NU: So please try your best to influence your government to adopt the Declaration

Dear friends,

As you might know, the UN Declaration on he Rights of Indigenous Peoples is now being considered by the UN General Assembly. It has been deferred last December because of the resolution from the African Group calling for a deferment of the consideration of the Declaration.

Since then, informal consultations took place but nothing has been resolved yet. Now, during the Permanent Forum session for this 2007, together with some members of the Forum and the Indigenous Caucus, we met with the President of the Gen.

Assembly and she informed us that for the remaining months before the General Assembly will act upon the Declaration, she will appoint a facilitator, to help bring the government positions together.

Today, they announced who this facilitator will be and he is the Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations, Ambassador Hilario Davide, Jr.

I am attaching the letter which announced this and you will see that come mid-July he will have to report what happened with the consultations he made.

What needs to be done now is for all of us to try our best to ensure that the governments in our countries will vote for the adoption of the UN Declaration at the General Assembly. This decision will be done between July 15 to August 2007.

So, we have to lobby very hard the governments to ensure we will get the votes. As of now, 70 governments are co-sponsors of the Resolution calling for the GA to adopt the UN Declaration as adopted by the UN Human Rights Council. We need at least 30 governments to make sure the Declaration will be adopted. So please try your best to influence your government to adopt the Declaration.

warm regards,

Victoria Tauli Corpuz

Chairperson, United Nations (UN) Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Executive Director, Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education)

Convenor, Asian Indigenous Women's Network (AIWN)

1 Roman Ayson Road, Baguio City, Philippines, 2600

telephone no : 63-74-4447703

fax no. : 63-74-4439459

cellphone no : 63-9175317811

email: [email protected], [email protected]

website: www.tebtebba.org

website: www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii