indigenous peoples

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, which was established in "April 2012 with a mandate to assess the state of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems," is going to intergrate the knowledge of indigenous peoples into eco-policy, according to a Thomson Reuters Foundation report. Unlike other international fora, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, do not engage indigenous communities in order to shape their work, the foundation report also says.

Matthew H. Birkhold, a visiting scholar at the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, writes for Bloomberg that it was a double-edged sword for the Annenberg Foundation to purchase 24 sacred American Indian objects that were auctioned off by a Paris auction house. The foundation plans to return the objects to the Hopi and the San Carlos Apache tribes. Even though the foundation denounced the sale of cultural property, it legitimized commerce in cultural property by participating in the auction, Birkhold opines.

The best solution for indigenous peoples to regain their cultural property that is not protected by intellectual property law is to work within the legal system, Birkhold argues: "The best bet for indigenous people to secure their cultural property is through the legal system, where taking a principled stand could pay dividends. A developing legal framework provides the tools to restore cultural artifacts to their rightful owners. In addition to the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Convention, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples explicitly establishes the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain, control and protect their cultural heritage and obligates signatory states to take effective measures to protect their right to do so. This framework needs to be strengthened. In the meantime indigenous groups can further develop the law while making progress in its shadow."

The case of the auction of sacred Hopi masks in France highlights the lack of protection for indigenous peoples' culture under intellectual property law in Western countries.

The Associated Press reports that the Drouot auction house in France sold 25 sacred Hopi Kachina masks, despite protests, for $1.6 million this week.  "Though a judge ruled last week that the sale of the artifacts is legal in France, the American Indian Hopi tribe says the artifacts represent their ancestors' spirits and cannot be sold as merchandise," the AP also reports. Also included in the sale was objects from the San Carlos Apache tribe and a Zuni tribe altar.

The AP decided against publishing images of the objects "because the Hopi have long kept the items out of public view and consider it sacrilegious for any images of the objects to appear." 

IC Magazine asks if the Maori, or the indigenous people of New Zealand, could have their traditional knowledge and cultural customs copyrighted by multinational corporations under a trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Parntership. A draft of the TPP was released by Wikileaks.

The government of New Zealand "clearly opposes the 'informed consent or approval and involvement of the indigenous or local community holding such knowledge', before user rights (and later on copyright and trademark rights) are given to TPP members and their corresponding investors (multinational corporations)," according to IC Magazine.

When the United Nations Declaration On the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted in 2007, it was seen as a milestone in better protecting the rights of indigenous peoples to protect their lands and cultures. But it is unlikely that President Barack Obama is going to issue an executive order to enforce the declaration, the Indian Country Today Media Network reports. Yet American Indian legal experts who gathered recently say that law to enforce the principles behind the declaration are needed more than ever. Those principles are that free, prior and informed consent from indigenous peoples is necessary before policies affecting them are implemented. U.S. assistant secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn said in a speech that "free, prior and informed consent" is more like veto power, ICTMN reports.

James Anaya, U.N. special rapporteur on indigenous rights, said during a visit to Canada that "there's a crisis in Canada with regard to indigenous issues, notwithstanding some important developments within Canada over the last decades," the Associated Press reported.

The disparities include: one in five indigenous Canadians live in dilapidated and often overcrowded homes, Anaya said, and "funding for aboriginal housing is woefully inadequate;" and that the suicide rate among Inuit and First Nations youth who live on reservations is more than five times greater than that of other Canadians.

Protecting traditional knowledge from appropriation by others is a problem around the world. Earlier this year, South Africa launched a registry for traditional knowledge that is passed down orally. South Africa's The Southern Times reports: "'One of the aims is to try to make those communities that hold this traditional knowledge, part of the mainstream economy. An important feature of the system is that it immediately allows access to information about the geographical location of the traditional knowledge owners. This is important as it increases the efficiency of prior art research. The system will also provide prior art information for intellectual property offices for patent applications examination purposes."'

I am always interested in news out of Malaysia as my college roommate is from there.

Here is this report: Indigenous peoples in Malaysia are facing forced displacement and the loss of livelihood due to extractive industries in east Malaysia, Free Malaysia Today reported. The issue was brought up in a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.  Some Malaysian leaders want James Anaya, the special UN rapporteur on indigenous rights to conduct a mission in their country, Free Malaysia Today also reported.

Separately, a human rights commission has recommended the establishment of a "Native Title Court or Special Court to deal with the backlog of native land rights cases currently in the civil court." That full story is here: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/focus-on-bumiputera-s...