its sixty-fourth session, the United Nation's General Assembly discussed the findings of the Secretary General’s midterm report tracking the progress made in the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People so far. UN organizations, NGOs, and states contributed to the findings in the report.
On January 10th, Australia´s first Indigenous political party was officially registered and will participate in the next federal election and Northern Territory (NT) state elections. Indigenous people are estimated to make up about 2.7 percent of the Australian population and 32 percent of Northern Territory residents are Indigenous.
The Republic of Congo will become the first country in Africa to pass legislation that will protect its Indigenous Peoples' rights. Ten percent of Congo’s population is Indigenous, many of whom are marginalized and even used as slaves.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has released a new guide for Indigenous Australians, explaining how they can use the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
At the White House Tribal Nations Conference December 15, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that the United States would "lend its support" to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "The aspirations it affirms," he said, "including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of Native peoples, are one we must always seek to fulfill. . . I want to be clear: what matters far more than words, what matters far more than any resolution or declaration, are actions to match those words. And that’s what this conference is about.
Today, President Obama met with tribal leaders at the White House Tribal Nations Conference. The text below is his address to the audience and includes a statement of support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The president promised a full statement to follow.
Six high Kenyan officials have been charged by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with crimes against humanity for their part in violence that left more than 1,000 people dead after the disputed 2007 presidential election. Of the six, two men exercised direct authority over the Kenyan police who carried out 405 extrajudicial killings.
On December 3, 2010 armed Chilean troops equipped with riot gear opened fire on unarmed Rapanui civilians refusing to be evicted from ancestral lands. The police started shooting pellet guns and tear gassing at the Rapanui people who for months now have been reoccupying their lands.
DATE
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20006
Dear President Obama,
I write to urge you to immediately endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The declaration is a set of principles that would provide Native Americans and Native Alaskans with greater security regarding their basic human rights, including their rights to equality and non-discrimination.
When the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, only four nations voted against it: New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and the United States. Since then, both Australia and New Zealand have reversed their positions and endorsed the declaration, and Canada also has recently indicated an interest in reversing its position in a qualified way. And now the United States has joined the trend toward enlightenment.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
