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Australia helps block UN declaration on indigenous rights

1 December 2006

Final approval at the UN General Assembly of the declaration on indigenous peoples’ rights was blocked on November 28 by a group of African countries led by Namibia, and supported by Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Russia.

The declaration is the result of 24 years of discussion at the UN. The newly formed UN Human Rights Council, in its first session, recommended in June that the General Assembly approve the declaration.

Eighty-seven countries voted for a “non-active motion resolution” tabled by Namibia, with 67 countries voting against and 25 abstentions. The vote will further delay the adoption of the declaration, and may lead to it being weakened.

Survival International’s director Stephen Corry said on November 30, “The prime movers in this week’s result all have indigenous peoples living within their borders and facing ongoing struggles for their rights to their land and to self-determination. These countries should be ashamed of themselves.”

If approved, the declaration would set a benchmark against which countries’ treatment of tribal peoples can be judged; it is not legally binding. The declaration recognises the rights of indigenous peoples to their land and to live as they wish. It also affirms that, for example, they should not be moved from their lands without their free and informed consent.

[Abridged from <http://www.survival-international.org>.]