Meetings Coverage

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues this morning put its spotlight on the native peoples and cultures of Central and Eastern Europe, Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, with civil society groups and Forum experts urging firm steps from the region’s Governments to improve the socio-economic conditions of the indigenous peoples, help them adapt to climate change and to reign in corporate-driven globalization.

Given the “terrible legacy” confronting the transitional authorities in Libya, their efforts in establishing a functioning State based on the rule of law and democracy deserve praise and support, but serious problems in governance, security, human rights and other areas should be faced squarely, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this afternoon.

Speakers in the Security Council today stressed the need to adapt the international fight against terrorism to continually evolving threats, while they welcomed efforts to make the Council’s three counter-terrorism committees more effective, coordinated and transparent, following briefings by their Chairpersons.

An intense debate unfolded today in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, as participants in a lively dialogue with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) pressed the Geneva-based body to reform in ways that afforded greater recognition of indigenous peoples in its decision-making processes and respect for their right to safeguard, preserve or promote traditional resources as they saw fit.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) scrutinized the budget proposals today for 10 peacekeeping operations for the fiscal year 2012/13, several delegates argued against across-the-board cuts and warned that reductions in Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire, South Sudan and Kosovo could jeopardize the ability of the “blue helmets” in those countries to implement their mandates.

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today again rang with strong calls on former colonial Governments to reassess their constitutional arrangements and restore the “first nation” status of native peoples, and on the Catholic Church to openly denounce the centuries-old “Doctrine of Discovery”, which many civil society representatives said was the “shameful” root of the humiliation and marginalization indigenous people still suffered today.

Since launching a five-year peacekeeping management road map in 2010, the United Nations had improved the cost-effectiveness and affordability of its blue-helmet operations without reducing their operational performance or ability to carry out their mandates, a top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today as it took up cross-cutting issues related to peacekeeping financing.

The Doctrine of Discovery had been used for centuries to expropriate indigenous lands and facilitate their transfer to colonizing or dominating nations, speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues stressed today, urging the expert body to study the creation of a special mechanism, under United Nations auspices, to investigate historical land claims.

Following the 12 April military coup in Guinea-Bissau, it was critical for all international partners of the troubled West African country to agree on a joint international response to facilitate a peaceful restoration of constitutional order there, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning.

Indigenous peoples must be involved “every step of the way”, and only with their free, prior and informed consent, in all efforts to define priorities and programmes for their sustainable and culturally appropriate development, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said this morning, opening the eleventh session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.