Economic and Social Council

The urgent need to fulfil commitments to preserve the earth’s resources while building a better life for all was underlined today by officials and representatives of Member States and organizations, as the eighteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development opened at Headquarters this morning.

Stressing that prevailing development paradigms had often destroyed the political, economic and spiritual systems of indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues closed its ninth session today adopting its draft report, which, among other things, urged the United Nations to support indigenous peoples’ efforts to formulate their own development models based on concepts “underpinned by indigenous cosmologies, philosophies, values, cultures and identities”.

Achieving green growth through better management of materials throughout their life cycle will be central to this year’s session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. The Commission, which will take place in New York from 3 to 14 May, starts a new two-year cycle that will review waste management, transport, chemicals, mining and the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production.

While indigenous people continued to suffer in the face of massive development projects that stripped their lands of precious traditional resources and displaced their communities en masse, “we are at the dawn of a new sunrise”, Carlos Mamani, Chairperson the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said today at a Headquarters press conference.

While indigenous peoples made undeniable contributions to humanity’s cultural diversity, representatives of aboriginal and native groups appealed today for help from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, saying they still faced systemic discrimination and exclusion from political and economic power, forced ejection from their ancestral lands, and depredation from profit-hungry corporations bent on destroying their life-giving forests.

The “painful” history of State control over forests could be traced by following the heavily deforested footprints that colonizers had left on indigenous lands and territories, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was told today during a half-day discussion on indigenous peoples and forests.

In a resumed organizational session today, the Economic and Social Council adopted three draft decisions and filled vacancies in 18 of its subsidiary bodies, with five requiring votes.

The expert members of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today turned their attention to the historical root of ongoing violations of indigenous peoples’ human rights, so-called “discovery doctrines”, which for centuries served as “legal” rationale for stealing land and dehumanizing aboriginal peoples, as well as justification for the establishment of boarding schools throughout North America to “civilize” Indian children.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today tackled emerging issues and matters related its future work, grappling with how to change a host of discriminatory policies ‑‑ and attitudes ‑‑ that had landed high numbers of indigenous youth in prison, perpetuated cyclical unemployment, favoured corporate interests over indigenous land rights and generally ignored native peoples’ vulnerability to climate change.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today held an in-depth dialogue with representatives of two United Nations entities working to better integrate the concerns of indigenous peoples and enhance their participation in the Organization’s work in two vital areas: access and benefit sharing from genetic resources; and protecting the practices and innovations of indigenous and local communities.