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FWD: 2 from Cancun
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Sunkmanitu tanka Isnala Najin
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Sep 13, 2003 06:17 PDT
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Following is a copy of the International Cancun Declaration of
Indigenous Peoples, & a first-hand account of tragedy at Cancun.
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THE INTERNATIONAL CANCUN DECLARATION
OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
5th WTO Ministerial Conference - Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico, 12
September
2003
We, the international representatives of Indigenous Peoples gathered
here
during the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico from 10-14
September 2003 wish to extend our thanks to the Indigenous Peoples of
Mexico, particularly the Mayan Indigenous Peoples of Quintana Roo, for
welcoming us.
We share the concerns of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, as
expressed
in the Congreso Nacional Indigena Declaration of Cancun. We join our
voices
to this CNI Declaration and its conclusions and recommendations.
We wish to especially recognize and honor the sacrifice of our Korean
brother, Mr. Lee-Kyung-Hae, made here in Cancun. His act of
self-immolation
was a dignified cultural expression profoundly reflecting the daily
reality
of the effects of Globalization and liberalized trade on peasants and
Indigenous Peoples throughout the world.
We have come to Cancun to address critical issues and negative impacts
of
the WTO Trade Negotiations on our families, communities and nations.
With the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and with the
continuing imposition of the structural adjustment policies of the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund, our situation, as Indigenous
Peoples,
has turned from bad to worse. Corporations are given more rights and
privileges at the expense of our rights. Our right to
self-determination,
which is to freely determine our political status and pursue our own
economic, social and cultural development, and our rights to our
territories
and resources, to our indigenous knowledge, cultures and identities are
grossly violated. Some of the prime examples of the adverse impacts of
the
WTO Agreements on us are the following:
· Loss of livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of indigenous
peasants in
Mexico who are producing corn because of the dumping of artificially
cheap,
highly subsidized corn from the USA and tens of thousands of indigenous
vegetable producers in the Cordillera region of the Philippines because
of
dumping of vegetables. The contamination of traditional indigenous corn
in
Mexico by genetically-modified-corn is a very serious problem for
Indigenous
Peoples. All these are due to the liberalization of trade in agriculture
and
the deregulation of laws which protect domestic producers and crops
required by the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AOA). The structural
adjustment policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund
are the foundations for liberalization, privatization and deregulation.
High
export subsidies and domestic support provided to rich agribusiness
corporations and rich farmers in the United States and the European
Union
have also made this possible.
· The increasing impoverishment of indigenous and hilltribe farmers
engaged
in coffee production in Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia, Vietnam, etc.
because
of the drop in commodity prices of coffee.
· The increasing conflicts between transnational mining, gas and
oil
corporations and Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua
New
Guinea, India, Ecuador, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Nigeria,
Chad-Cameroon,
USA, Russia, Venezuela, among others, and the militarization and
environmental devastation in these communities due to the operations of
these extractive industries. The facilitation of the entry of such
corporations are made possible because of liberalization of investment
laws
pushed by the TRIMS (Trade-Related Investment Measures) Agreement and
WB-IMF
conditionalities, regional trade agreements like NAFTA and bilateral
investment agreements.
· The militarization of Indigenous Peoples’ lands and territories,
and the
many cases of assassination and arbitrary arrests and detention of
indigenous activists and leaders and people who are supporting them, as
well
as the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ resistance, all
significantly
increased.
· The upsurge in infrastructure development, particularly of mega
hydroelectric dams, oil and gas pipelines, roads in Indigenous Peoples
territories to provide support to operations of extractive industries,
logging corporations, and export processing zones. The infrastructure
development, for instance, under Plan Panama has destroyed ceremonial
and
sacred sites of Indigenous Peoples in the six States of Southern Mexico
and
in Guatemala.
· The patenting of medicinal plants and seeds nurtured and used by
Indigenous Peoples, like the quinoa, ayahuasca, Mexican yellow bean,
maca,
sangre de drago, hoodia, yew plant, etc. Such biopiracy and patenting of
life-forms is facilitated by the TRIPS Agreement.
· Soaring prices of pharmaceutical products and inaccessibility of
cheaper
drugs for diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS which are diseases
in
Indigenous Peoples communities and decreasing public health services in
these communities.
· Privatization of basic public services such as water and energy
in several
countries which has spurred massive general strikes and protests such as
those led by Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia. The General Agreement on
Services (GATS) whose coverage is being expanded to include
environmental
services (sanitation, nature and landscape protection), financial
services,
tourism, among others, allowed for this.
· The undermining of international instruments, constitutional
provisions,
and national laws and policies which protect our rights.
All these developments are alarming. This global situation has
undermined
self-sufficient economies of Indigenous Peoples leading to food
insecurity,
worsening poverty and loss of land, culture and identity. We, Indigenous
Peoples’ representatives, present in Cancun during the event of the
Fifth
Ministerial Meeting of the WTO, are asking the governments to do the
following:
1. Recognize and protect our territorial and resource rights and
our right
to self-determination. The human-rights framework should underpin trade,
investment, development and anti-poverty policies and programmes.
