AIDS, development on UN indigenous agenda

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the action plan for the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on May 15, as representatives from around the world gathered at U.N. headquarters in New York City to meet on this issue.

The fifth annual session of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues met through May 26 and started developing recommendations for the Second International Decade.

“Let us aim to make it mean something positive — a change for the better — in the life of every indigenous person, wherever he or she may live,” Annan said.

Annan pledged to present a U.N. declaration on indigenous peoples’ rights for adoption as soon as possible.

In some countries, where the rights of indigenous peoples have been barely acknowledged, the declaration will be particularly important, Forum chairperson Victoria Tauli-Corpuz said.

“Let us pledge in this Hall of the U.N. General Assembly our commitment to achieve these objectives, so that in the year 2015 we will come back and be proud of what we have achieved in terms of ending discrimination, marginalization, oppression and extreme poverty of indigenous peoples, because we took seriously the challenge to create partnerships for action and dignity,” she said.

During the forum, members discussed the absence of information on HIV/ AIDS in indigenous communities.

The meeting also looked at the inclusion of traditional knowledge and full participation of indigenous peoples in decisions that impact their lives, “based on the principle of free, prior and informed consent.”