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ILO convention must be stopped

Author

Judith F. Sayers, Special to Windspeaker

Volume

8

Issue

2

Year

1990

Page 4

Since 1977 indigenous people from all over the world have been attending the United Nations (UN) in Geneva and New York to promote indigenous rights. Through their efforts and with the help of support groups, there has been much progress.

The issue of indigenous peoples and their rights has gained unprecedented prominence within the UN and at a rapid rate.

In 1982 the Working Group of Indigenous Populations was established to look into recent developments with indigenous peoples and to develop standards. It has had seven sessions and is now working on another draft of the declaration of indigenous rights.

Working internationally has exposed Canada's ill-treatment of indigenous peoples. It has done much to tarnish the image it has always portrayed as "the protector of human rights."

No long can the government of Canada tell lies or half-truths internationally about what it has done for us; we are there disputing and providing evidence to the contrary.

International work also opens another door to us for trying to solve our problems. Working totally within Canada isn't the answer. Look at how for many years many issues have remained unsolved like the land-claim of the Lubicon Lake Band, which has had to take its case to the UN, because it can't get a solution here in Canada.

The most recent development in international law and indigenous rights occurred within the International Labor Organization. The ILO in 1985 passed a revised Convention Concerning the Protection and Integration of Indigenous and other Tribal Populations in Independent Countries.

The convention's very title was blatantly assimilationist and discriminatory.

Four years later the General Assembly of the ILO accepted the revised convention, which:

Qualifies us as peoples, but doesn't provide the right to self-determination. This is discriminatory, because all peoples have the right to self-determination. Any attempts to try to take this right away must be stopped at all costs,

Requires governments to consult with indigenous peoples. Consultation in the eyes of government is to listen to us and then do whatever they want without taking into consideration what we have said. There is nothing in the convention to make them obtain consent, only to try, and

Fails to recognize we have had our own traditional systems and that they still exist. Our customary laws are the basis of everything we do and non-recognition is discriminatory and a denial of who we are.

An extraordinary power within the convention allows the government to remove us from our lands as an exceptional measure. Determining what an exceptional measure is lies with the government. They could say it is an exceptional measure to have to build a dam or a highway, or that they must take out some natural resources within our lands.

This convention gives them a license to come in and take our lands. It does not give up control of our resources but only the right to participate in management and conservation of resources. Therefore, full decision-making power lies with the government.

Resource mismanagement has become very well publicized within the last few years and many bands have sued the federal government. We can only expect this to continue and the convention will do nothing to assist us.

It gives governments a lot of discretion and doesn't give aboriginal people control of their lives, instead leaving them at the mercy of the state.

Canada has one year to decide whether to ratify the convention. If necessary it can take up to 18 months. It will definitely have to come before Parliament by Dec. 1990. Only if it's ratified will it become law in Canada.

There is now a resolution pending before the Assembly of First Nations rejecting the convention and asking Canada not to ratify it. Chiefs and councils and other tribal councils or organizations could pass similar resolutions since many bands and organizations have already done so.

At the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in ug. 1989 when the ILO presented the convention, about 300 people walked out. They wanted to make a very strong statement the convention did not reflect our rights as indigenous peoples and is far below any minimum standard, which should be set.

Most indigenous peoples present signed a resolution rejecting the convention and asking states all over the world not to ratify it.

A clear statement had to be made indigenous peoples can't tolerate the convention, because it does not reflect our rights and what's most important it will negatively impact on the Declaration of Indigenous Rights, which the working group has been working on for seven years.

If we accept the ILO convention in its present form, our work internationally in the future will be for nothing. If Indians in Canada ask the Canadian government to ratify this convention, it will be seen as a consent to a very low standard of rights. The Canadian government will use this as a knife in our backs as we continue our work internationally. They will maintain they do not have to raise the standard higher, because indigenous people agreed to the convention.

That was the strategy behind revising the ILO convention. Now many states are referring to it, stating this is what a Declaration of Indigenous Rights should look like.

Human rights experts have spoken strongly against the ILO convention. They know indigenous peoples were shafted in this process and that this is not a fair representation of our rights. If we are complacent or do not speak out against this convention, we will quietly accepted it.

We do not have to accept an international law that does not adequately reflect or protect our rights as indigenous peoples. We need to stand up for our rights and to fight! A very strong message nee to be sent to the Canadian government and governments all over the world that we as indigenous people are not satisfied with the convention and that we do not want it ratified.

Talk to your political leaders to suppor the resolution rejecting the convention and calling on all states not to ratify. Efforts should also be made to talk to the provinces and the federal government to prevent this convention from being ratified.

We as indigenous people do not have to accept crumbs tossed to us by powerful government from all over the world. We have the power to stop this convention from being used directly against us.

The convention has put a great block to our progress and to the development of international law on indigenous rights. If we don't do anything to remove it, our efforts internationally will have been for nothing.

(Sayers, an Indian lawyer, has been active in international law since 1982.)