Investment
liberalization rules like the TRIMS Agreement, conditionalities by the
WB
and IMF which push countries to liberalize their investment laws,
regional
trade agreements and bilateral investment agreements which give more
protection and rights to corporations than to Indigenous Peoples should
be
changed. Many of these facilitate the displacement of Indigenous Peoples
and
the appropriation of our lands, waters, resources and knowledge.
Indigenous
peoples who have been displaced from their lands because of
militarization,
infrastructure projects, extractive industries, export processing zones
and
other development schemes should be repatriated back to their lands or
should be justly compensated. International human rights and
environmental
standards should be upheld by governments and should guide the way trade
agreements are formulated and implemented. The free and prior informed
consent of Indigenous Peoples should be obtained before any project is
brought into their communities. Article 8j and 10c of the Convention of
Biological Diversity that protect traditional knowledge and indigenous
systems and practices of land use and land tenure should be the
framework
for WTO Agreements. Governments should support the immediate adoption of
the
UN Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that will help
ensure the recognition and protection of our rights.
2. Stop patenting of life forms and other intellectual property
rights over
biological resources and indigenous knowledge. Ensure that we,
Indigenous
Peoples, retain our rights to have control over our seeds, medicinal
plants
and indigenous knowledge.
We call for an explicit statement for the banning of patents on
life-forms
in the TRIPS Agreement. We also demand that the patent rights, patent
applications and claims of corporations, individuals or governments over
indigenous medicinal plants, seeds, and knowledge and even over
Indigenous
Peoples’ human genetic materials should be withdrawn. Biopiracy should
be
stopped and the free and prior informed consent of Indigenous Peoples
should
be obtained before access to their resources is granted. The issue of
protection of indigenous knowledge should not be dealt with by the WTO
TRIPs
Agreement because its basic assumptions contradict the concepts, values
and
ethics underpinning indigenous knowledge systems. This can be best
protected
under the United Nations and we therefore, urge the UN Permanent Forum
on
Indigenous Issues to convene a technical meeting to explore how the UN
can
address the issue of protection of indigenous knowledge.
3. Ensure Indigenous Peoples’ basic right to health. The right of
countries
to take measures to protect public health and promote access to
medicines
should take precedence over their obligations to protect intellectual
property right of corporations. The patent protection asked by
pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporations should be limited in order
to
protect public health and safety and ensure production and easy access
to
cheap essential medicines. Health is a basic human right and Indigenous
Peoples should enjoy this right. Governments should be allowed to use
the
flexibilities allowed in the TRIPS Agreement which are reflected in the
Doha
TRIPS and Public Health Declaration. An amendment to TRIPS should be
done to
simplify and clarify the procedures for compulsory licensing and
parallel
importation and to remove the unnecessary obstacles to the import and
export
of medicines needed to provide affordable medicines to the poor.
4. No new issues should be negotiated in this 5th Ministerial
Conference. We
support the position of some developing countries to stop the launching
of a
new round or to expand the WTO by negotiating on new issues such as
investments, competition, transparency in government procurement and
trade
facilitation. The WTO should not pursue any negotiation on investment
and
should change its existing investment rules which provide excessive
rights
to corporations and allow for their unregulated behavior. Those rules
which
prevent governments from pursuing rights-based development and
environmentally-sustainable policies should be abandoned.
5. Prevent the expansion of the GATS Agreement and amend the
existing
agreement to stop the privatization and liberalization of health,
education,
water, energy, and environmental services. The liberalization and
privatization of services in environmental services (e.g. parks and
landscape services), the commercialization of indigenous cultures and
the
increasing monopoly control of the tourism industry in the hands of
international and national travel and tour agencies should be stopped.
We
must be allowed to be the managers of protected areas, parks, forests
and
waters found in our territories. We should be able to continue
practicing
our own indigenous natural management practices in forests, water,
biodiversity and ecosystem management.
6. Stop the negotiations on agriculture which will push for further
import
liberalization of agricultural products. Drastically end the export and
domestic subsidies of the US and the EU for their agribusiness
corporations
and rich farmers. States must take decisive measures to promote and
protect
food sovereignty and food security, and stop the dumping and smuggling
of
artificially cheap and highly subsidized agricultural products from the
US,
EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Ensure the right of indigenous
farmers to sustain their indigenous agricultural systems and to plant
and
reproduce their traditional seeds. States must not include indigenous
agriculture systems in the scope of international trade rules. The
rights of
Indigenous Peoples to their traditional livelihoods and to food should
be
recognized and protected, thus trade and investment rules which
undermine
these rights should be repealed or appropriately amended.
7. End the militarization of Indigenous Peoples’ communities and
stop the
criminalization of protest and resistance actions of Indigenous Peoples
against destructive industries, projects and programs. There should be
meaningful and effective investigation of the many cases of
assassinations,
arbitrary arrests and detentions, rapes committed against Indigenous
Peoples
and their supporters. Justice should be accorded to the victims and
their
families, and the perpetrators punished for their crimes.
