Global Policy Forum

By Kintto Lucas

Indigenous leaders from around the world are gathered this week in the Panamanian capital, where they have launched a global appeal to defend their traditions against the imposition of mass culture they contend is inherent in the globalization process. Delegates to the First Millennium Conference of Indigenous Peoples discussed in the Monday plenary session the progress their communities have made in development since 1994, the year marking the start of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, declared by the United Nations.

The approximately 200 native leaders also deliberated the creation of a Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples within the UN system, as well as the economic and cultural impacts of globalization in their communities, and mechanisms to ensure respect for indigenous rights. Tuesday saw the reinforcement of the common stance the world's native peoples will take at the UN World Conference against Racism and Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to take place this September in Durban, South Africa.

The delegates gathered in the Panamanian capital agreed that in recent years a ''cultural and economic racism'' has gained strength and is hurting the native populations' development potential.

Chilean Mapuche leader, Aucan Huilcaman Paillama, explained that this form of racism subjugates his culture with elements of mainstream global culture and economic modes that only benefit determined sectors of the population, and discriminates against people who hold a conception of development that is closely linked to the environment.

One example of this sort of discrimination is the exploitation of forests or the drilling of oil wells in protected areas without taking the views of the local indigenous population into account, ''leading to conflicts because our peoples have to defend themselves against this kind of attack,'' he stressed.

Representatives from the Americas, Asia, Oceania, Africa and Europe denounced that all regions of the world tend to follow a single economic development model, one that does not encompass protection of the environment, biodiversity or native peoples.

In the opinion of Marcial Arias Garcí­a, of Panama's Kuna Indians, this conference was organized with the premise that the only ones who should comment on and propose solutions for the problems of natives are native peoples themselves. Arias Garcí­a explained that one of the crucial aspects for counteracting cultural and economic racism is achieving recognition of indigenous peoples' rights to self-determination and access to the benefits provided by the exploitation of natural resources found within their territories.

''Our peoples must be recognized as the exclusive owners (of the) cultural and intellectual property'' encompassed by ancestral knowledge, he said, because this would allow native communities to fight, for example, such phenomena as bio-piracy and the granting of patents on living organisms. ''Governments must adopt policies that protect indigenous intellectual and cultural property and the right to maintain their customs, administrative systems and practices,'' stated the Kuna leader.

He also asserted that the international community has to recognize that indigenous peoples have suffered the same experiences related to the exploitation of their cultural and intellectual property and that they are capable of managing their traditional knowledge themselves. ''We are open to providing this knowledge to humanity as along as our definition of it and control over it are protected'' by the UN and by the international community, instead of national governments which tend to be at odds with indigenous communities, said Arias Garcí­a.

''The governments maintain a colonialist view of our peoples. State, national and international agencies, in developing their policies, must understand that we are guardians of customs and knowledge, and we have the right to protect and control the diffusion of that knowledge,'' argues the indigenous leader.

The First Millennium Conference of Indigenous Peoples has been organized by Panama's Napguana (''core of the earth'', in the Kuna language) Association, and sponsored by the Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples (NCIV-Nederlands Centrum Voor Inheemse Volken). Taking part in the weeklong meeting, to wrap up this Friday, are some 200 indigenous leaders from around the world, UN experts and representative of various international cooperation organizations and agencies.

The native leaders gathered in Panama come from Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Bhutan, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Mexico, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Rwanda, Russia, Sudan, United States and the Scandinavian countries, among others. The contributions made by the indigenous presenters and delegates are to be assembled in a final document known as the ''Panama Declaration.''

''Many of the contributions will serve as a basis for the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a text that has been discussed over the last seven years at the UN without the governments being able to reach an agreement,'' pointed out Napguana Association president, Nelson de León.

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