The United Nations and "indigenous issues"

American opposition to the UN is dual. On the one hand there are the military types, backed by the military-industrial complex, who believe that war, war is better than jaw, jaw. On the other hand are the less bellicose types, who may not be keen on unending jaw-jaw but are appalled for example when Libya becomes the chairman of the UN human rights commission and Cuba a member. The worst flaw of the UN is that it pits the Third World against the First World, which created the UN and admitted the Third World in a perhaps mistaken search for universality, producing instead confrontation.

A good (or bad) example of this confrontation is the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Italians are indigenous to Italy, but not in UNSpeak. It means native groups which are part of a different larger community, such as the Indian groups of the Americas, The Forum consists of 16 individuals, 8 nominated by the indigenous peoples and 8 by governments. It meets for ten days each year, in New York or Geneva or in a location chosen by the Forum. It had its origin in 1923 under the League of Nations. The Forum can sponsor a larger gathering. For example, in 1977 nearly 200 delegates attended a conference in Geneva to protest discrimination against indigenous peoples, This helps to explain the funding of the expensive travel of indigenous peoples to international meetings at which they protest against the mistreatment of which they are victims These meetings feature a romantic version of native cultures and a relentless denunciation of their "oppressors". A conspicuous example of this was the 2001 meeting in Durban, South Africa. The UN proclaimed 1993 the International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples and 1995-2004 their International Decade. While we wish all indigenous peoples well, we question the merits of these expensive confrontations.

Ronald Hilton - 8/4/03