5th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Imphal, 13 September 2012
The Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE) conveys peace, harmony and equality in the state on the 5th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration is now endorsed by the majority of UN member States including India which is a comprehensive human rights instrument for Indigenous people's collective and individual rights. It has legal implications and is formed under the auspice existing relevant international laws.
That, indigenous peoples "are equal to all other peoples" and given the importance of this declaration in India per se and the indigenous world in general, it is also high time for democracies like India to repeal Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958, Disturbed Area Act, etc that acts as draconian tools to violate and suppress the rights of indigenous peoples.
We may please be reminded that such steps are needed to build accountabilities and trust in order to herald sustainable processes of peaceful and humane socio-political, socioeconomic and socio-religious development that respect, promote, preserve, protect and reaffirm the rights of indigenous peoples of India where the State and Indigenous peoples share responsibilities and rights on equal footing.
Further, it is to be noted that there are more than 350 million indigenous populations in the world. India must clearly define the meaning of "indigenous peoples" so as to clear up the confusion created by claiming all Indians as indigenous which is vague, distorted, over - generalisation and therefore simply hypocritical that, in the end, making a mockery of the very terminology of "indigenousity".
If the Indian government continue to follow/adopt this stand and the world continue to keep silent about it, the United Nations and its Member States should be 'proud’ to have an indigenous state with the second largest population in the world while at the same time be prepared to not only re-define "indigenous" but also prepare itself to deal with the all-round confusion and chaos that is most likely to come in its wake.
Dr. Immanuel Varte
Deputy Director, CORE
Loisanglen:
Post Box No. 99
1st Floor, Ibotombi Building, Babupara
Imphal 795001, MANIPUR India
Tel/Fax: +91 385 24413 19
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.coremanipur.org
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This PR was webcasted on September 13, 2012.
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