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Statement made by the Indigenous Peoples Caucus (IPC) at the Bali, Indonesia, 4th Preparatory Meeting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). All major stakeholder groups were requested to submit a paragraph that would be submited to the Prep Com IV Chair for development as a overall Political Declaration going to Johannesburg. - Tom G., IEN

The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, Asia, Pacific, Africa, Europe and the Arctic region, present here reaffirm the Kari-oca Declaration of Indigenous Peoples signed at Rio in 1992 and Agenda 21. United in one voice, we express our collective views on the proposed WSSD Programme of Action and Political Declaration.

The results of the negotiations to gain consensus and mutual support for the protection of the environment and sustainable development have been very discouraging. We are disappointed that our fundamental rights and the specific language of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES have not been honoured. We fear that our territories and the natural world will continue to be plundered by governments and corporations. For example, the text on mining as contained in the Chairman’s text is a license for mining corporations to further plunder and devastate our lands. We urge you, the leaders of the United Nations, to work with us and not against us, at this critical time. For as long as you continue to make war against Mother Earth there can never be peace. Humanity must work together, not just for survival, but for quality of life based on ethical, cultural and spiritual values to protect the sacred inter-relatedness of life that serves us all. We remind us all of our responsibilities to future generations.

Indigenous Peoples have consistently called for international recognition of our rights as a pre-condition for our empowerment for sustainable development. We reaffirm that self-determination and sustainable development are two sides of the same coin. We underline our inherent rights to:

· Self-determination and recognition as indigenous peoples;

· Ownership, control and management of our traditional territories, lands, oceans and resources;

· Exercise our customary law and represent ourselves through our own institutions;

· Free, prior and informed consent to developments on our land;

· Control, and share in the benefits of the use of our traditional knowledge.

Indigenous Peoples have something to offer the world in this equation for survival. We call for a World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development as a culmination to the UN Decade for Indigenous Peoples (1995-2004) and as a concrete follow-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Indigenous Peoples consider this conference as necessary, to develop a concrete programme of action, embodying WSSD outcomes and concrete partnerships together with governments, regional bodies, the United Nations, international organisations and others in civil society.

KARI-OCA DECLARATION

We, the Indigenous Peoples, walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors.

From the smallest to the largest living being, from the four directions, from the air, the land and the mountains. The creator has placed us. The Indigenous peoples upon our Mother the earth.

The footprints of our ancestors are permanently etched upon the lands of our peoples.

We, the Indigenous peoples, maintain our inherent rights to self-determination. We have always had the right to decide our own forms of government, to use our own laws, to raise and educate our children, to our own cultural identity without interference.

We continue to maintain our rights as peoples despite centuries of deprivation, assimilation and genocide.

We maintain our inalienable rights to our lands and territories, to all our resources -- above and below -- and to our waters. We assert our ongoing responsibility to pass these onto the future generations.

We cannot be removed from our lands. We, the Indigenous peoples are connected by the circle of life to our lands and environments.

We, the Indigenous peoples, walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors.

Signed at Kari-oca, Brazil on the 30th Day of May, 1992

Reaffirmed at Bali, Indonesia, 4 June 2002

Black Mesa Indigenous Support
P.O. Box 23501
Flagstaff, Arizona 86002
 Message Voice Mail: 928.773.8086
Email: blackmesais@yahoo.com