Delegates call for reform

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Indigenous issues should have been highlighted during the UN conference, an American Native lawyer on the Indigenous peoples' Non-Government Organization working group said.

"Indigenous issues have as much relevance as anything else," Terry Janis said.

Indigenous NGO delegates met June 10 and 11 to try to formulate policies on Indigenous rights to present to the United Nations during their world conference on human rights.

But Janis, who volunteered as spokesman for the NGO working group, said he was only able to speak to the UN's drafting committee about the recommendations for five minutes.

The working group's half-a-dozen recommendations came after two days of discussions with dozens of Indigenous delegates from around the world. Key among their suggestions was recognition of Indigenous land rights and recognition of the Indigenous as a peoples.

"We have to be recognized as a peoples before we can exercise our individual rights because individual rights flow from collective rights," Janis said.

Janis, staff attorney with the Indian Law Resources Centre in Helena, Mont., was attending the forum in Vienna in the hope of influencing the UN's draft document on human rights.

He volunteered as group spokesman when the scheduled secretary cancelled because he saw a chance to influence the drafting of the UN's document on human rights.

Janis' group also called for reform within the UN and the appointment of an Indigenous High Commissioner.