Current Situation of the Draft Declaration
The OAS Working Group is currently engaged in the 'Final Revision' of the draft Declaration based on the New Base Text. To this end, Working Group participants - both indigenous peoples and state delegations - continue to meet for Negotiation Sessions to debate the draft text and submit proposals for alternative language in their efforts to reach consensus.
Most recently, the Working Group held the Eleventh Negotiation Session on the draft American Declaration from April 14-18th. The first part of the session dealt with a discussion and presentation by Dr. James Anaya on the relationship and relevance of the newly approved United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigeous Peoples for the draft American Declaration. In addition, indigenous and state delegations discussed the results of the Reflection Session held previously in November 2007. This Reflection Session was held to contemplate and develop common strategies for strengthening and furthering the negotiation process on the draft Declaration and resulted in a compilation of Commentaries and Suggestions from State and indigenous delegations to the supervisory group of the Working Group - the Permanent Council. Like other negotiation sessions, the meetings also involved discussion of the current draft text of the Declaration. As a result, six new articles were approved in their entirety (II, V, XI, XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXIX), and two more were approved in part (Articles VIII part I and XVII part I). Finally, participants were asked to provide contributions and comments related to the drafting of a resolution on the draft Declaration that would be presented to the General Assembly. More information on this session can be found in the Chair's Report.
Since the Eleventh Negotiation Session, the General Assembly of the OAS has adopted Resolution AG/RES. 2368 (XXXVIII-O/08) on the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Resolution renewed the mandate of the Working Group for another year, and requested that the Working Group hold up to three meetings, each of up to five days, between September 2008 and March 2009. The resolution further details that one of the meetings should be a "special meeting for evaluation and strengthening of the negotiation process and to propose specific actions for addressing the issues, and the two others Meetings of Negotiations in the Quest for Points of Consensus."
The Center continues to be actively engaged in the Draft American Declaration process through our participation in meetings, legal counsel and assistance to indigenous communities and organizations. We are currently working harder than ever to get more representative indigenous governments to participate and provide their insight on the declaration and negotiation process. Their voices are a testament to the real need for such a declaration in the American Human Rights System.
Brief History of the Draft Declaration
In 1989, more than ten years after a similar process began at the UN, the member states of the OAS General Assembly finally adopted Resolution 1022, requesting that the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights prepare a juridical instrument related to the rights of indigenous peoples. This document was originally meant to be adopted by the General Assembly as a symbol of American states' willingness to recognize indigenous rights in 1992 - the five-hundred-year anniversary of the conquest of America. Though the document was purported to represent the rights and interests of indigenous peoples, OAS member states largely ignored indigenous peoples' requests for regional consultation meetings and chose instead to consult with anthropologists and other "experts." Consequently, the first stage of the declaration's development was carried out largely among state member delegations without input from civil society. During the period between 1989 and 1997, the original text of the declaration was developed by the Inter-American Commission and was subsequently passed to the Permanent Council for closed-door consideration from June 1997 to June 1999.
When a Working Group to consider the declaration was established as a subsidiary of the Permanent Council in 1999, most OAS member states maintained their position that the declaration would be developed and adopted largely behind closed doors, only allowing for indigenous participation in the opening and closing ceremonies. However, during the Permanent Council meeting convened prior to the working group, several states - especially the US, Canada, and Antigua and Barbados - collaborated with indigenous peoples, allowing them to occupy several seats of their delegations in order to voice their opinions. Momentum grew as indigenous peoples from all over the Americas began to demand their right to participate, and during the first meeting of the Working Group, hundreds of indigenous representatives, including those from the Center, walked out in a coordinated protest against the OAS's anti-democratic practices. By 2003, these efforts led to the inclusion of indigenous peoples as equal participants in the Working Group's meetings. Thus, the OAS process was opened not only to state members but also to non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples for the first time in the history of the OAS, representing a historic opening of the OAS to civil society participation.
In general, the process of developing the draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be broken into three stages, each of which was based on a revised text and characterized by a particular methodology. The last two of these stages have been carried out exclusively within the context of the Working Group:
1. Stage One: Preliminary Developments, based on the Inter-American Commission's text, refers to the earliest stage of the process, in which participation was restricted to the Permanent Council and Working Group and closed to civil society.
2. Stage Two: Negotiations in the quest for points of consensus, based on the Chair's Consolidated Text, consisted of seven negotiation sessions of the Working Group involving the active participation of states, NGOs, and indigenous participants.
3. Stage Three: The Final Revision, based on the New Basic Text, is currently ongoing and is marked by a change in the methodology, which restricts the discussions of the Working Group to the bracketed text - that text which remains highly contested.
It is important to emphasize that each of these stages has been based on a revised version of the draft declaration text, which reflected the international discourse at that particular moment. Due to the changes described above, the latter texts tend to reflect a greater degree of indigenous participation in the form of interventions and proposals submitted to the Working Group. For more on alternative texts and the process of revising the draft language, please go to Texts and Proposals.
Resources
We are giving special attention to the OAS negotiations for valid reasons. This process holds out hope that we can yet pressure or persuade the United States to support a strong statement of indigenous rights, despite its opposition to the UN Declaration. We also hope to move Canada to a more favorable position. We continue to feel that we can bring the United States, Canada and most other countries into a consensus in support of both the OAS and UN Declarations, without making changes that would weaken indigenous rights.