HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL'S EXPERT MECHANISMON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CONCLUDES INAUGURAL SESSIONIN GENEVA

UNITED NATIONS

Press Release
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HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL'S EXPERT MECHANISMON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CONCLUDES INAUGURAL SESSIONIN GENEVA
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6 October 2008

The Human Rights Council's Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples concluded its first session in Geneva on Friday, 3 October after adopting a number of proposals to the Human Rights Council including those on the Durban Review Conference on Racism, the right of indigenous people to education and the participation of indigenous peoples in sessions of the Council and United Nations human rights treaty bodies. The Expert Mechanism, which is charged with providing thematic expertise on the rights of indigenous peoples to the Human Rights Council, met in Geneva between 1 and 3 October at the Palais des Nations in Geneva where more than 300 participants attended the inaugural meeting. The vast majority of those attending the session were indigenous people who actively participated in the three-day meeting expressing their own personal accounts and human rights situations affecting their communities.

As mandated by the Council through a resolution adopted at its session last week, the Expert Mechanism began to identify and suggest proposals to the Council for its consideration in 2009.

The group also adopted their agenda and programme of work at the beginning of the session.In view of the upcoming Durban Review Conference on racism taking place next year, the Experts were asked to assist the Preparatory Committee of the Conference by undertaking a review and submitting recommendations as contributions to its outcome. The Experts recommended that the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action should acknowledge that the right of self-determination and the principle of free, prior and informed consent are now universally recognized through the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Additionally, the Experts began work on preparing a study on lessons learned and challenges to achieve the implementation of the right of indigenous peoples to education to be concluded in 2009. In another proposal, the Expert Mechanism invited the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples and the Permanent

Forum on Indigenous Issues to contribute to the study and requested the Human Rights Council to authorize a two-day technical workshop/review to finalize the study. Through another proposal the Expert Mechanism requested the Human Rights Council to suggest to the General Assembly to broaden the mandate of the United Nations Voluntary Fund to support the indigenous peoples to participate in the session of the Human Rights Council and the Treaty Bodies. An additional recommendation proposed that the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Expert Mechanism, or a designated member of the Expert Mechanism, participate in the session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and invites all relevant mandate holders, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, to be present during sessions of the Expert Mechanism. Among the issues raised by participants during the session were those pertaining to the holding of regional seminars on thematic issues, the situation of indigenous women, the effects of the global food crisis on indigenous communities, access to education in indigenous languages and the implementation of recommendations laid out in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Experts also recommended to the Council that the Declaration be considered as one of the human rights standards in the Universal Periodic Review process. Speaking at the opening of the session was Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, who encouraged the experts to consider ways on how they will contribute to the promotion and implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples through its research-based advice and studies.

While the Declaration was non-binding, it nonetheless offered the basis for reconciliation between indigenous peoples and States, she reminded. The work of the Office of the High Commissioner, she added, was to assist States and indigenous peoples in implementing the Declaration and the Expert Mechanism had an instrumental role to play in that regard. Recalling that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples was one of the first new international human rights instruments adopted by the Human Rights Council, the President of the Human Rights Council, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, in his opening statement, said the Declaration, along with the ILO Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries and other human rights standards, provided the international normative framework to uphold the rights of indigenous peoples. The establishment of the Expert Mechanism represented a "significant achievement of the reform of the human rights machinery", he added. Also addressing the meeting was James Anaya, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, and Michael Dodson, member of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, who both addressed ways they can contribute to the work of the Expert Mechanism and coordinate their own mandates. At the onset of the meeting, John Henriksen (Norway) was elected to serve as Chairperson-Rapporteur of the first session and Jose Carlos Morales (Costa Rica) as Vice Chairperson-Rapporteur. The other three members of the Expert Mechanism are Catherine Odimba Kombe (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Jannie Lasimbang (Malaysia) and Jose Molintas (Philippines). The Expert Mechanism will hold its second session in 2009. The date will be decided at the 10th regular session of the Human Rights Council to be held in March 2009.

For more information about the Expert Mechanism please visit their webpage - http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/ExpertMechanism/index.htm
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