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Saami Council, José Carlos Morales from Costa Rica, Azelene Kaingang from Brazil, Ratnaker
Bhengra from India, Hassan Id Balkassm, an Amazigh from Morocco, Devasish Roy from Bangla-
desh and Les Malezer from Australia, along with academic experts such as Erica Irene Daes,
Augusto Willemsen Díaz, Professor James Anaya from the University of Arizona and Claire
Charters, Maori from Victoria University of Wellington. National civil society organisations such
as the “Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez” Human Rights Centre and the Mexican Human Rights Acad-
emy (Academia Mexicana de Derechos Humanos), the National Centre for Support to Indigenous
Missions (Centro Nacional de Apoyo a Misiones Indígenas - CENAMI) and the Mexican Acade-
my of Human Rights (Academia Mexicana de Derechos Humanos) also attended, together with
international organisations such as Amnesty International, Droits Humains et Démocratie, the
International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs and the Netherlands Center for Indigenous
Rights. There were also representatives from international bodies such as the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights.
15 This concern has in no way been overcome, as the Western states, primarily the United Kingdom,
have in other fora continued to express their rejection of the possibility of conceiving that human
rights can have a collective dimension.
16 The Russian Federation proposed compromise language that consisted of three elements: an
amendment to OP31: “this right (self-determination) shall be exercised in accordance with the rule of law,
with due respect for legal procedures and rules and in good faith”. A new safeguard: “without prejudice
to the rights provided in this declaration, no provision contained in it shall be invoked for the purposes of
diminishing the sovereignty of the State, its political unity or its territorial integrity”. And, if accepted
and in line with the debates, they would consider respecting Article 3.
17 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171, 26 March
1976 and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 December 1966, 999
UNTS 3, entry into force 3 January 1976.
18 UN Expert Seminar on Indigenous Peoples’ Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and
their Relationship to Land in accordance with Sub-Commission of the Protection and Promotion
of Human Rights Resolution 2004/9 UN Doc E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/L.11 (25-27 January 2006).
19 Fergus MacKay. 2003. The UN Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the position
of the United Kingdom (London: Forest People Programme).
20 See UN Human Rights Council “Resolution 2006/2: Working Group of the Commission on Hu-
man Rights to Elaborate a Draft Declaration in Accordance with Paragraph 5 of the General As-
sembly Resolution 49/214 of 23 December 1994” (29 June 2006).
21 Co-sponsored by Armenia, Benin, Cyprus, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Estonia, Slovenia,
Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Lesotho, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama,
Peru, Portugal and Venezuela.
22 Canada and the Russian Federation.
23 Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Ghana, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sen-
egal, Tunisia and Ukraine.
24 UNGA “Decision to Defer Action on the draft declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples”
UN Doc A/61/448 (20 December 2006).
25 The following, for example, are considered indigenous peoples: the Pygmies of the Great Lakes
Region, the San of South Africa, the Hadzabe of Tanzania and the Ogiek, Sengwer and Yakuu of
Kenya, all hunter-gatherer peoples. Nomadic pastoralists include the Pokot of Kenya and Ugan-
da, the Barabaig of Tanzania, the Masai of Kenya and Tanzania, the Samburu, Turkana, Rendille,
Endorois and Borana of Kenya, the Karamajong of Uganda, the Hinda of Namibia and the Tu-
areg, Fulani and Toubou of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, along with the Amazigh of North Af-
rica (Cf. African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. 2006. Indigenous Peoples in Africa:
the forgotten peoples? The African Commission’s Work on Indigenous Peoples in Africa (Copenhagen:
IWGIA)). All without considering the numerous peoples studied in classical anthropology such
as the Dogon of Mali, the Nuer and Dinka of Sudan, the Ndembu of Zambia and the Lele of the
Congo.
26 Above n 12.
27 Above n 7.