This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 15, May 22-28, 2005
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S WATCH
Kankana-ey Heads UN IP Body
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a
Kankana-ey from Mt. Province, makes history by being the first Filipino to head
the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues based in New York.
By
Northern Dispatch BAGUIO CITY (May 19) — An
Igorot woman made history when she was voted by consensus recently as
chairperson of a 16-member United Nations body concerned with indigenous
peoples’ issues. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a
Kankana-ey from Besao, Mountain Province in northern Philippines and a resident
of Baguio City will chair the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
for the next three years. “I commit myself to do my
best to carry out my duties so that the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
(UNPFII) can help improve indigenous peoples’ lives around the world,”
Tauli-Corpuz, said in her acceptance speech last May 16 in New York. Established in July 2000 as
an advisory body to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Permanent
Forum is mandated to discuss indigenous issues relating to economic and social
development, culture, the environment, education and human rights. Specifically, the Forum
provides expert advice and recommendation on indigenous issues to the ECOSOC, as
well as to programs, funds and other UN agencies through the Council. Since it was created, the
Forum, says Tauli-Corpuz, has become a venue through which indigenous peoples’
representatives worldwide have ventilated their issues at the UN. The issues
included the onslaught of mining, logging, big dams, piracy of biological
resources in indigenous territories, and the insensitivity of the development
policies of global institutions to indigenous peoples’ culture and basic human
rights. The Forum has also given
indigenous peoples space through which they can exchange innovative ideas as
they coordinate and synchronize their efforts in helping shape development
policies and frameworks that affect their lives. Worsening
poverty As the new chairperson of
the UN Forum, Tauli-Corpuz vowed to help address the “worsening poverty,
marginalization and gross violation of basic human rights” of indigenous peoples
in both developing and developed countries. On its fourth session from
May 16-27, she urged the Forum to help ensure that the Millennium Development
Goals of reducing poverty by half in 2010 would be done “not at our expense,”
referring to the world’s indigenous populations. “Let us nurture (the Forum)
further to become a home for indigenous peoples in the international community,” said
Tauli-Corpuz in her speech, which can be downloaded through the website of
Tebtebba, the Baguio-based international policy and research center. “Let us
continue to forge and shape the Permanent Forum as a symbol of hope for
indigenous peoples.” Tauli is currently the
executive director of the Tebtebba Foundation. She also worked with the
Cordillera Women’s Education and Resource Center (CWERC) before she embarked on
international IP concerns in the later half of the ‘90s. Maurice Malanes of
Nordis / Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
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