INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE TO BE OBSERVED ON 9 AUGUST AT UN HEADQUARTERS

Note to Correspondents

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

TO BE OBSERVED ON 9 AUGUST AT UN HEADQUARTERS

A panel discussion and film screening have been added to the programme for this year’s observance of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (9 August) at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  The main event, featuring performances by indigenous artists, will begin at 12:30 noon in the Public Lobby (46^th Street and First Avenue).  The panel discussion, at 3 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium, will be followed, at 4 p.m., by the film screening. 

Peruko Ccopacatty (Aymara/Quechua, Lake Titicaca), an indigenous elder and sculptor from Peru, will open the event with a traditional welcome and blessing.  Messages for the day issued by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan; Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs José Antonio Ocampo, who was recently appointed Coordinator of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People; and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the new Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issue, will be delivered.  Two dance troupes from Peru -- Grupo Revelación and Grupo Raíces -- will perform, and Barbara James Snyder (Washoe/Paiute, Nevada) will read poetry and a short story, and close the event with a traditional song.  (Roberto Múcaro Borrero (Taíno, Puerto Rico), Chairperson of the non-governmental organization Committee on the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, will be the master of ceremonies. 

Film-maker Rebecca Sommer was commissioned by the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to produce and direct the documentary film, “Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations”, which is intended for government officials and staff of United Nations agencies, funds and programmes -- to raise awareness about indigenous issues and the work of the Permanent Forum, which held its fourth session in May 2005.  It covers the history of indigenous peoples at the United Nations, introduces the work of the Permanent Forum, and highlights some of the problems faced by indigenous peoples and what they would like to see done about them.

Elsa Stamatopoulou of the Secretariat for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Connie Taracena Secaira of the Permanent Mission of Guatemala to the United Nations, Liz Gibbons of UNICEF, and Roberto Mucaro Borrero of the NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples will participate in the panel discussion:  “The Cause of Indigenous Peoples is Ours” at 3 p.m.

The date of the annual observance of the International Day on 9 August was selected by the General Assembly to commemorate the first meeting, in 1982 in Geneva, of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations.  This year’s observance is the first to take place in the Second International Decade for the World’s Indigenous People (2005-2014), which began 1 January this year. 

The establishment of the Permanent Forum was the realization of one of two major goals identified in the programme of activities for the first International Decade for the World’s Indigenous People.  The second major goal -- adoption of a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- has not yet been accomplished.  A working group established by the Commission on Human Rights to finalize the draft Declaration has one additional session in which to complete its work.  If it cannot complete its work by the end of the session, its mandate may or may not be renewed by the Commission.   

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Cultural Affairs José Antonio Ocampo was designated to coordinate the Second Decade.  A programme of activities for the decade is currently being developed and will be presented to the General Assembly at its sixtieth session.

The commemoration is organized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the United Nations Department of Public Information and the NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

Additional programmes for the International Day in New York City will take place on Sunday, 7 August, at the American Museum of Natural History.  For information on these programmes, which are free with suggested museum admission and open to the general public, contact the museum at 212 769-5758, or visit www.amnh.org/programs/special/global/index.html?src=p_sp.

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For information media • not an official record