Permanent forum nearing reality

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The United Nations Human Rights Commission has passed a resolution favoring the establishment of a permanent forum on Indigenous issues.

The forum has one more obstacle to overcome before it's all systems go; a meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Development (ECOSOC) committee in July will decide once and for all what shape the forum will take.

Two members of the Indigenous caucus at the UN, Edmonton lawyer Willie Littlechild and Kahnawake newspaper publisher Kenneth Deer, say one long battle for international recognition of Indigenous rights will come to a close after the July meetings in Geneva.

"I think I'll be coming home with good news," Littlechild told Windspeaker. "I have a good feeling about this. The next step should be the final step. It's probably 85 per cent of the battle won. I think right now the answer's 'maybe yes' and in July it'll be 'yes.'"

But the July hearings won't be without a certain amount of debate. Although Deer said the human rights commission voted 43 to 0 (with seven abstentions) to approve the resolution, the United States and Cuba tangled over a related issue. Cuba introduced an amendment that would protect the working group on Indigenous issues, which already exists at the UN. The U.S. said Indigenous peoples should choose either the permanent forum or the working group. As of this moment, the working group is safe, but the U.S. will continue to pressure for its point of view.

"Normally, whatever comes out of the [human rights] commission, they'll endorse it or rubber stamp it, but in this case because of the controversy over the ammendment, the U.S. said they're going to take their fight over to ECOSOC. The Asian group also reserved the right to take the battle on to the higher level. But so can we. Last year, for the first time ever, an Indigenous group addressed the ECOSOC meeting, which I did at the July meeting. I'm preparing to do that again this year to counter whatever the difficulties may be, if any. So we've got to make sure that our voice is heard," Littlechild added. "They can both co-exist because their mandates are so different. The U.S. is arguing first, that Indians can't have two things, and second, that it'll be too expensive. These are people who don't even pay their bills to begin with to the UN making these kinds of statements."

Continued domestic pressure will be applied on American officials by tribal chairmen in the U.S. President Bill Clinton was lobbied directly for support with the hope he would direct officials within the U.S. government to soften their stand against Indigenous people. Presidential candidates George Bush and Al Gore will also hear from tribal leaders.

Canada has been accused of following the American lead in this area and Littlechild said little changed during the last session.

"Canada was kind of wishy-washy," Littlechild said. "They came in at the end of the battle supporting the resolution. They support the idea of the permanent forum but not to the extent that they're willing to take on the U.S. But when it comes down to asking them to support a wider mandate, they won't do it."

A veteran observer of United Nations issues and the chair of the Indigenous caucus in Geneva, Kenneth Deer has seen enough to know what fits and what doesn't. He noted that it was an unusual process that saw the resolution in favor of the establishment of the permanent forum passed by the human rights committee.

"They passed the resolution by a vote," he said. "That's very, very unusual. They normally do things by consensus."

Assuming the forum is established, the rules of procedure have yet to be ironed out.

"The intent is to make it accessible and all-inclusive for any Indigenous person to come to if they don't feel they're being dealt with justly domestically," Littlechild said.

Sixteen members will be appointed, eight Indigenous and eight non-Indigenous, and they will serve a three-year term with a two term maximum. The appointmets will be done on a regional basis. North America is considered one region.

"The key thing will be that Indigenous representatives will be nominated by Indigenous peoples. The secretary general or the president of ECOSOC will do the appointment from the list submitted by Indigenous peoples," Littlechild explained.