JAPAN: Indigenous communities urge G8 countries to include them in the climate change talks and secure their rights

Record ID: 465526

  • Title: JAPAN: Indigenous communities urge G8 countries to include them in the climate change talks and secure their rights
  • Date: 5th July 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) VICTORIA TAULI-CORPUZ, CHAIRPERSON OF UN PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES, SAYING: "We have contributed the least to climate change but we are carrying the heavy burden of solving the climate change problem, and so we would like them to ensure that we are included in the negotiations of the climate change convention, so that we can contribute more substantially in shaping solutions."
  • Embargoed: 20th July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVAC85ICIC1KHTGUQ0MBSYEYII7V
  • Story Text: Leaders of indigenous communities urge G8 counties nations to include indigenous people in discussions as they deal with climate change and secure their rights.
    Leaders of indigenous communities urged Group of Eight rich nations on Friday (July 4) to include indigenous people in discussions as they deal with climate change and secure their rights.
    Twenty-six representatives from indigenous communities around the world, including the United States, Japan and Australia, as well as around 400 activists and Japanese people gathered in Hokkaido, northern Japan, where the G8 summit will take place, for their first international summit on indigenous peoples.
    The Nibutani Declaration, named after an Ainu village in Hokkaido, called for the G8 to "ensure and facilitate the effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in all the processes of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change".

    "We have contributed the least to climate change but we are carrying the heavy burden of solving the climate change problem, and so we would like them to ensure that we are included in the negotiations of the climate change convention, so that we can contribute more substantially in shaping solutions," said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a representative of the Igorot people of the Philippines and also Chair of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
    Studies have shown that indigenous people are affected by climate change in multiple ways.
    The United Nations has estimated that 370 million indigenous peoples in the world were already exposed on the front line of climate change to more frequent floods, droughts, desertification, disease and rising seas.
    The representative also called for the world to adopt the U.N.
    Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    "This occasion points to the direction to educate the young generation of the world," said Ogawa Shizue, a 67-year-old Ainu woman, who attended the summit.
    40-year-old Maori man Zack Bishara, who was invited to the summit after having 6-year of relationship with the Ainu community in Hokkaido, said this summit will have a positive impact for the indigenous people.

    "All of indigenous people are united by the issues that they face and the struggles that they fight for. Particularly with their rights and their responsibilities as indigenous peoples to look after the environment, look after their communities, so that the generations to come can have a positive future," said Bishara.
    The representatives also called for the governments of Canada, the United States and Russia to adopt the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
    The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand voted against the non-binding declaration and Russia abstained, which was passed overwhelmingly in the General Assembly in September 2007.
    However, in Canada and Australia, prime ministers apologised for the mistreatment of indigenous peoples, while in New Zealand, the government paid money to Maoris to settle century old grievances.
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