By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 22
-- During the
World
Conference on
Indigenous
People, the
Inter-Parliamentary
Union released
a handbook to
help
parliamentarians
implement the
UN Declaration
on the Rights
of Indigenous
People.
Inner City
Press asked
IPU Secretary
General Martin
Chungong,
Wilton
Littlechild
and UNDP's
Charles
Chauvel
about free,
prior and
informed
consent, and
about
proposals for
minimum percentages
or numbers of
indigenous
people in
parliaments.
Charles Chauvel
said such
set-aside or
devoted seats
have long existed
in New
Zealand;
Chungong said
IPU counts
only 1000
indigenous
legislators
among 47,000
worldwide. He
added that Bolivia
incorporated
the entire Declaration
into its
Constitution.
Littlechild
emphasized
that free,
prior and
informed
consent is not
a veto, but
imput. In the
hallway
afterward
another
indigenous
long-time
activist said
to watch for
Canada
opposing free,
prior and
informed
consent. We
will.
Rigoberta
Menchu
about
recent
killings of
indigenous
people in
Guatemala,
and how the UN
Declaration
has impacted
Guatemala.
Rigoberta
Menchu replied
about the
incident,
involving the
cement company
San Juan; she
referred to
free, prior
and informed
consent.
The
president of
the Sami
parliament
Aili Keskitalo
began by
saying the
delegates to
the WCIP from
Russia had
been blocked.
Inner City
Press had
heard Vietnam
also blocked
delegates, and
asked. The
Sami
parliament
president said
yes, she'd
heard a
delegate from
Asia had been
blocked. We'll
see.
Back
on Friday,
September 19
while more
than two dozen
countries
pledged
support for
Iraq against
the Islamic
State in the
Security
Council on
September 19,
who would
speak on UNTV
about it?
For
more than an
hour the media
was told that
French foreign
minister
Laurent Fabius
would be
“coming to the
stakeout” to
take questions
on UNTV. It
was pushed
back, then
when finally
Fabius emerged
he rushed
past the
stakeout into
the hallway,
where he spoke
only in French.
Update:
to be fair,
the French
Mission put
out this
transcript.
So too
with Turkey's
foreign
minister
Mevlut
Cavusoglu.
When he
emerged from
the Security
Council, he summoned
Turkish media
down the
hallway
for a private
stakeout. Some
non-Turkish
journalists
weren't
allowed to go,
something
protested by
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
But why not
openly take
questions?
The
three
on-camera
stakeouts that
occurred were
by Syria's
Bashar
Ja'afari,
Iraq's
Foreign
Minister
Jaafari
(no relation,
if that needs
to be said),
and Canada's
John Baird.
To the last of
these, Inner
City Press asked if
before any
bombing in
Syria consent
should be
sought from
Damascus or
the Council.
That has “yet
to be
determined,”
Baird replied.
Iraqi
FM Jaafari,
when Inner
City Press
asked if the
Coalition
should speak
with Syria,
seemed to
dodge the
question. But
at least he
took questions
on camera, as
did Syria's
Ja'afari.
Where were the
others? Is
this how GA
Week will be?
FUNCA in is on
the case,
including
about faux
UN press
conferences
like those
held in the
private club
handed out by
the UN to its
Censorship
Alliance.
That group tried to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
now
masquerades on
media freedom.
This is how
the UN works.
Watch this
site.
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