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The UN Year of Indigenous Peoples 1993 — Some Latin American Perspectives*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2009
Extract
‘There are estimated to be some 300 million indigenous people in 70 countries around the world. Among the most defenceless of all the victims of human rights violations, they have paid a terrible price for contact with the dominant society. They have been massacred and terrorized to force them from their ancestral lands, caught up in bitter civil conflicts and left without redress for the abuses they suffer. Their supporters have also suffered human rights violations. The United Nations has designated 1993 as the International Year of the World's Indigenous People. The International Year will be commemorated at the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna this June. Amnesty International is calling on governments of countries where indigenous people reside to initiate an independent national review in 1993 of the extent to which indigenous peoples' fundamental human rights are respected. 1992 was the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. While official commemorations were held throughout the region, indigenous groups, backed by human rights organizations, used the occasion to publicize the violations, the discrimination and the displacement that indigenous peoples have suffered. Yet despite the publicity and the focus on the plight of indigenous people, it appears that governments in the Americas have taken few practical steps to protect indigenous rights. Unless the international community takes urgent steps, there is a real danger that the UN's International Year will also pass without any significant progress towards protecting the human rights of indigenous peoples throughout the world.
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References
1. Amnesty International, Focus (May 1993).
2. The actual proceedings of meetings of UN organs have largely been taken from the official reports of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (until mid-1993, 149 parts, cited as ‘BZ’).
3. UN Yearbook (1950) p. 610.
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8. Paras. 366–382.
9. Pursuant to the Subcommission on prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities Resolution 1990/26 (E/CN 4/Sub. 2/1991/36).
10. Headquarters in Santiago, Chile, established by ECOSOC on 25 February 1948 (Res. 106(VI)). The ECLAC works closely together with the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) and with the Organization of American States (OAS). The Netherlands is a member of the Commission, while the Dutch Antilles and Aruba are associate members (BZ No. 92: The ECLAC 1948–1968, 33 pp.).
11. See Stb. I 283 and Trb. 1953 No. 137. It should be emphasized that the terms ‘natives’, ‘indigenous population’ and ‘native inhabitants’ appear in the Covenant of the League of Nations (Arts. 22 and 23), but are not repeated in the Charter of the United Nations.
12. The Dutch Government did not accept any of these conventions, nor will it do so in the immediate future – from a letter from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Second Chamber of the States General, dated 27 May 1993 (Staten Generaal 1992–1993, 22800 V No. 72; see also number 23270, nos. 1 and 2), in which there is not even a mention of ILO Convention No. 169, dated 27 June 1989. At present, there are only four States party to this Convention concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries, which came into force on 5 September 1991, namely: Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico and Norway. The text appears in the ILO publication: International Labour Conventions and Recommendations, Vol. II 1963–1991 (1992) p. 1481. Nevertheless, this Convention did appear in Trb. 1990 No. 39. At the beginning of 1993 two recommendations were made to the Minister, both positively disposed towards Convention No. 169 (Advisory Commission on Human Rights and Foreign Policy, No. 16, 18 January 1993, and the National Advisory Council for Development Co-operation (26 January 1993)).Google Scholar
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23. (1749).
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29. Discourteously printed as Vittoria.
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32. It is an encouraging state of affairs that the Erasmus Prize was presented in 1992 to the ‘Archivo General de Indias’ in Seville by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. In 1990 the following publication appeared in Madrid: Computerization Project for the Archivo General de Indias (63 pp.).
33. In the Vatican City a two-part work was published in 1991, entitled America Pontificia. Primi saeculi Evangelizationis 1493–1592, J. Metzler, ed., 1527 pp.
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39. The editorial board was headed by the canonist, advisorto the King, professorat Salamanca, Palacios Rubios O.P. (1450–1524).
40. Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de las Indias (1973) 4 Vols.
41. See, for example, an excellent account by Hanke, L., All Mankind is One. A Study of the Disputation between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Gines de Sepulveda in 1550 on the Intellectual and Religious Capacity of American Indians (1974).Google Scholar
42. Haiti – ‘mountain country’ in the language of the Indians – was connected with Santo Domingo from 1795 to 1808, and again from 1822 to 1843. The eastern part of the island gained independence as the Dominican Republic on 18 November 1844. It was annexed by Spain, under protest from Haiti, on 18 March 1861, and only recognized as a State on 14 October 1874.
43. This Institute has published a journal since 1941: America Indigena, as well as a yearbook, since 1966: Annuario Indigenista. In other countries similar institutes also exist.
44. Such as those of the UN and the OAS.
45. E/CN 4/Sub. 2/1993/26.
46. Latin text appears in Americania Pontificia, op. cit. n. 33, Vol. I, No. 84, p. 364. Partial French translation by Dufour, A., ‘Quelques problèmes juridiquesde la conquêtede l'Amerique par les Espagnols’, 14 Cadmos (1991) No. 53, pp. 115–135, at p. 130.Google Scholar
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48. The approximately 40 million Latin American Indians are probably die oldest known indigenous peoples of a total of approximately 300 million. For odier continents and countries see, for example, for New Zealand: Brownlie, I., Treaties and Indigenous Peoples (1992).Google Scholar
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50. There exists a remarkable discrepancy between the currently small number of parties and the vast amount of literature published so far.
51. The Swiss ethnologist Peter Hassler wrote last year that there is no proof that the Aztecs made human sacrifices (Menschenopfer bei den Azteken? Eine quellen-und ideologie-kritische Studie) (1992). And from another point of view, who has not admired the (civilized!) art collections of the Aztecs, Mayas, Incas, etc., in museums all over the world?
52. (1992) 114 pp.
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54. See the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 23 May 1969, Art. 27 (AJIL (1969) p. 875; Trb. 1972 No. 51).
55. 16 Droits (1992) pp. 119–130.