Statements and Speeches by Ministry Representatives 2005

UN General Assembly 60th Session, Third Committee, Item 68 Indigenous Issues

Statement by Mr Andrew Begg, 20 October 2005

Mr Chairman

New Zealand has long supported the negotiations to reach consensus on a text for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which have, until recently, made little substantive progress.

The draft text that has been under debate for over ten years is unworkable and unacceptable for many States, including New Zealand. It must be amended if a Declaration can be implemented as a standard of achievement. Failure to recognise this will effectively mean no Declaration. Let us all be absolutely clear about that, Mr Chairman.

For this reason, New Zealand, along with a group of other countries, tabled a comprehensive and amended text in the negotiations in 2004. Those amendments seek to ensure the Declaration is consistent with international human rights law and international humanitarian law. They aim to ensure the Declaration protects individual as well as collective rights and the rights of other parties. They address the fundamental requirement to safeguard the territorial integrity and political unity of States, as well as the responsibility of democratically-elected governments to govern for the welfare of all their citizens. We are pleased that our amendments have broad support from many countries.

Mr Chairman, in elaborating the rights of one group of citizens, New Zealand cannot agree to a document that suggests there are two standards of citizenship or two classes of citizen. In this sense, the Declaration must be inclusive and not exclusive. That imperative must apply to all provisions of the Declaration.

Mr Chairman, the Declaration must also be one that government can realistically live up to as a standard of achievement. It must take into account historical as well as contemporary realities and laws with respect to lands and resources.

Finally, Mr Chairman, let us remember that while the negotiations have been inclusive, the Declaration will be one for States to endorse and adopt. States must assume more leadership in these negotiations so that we can bring them to an early conclusion. We are not prepared to continue with what has become a protracted and inconclusive process. And we are not prepared to let this negotiation labour on for another decade.

In this regard, we welcome the Chair’s text which was submitted to the Commission on Human Rights earlier this year. It requires further amendments, both on self-determination and on lands and resources in particular, before it will be acceptable. But, it provides a sound and realistic basis for moving the negotiations forward and the potential for them to be concluded early next year. Mr Chairman, that must now become our collective objective.

Mr Chairman, I thank you.

back to 2005 speech index