8. Support and strengthen the sustainable trading systems which
have existed
for centuries between the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. Trade
routes
between the various Indigenous Peoples within the Americas (USA, Canada,
Mexico have been existing for centuries and trading between them is
still
practiced, Militarization of borders and other destructive practices
have
greatly limited their scale and utility for Indigenous Peoples. Trade
between Indigenous Peoples should be sustained and promoted.
The ministers at this Fifth Ministerial meeting of the WTO have the
responsibility to represent not only commercial interests but all of the
people of their States, including Indigenous Peoples. Existing human
rights,
environmental, social and cultural conventions and covenants developed
within the United Nations system continue to be the States’ legal if not
moral obligation. All international law including human rights law binds
them.
Indigenous peoples are the subjects of many of these covenants and
conventions and their jurisprudence. Our rights cannot be ignored, nor
can
their observance be diminished or compromised by trade agreements and
regimes. We as Indigenous Peoples have the right to participate as
peoples
and actors in our own development, consistent with our own vision and
tradition. Our free and informed consent, free of fraud or manipulation,
must be secured through our own traditional means of decision-making.
State
sponsored development cannot just be imposed upon us. Our rights as
peoples
to our lands and territories and natural resources must be recognized,
respected and observed. Our survival as peoples depends upon it.
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Lee Kung-hae was a member of the Via Campesina. It was in our march that
he
stabbed himself. All of us Via Campesina people were right at the front,
at
the fence. He and two other Koreans climbed the fence to hold up one of
their banners and Lee's placard read "WTO kills farmers". Everyone
cheered
when they went up the fence, it was the first action once the march
arrived
at the barricade. Just after he climbed down, my group had to move back
about three or four meters as there was a
surge of press people covering the mock funeral procession for the WTO
that
the Korean delegation had organized. It was then that Lee stabbed
himself
twice.
He punctured one lung and his heart. I believe that someone else from
the
Korean delegation pulled out the knife, which caused intense bleeding.
Of
course, rather than moving back to let in medical people, the press
moved in
closer. All over the Mexican newpapers today are pictures of him with a
knife in his chest, pictures of him on the ground bleeding...
The action is very courageous and also very hard for us to come to terms
with. I am feeling sometimes that it is real and sometimes that it
isn't. We
are expecting that the western media will portray him a crazy or an
unstable
person... he was the opposite. Lee was the ex-president of the Korean
farmers union. He was a leader and a man with a firm grip on the
implications of the WTO. Not very long ago, in the spring I think, he
went
on a twenty-four day hunger strike in protest
of the Harbinson Text (one of the papers put forward for negotiation at
this
conference in cancun around agriculture) he has three children and was
only
56 years old.
The via campesina is an organization full of people who have struggled
hard
their whole lives. We are grieving, but there has also been a
determination
to strengthen our actions here in cancun against the wto.
Last night there were three vigils for companero Lee. The vigil at the
sight of the Campesina and Indigenous people's forum went most of the
night.
Hundreds, if not thousands of people came in stages to grieve for Lee
and to
stop for a moment to regroup. Also last night the Koreans set up an
encampment at the fence where Lee died.
Today the Via Campesina has moved our entire tent village (including
toliets!) to this site. There will be vigil's every night.
The V.C. also held two press conferences today. one outside the
parimeter
and the second one inside the actual WTO conference center.
I was part of the second one. We worked in conjunction with our friends
in
the coalition "our world is not for sale" to hold a vigil and press
conference inside the wto conference center. We had via campesina
speakers,
a Korean representative from the labour movement (none of Lee's
Campesina
companions were allowed in to the center), flowers, candles, pictures of
Lee
and signs that read "wto kills farmers" and "respect the struggle of Lee
Kyung-Hae" in both English and Spanish.
I think it turned out well. We took over the main press room (without
permission -small victory) and ended with a silent procession throughout
the
first floor of the building with a shrine at the end that made all the
official-looking people very uncomfortable. Please let me know if you
see
anything on the news about this. We felt it was very important to be
inside
for this moment as some people had been talking to NGO's inside who had
not
even heard of the death yet today(it is incredible how well a physical
barrier works and also how caught up in the WTO game many of the NGO's
are)
The most important message we have to give is that his death was not a
random act. It was the ultimate sacrifice for a cause that has forced
thousands of farmers around the world to commit suicide out of
desperation.
Lee's act was an act of self-immolation.
I am still not sure how i feel personally about this. I am thankful that
today was extremely busy with work and strategy and that i had something
to
DO.
I am angry that the wto daily paper did not even mention it, that the
speech
today of Director General Supachai mentioned a death and was quick to
say he
had done it to himself. The press at the official conference did not
even
ask Supachai one question about it, not one.
On the other hand, this action has brought us together in an intense
situation. I am seeing the best of the Via Campesina and the heart of
the
Mexican peasants. The UN's Kofi Annan made a statement on our side and
the
official Korean and Japanese delegation are considering a withdrawl from
the
WTO negotiations...
Let us hope.
I would appreciate news clippings from anyone.
globalice la lucha, globalise la esperanza!
globalize the struggle, globalize the hope!
martha
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