At UN Indigenous Forum, Rapporteur Wants Australia Invite, Tar Sands Oil in Canada

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 27 -- When a Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues related press conference was held on April 27, Inner City Press asked the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, about Australia prime minister Tony Abbott closing down aboriginal communities.

  Tauli-Corpuz said she is concerned and would like to be invited to visit Australia, the Kimberley Group is making that request. Her co-panelist from Canada answered Inner City Press about tar sands, video here.

Back on April 22, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access asked Ghazali Ohorella about opposition to a telescope on sacred land in Hawaii, and about Western Papua, mentioned in the Forum the day before.

  Oherella named the sponsors, including from Canada and Japan, adding the construction was postponed when indigenous people occupied the mountain.

 On West Papua, Forum member Valmarine Toki said the story is sad, but the inclusion on the UN Fourth Committee's list of French Polynesia should be celebrated. Ambassador Odo Tevi of Vanuatu, praised the day before, apologized their was only so much he could say. 

 On the evening of April 21, Inner City Press covered the Forum'scultural event in the UN lobby, photo here, Vine here.

  When the Forum started up on April 20, Inner City Press asked about the World Bank's “Climate Fund,” and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's closing down aboriginal communities and what he called the “lifestyle choice” they represent.

   The new chair of the Permanent Forum, Professor Megan Davis, said that Abbott's comments had not gone down well in Australia, and not only about aboriginal people. She asked if farming, heavily subsidized, is not lifestyle choice. Some surmise it's hydrocarbons under the land that explains the closing of the communities.

  And now Abbott is going to New Zealand - where he faces further protests of his remarks and actions.

   Joan Carling, also on the UN panel on April 20, told Inner City Press that the Climate Fund, REDD and similar project involve reducing the forests to the carbon issue and to payments.

Footnote: While the April 20 press conference was in the UN Press Briefing Room, there was no UN transcript or even summary made. Worse, the UN collaborated with its UN Censorship Alliance (some of whose board members have tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN) in shifting the Chagos Refugees Group's Olivier Bancoult into an almost empty session in UNCA's private club, not on UNTV, not reported. 

(Inner City Press previously asked about the Chagossians, here to outgoing UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who seemingly against character turned censor-inward in farewell.) Inner City Press based on similar collusion by UNCA quit the group and co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access which is covering the Forum and how the UN treats it. Watch this site.

   

On Indigenous Conference, UN President of the General Assembly "Fails on Modalities," Permanent Forum and States Speak Out

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 -- The failure of UN President of the General Assembly John Ashe to “show leadership” in setting up the World Conference on Indigenous People scheduled for September was strongly criticized on May 23.

For more than a week, Inner City Press has been asking indigenous leaders what they expected from PGA Ashe. Only that he implement the “modalities” already agreed to for the Conference, was the answer. One speaker, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, noted that Ashe's office had tried to blame a member state for blocking things but this wasn't true.

  But at 4 pm on May 23 in the General Assembly, when a statement was read out for Ashe, it said that “no consensus” had been reached, even on Monday's watered-down proposal, and that Ashe would be calling for another meeting next week. 

 There followed speeches of disappointment, not only from indigenous representatives but also countries: beginning with Mexico and Norway, through Denmark and Guatemala's Permanent Representative Rosenthal, heavily indigenous Bolivia, Finland, Australia and New Zealand.

 Nicaragua's deputy Permanent Representative spoke, then Sweden. Kenneth Deer called for full and equal participation. Panama spoke, and a representative of the United States, with obstructed view.

Earlier in the week Inner City Press asked Grand Chief Edward John from Western Canada about the proposed oil sands and tar sands pipelines there. He said the Harper government is expected to gives its approval. Then what?

Footnote: at these indigenous press conferences, the newFree UN Coalition for Access thanked the speakers; the old UN Correspondents Association was generally not there, except an appearance that triggers a response that Morocco is not in the African Union and therefore didn't participate in its programs. UNCA big wigs were trying a scam elsewhere, it emerged. Typical.

   

On Indigenous Issues, World Bank Needs to Move to Consent, IMF Invisible, REDD in Question

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 28 -- Alongside the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the UN for the past week, there's been talk of the World Bank versus IMF as well as of the controversial Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, REDD or REDD Plus, program.

  Inner City Press on May 28 put questions about these to a panel including Mexico's outgoing ambassador to the UN in New York, Luis Alfonso de Alba, Grand Chief Edward John and Joan Carling of the Asia Indigenous Peoples' Pact.Video here, from Minute 11:41.

  Luis Alfonso de Alba, who is soon to move to Vienna, replied that the outcome document of the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples will be "very general" but will aim to address the areas on which governments need to do better.

  Joan Carling said that REDD Plus is, in fact, popular in Cambodia. Inner City Press cited opposition in Panama. She said it varies from place to place, depending on how it impacts indigenous people. She said it should be up to them, and not to NGOs which claim to work with them, "imposes their ideological views."

  Chief Ed John went further, citing Keystone, tar sands, the Exxon Valdes, BP and the Gulf of Mexico. He said his people in Canada still "take their fish" and are impacted by these policies.

  There were no other questions in the briefing room. Inner City Press, co-founded of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, thanked the panels generally and asked about the World Bank and IMF. Video here, from Minute 21:20.

  Joan Carling said she'd made an intervention during the session on the World Bank, about the needs for a human rights framework beyond "do no harm." (Even that would be a major step forward for the UN, considering for example their introduction of cholera in to Haiti.)

  Grand Chief Edward John pointed out that the World Bank speaks of prior "consultation" rather than consent. But what about the International Monetary Fund? What are they? Inner City Press put in the question to the IMF on May 23. Watch this site.