HUMAN RIGHTS: Indigenous People Jeopardised by Discrimination

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Aug 25 1997 (IPS) - Racial discrimination threatens the culture and historical identity of indigenous people in a number of regions, a United Nations committee reported here.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which closed its last annual period of sessions last week, underlined that native peoples have been deprived of their human rights and individual liberties throughout the world, while settlers and private and public enterprises encroach on their land and resources.

The Committee issued specific recommendations for Mexico, Algeria, Argentina, the Philippines, Sweden, Surinam and Guyana.

It urged the Mexican government to more closely oversee the defence of the basic rights of indigenous people and other vulnerable sectors of society, who it described as the frequent victims of intimidation and serious human rights abuses. Authorities should systematically track down the perpetrators of such violations, whether they are members of para-military groups or state bodies, the Committee underlined.

It also recommended that just solutions be found to the problems of demarcation, distribution and restitution of land, and that multicultural education be ensured for all ethnic groups.

In the case of Algeria, the Committee stressed the negative effects on the population of the prevailing climate of violence, and asked for reports on social indicators regarding the situation of the country’s ethnic groups, such as the Berbers.

In Argentina, landholders are frequently responsible for delays faced by indigenous communities with respect to transfers of land and ancestral land rights, the Committee also reported. Several communities in Argentina have suffered from intimidation and “pressure to give up their land claims,” it added.

The Committee urged the Argentine government to provide, in its next report, information on the number and situation of refugees and immigrants settled in the country, as well as the legislation applied to them. It also suggested that Argentina declare all forms of racial discrimination crimes punishable by law.

It cited the Buenos Aires bombings of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and a Jewish community centre (AMIA) in 1994, and urged authorities to take all necessary steps to bolster the respective investigations and legal action.

With respect to the Philippines, the Committee expressed concern over the large number of ‘disappeared’ people, most of them members of indigenous and Muslim communities.

The Committee urged the Swedish government to approve measures ensuring the members of the Sami community the possibility of using their language in the bureaucratic sphere.

The governments of Surinam and Guyana drew criticism for the delay in presenting their reports. The existence of indigenous communities in both countries makes compliance with the International Convention on Racial Discrimination especially important, the Committee underlined.

It stated its concern over the appearance of anti-immigrant publications by racist groups in Norway and a radio station that regularly broadcasts concepts of racial superiority.

In Poland, the Committee said, numerous cases of racist violence against the Jewish and gypsy minorities have been reported.

The Committee also expressed alarm over reports on the disappearance of tens of thousands of refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and continued human rights violations in the eastern region of the central African country. It added that it hoped the new investigative commission sent there by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be suuccessful in carrying out its mission.

But the president of the Committee, Michael Parker Banton, expressed reservations regarding the naming of the new investigative commission, which replaced a prior mission also designated by the United Nations. The UN official told a press conference that he had no doubts with respect to the impartiality of the report presented by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the former Zaire, Roberto Garreton.

Garreton’s conclusions, which implicated the current president of the DRC, Laurent-Desire Kabila, in the massacres of Rwandese refugees, led to his exclusion from the investigative mission.

Parker Banton said Burundi was the country with the largest number of violations of the Convention on Racial Discrimination in the world. Inter-ethnic massacres and other violent acts are still being perpetrated there, he added.

The Committee stated concern over the interpretation of the notions of “race” and “ethnic origin” present in the written report and speeches of the official delegation from Burundi.

The Committee’s next period of sessions will run March 2-20, 1998, and will discuss the regular reports from Armenia, Cambodia, Cameroon, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Israel, Libya, Lebanon, Russia, Switzerland, the Ukraine and Yugoslavia, as well as urgent cases.