[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 4, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S755-S756]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PROTECTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, on December 22, 2004, the United Nations 
General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the beginning of a 
second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. As we 
enter the final year of this international campaign we should remind 
ourselves of the importance of protecting indigenous populations and 
take stock of what has

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been achieved and what more needs to be done.
  I have always believed that as we advance and defend our national 
interests around the globe we must also fulfill our moral obligations. 
As chairman or ranking member of the subcommittee that funds the 
Department of State and foreign operations for over two decades, I have 
had a unique vantage point from which to watch globalization evolve and 
test our Nation's commitment to its ideals. As the world's population 
swells, technology advances, and competition for energy and natural 
resources intensifies, the rights and needs of indigenous populations 
are threatened by governments and corporations seeking to exploit the 
ground on which they have built their lives and preserved their 
cultures and the wealth beneath it.
  This has been the reality for too many indigenous cultures, and it is 
no surprise that they are among the most vulnerable and disenfranchised 
populations on Earth. These groups have distinct ways of life and 
histories, tied to land they have inhabited and protected for thousands 
of years. But their established roots rarely afford them representation 
in governments that hide behind laws and regulations proclaiming equal 
treatment for indigenous populations who have virtually no role in the 
political process.
  Recognizing that indigenous peoples have unique rights and needs that 
the rest of humanity has a responsibility to protect, several years ago 
I undertook to create the position of advisor for indigenous peoples' 
issues at the U.S. Agency for International Development. I am pleased 
that USAID recently established this office to implement and coordinate 
a comprehensive, U.S. Government strategy on indigenous peoples, with 
specific goals, guidelines, benchmarks, and impact assessments, 
including support for indigenous peoples' organizations.
  The selection of Brian Keane to fill this role is an early indicator 
that it will be addressed proactively. Brian, who has devoted his 
professional life to these issues, will work to ensure that U.S. 
Government policies and programs around the world are carried out in a 
manner that respects the rights of indigenous peoples and responds to 
their needs. Brian's work in indigenous communities all across the 
globe, and his advocacy on behalf of indigenous peoples to inform 
international policy making, has prepared him for his task.
  This position must not be merely a symbolic post. From the Amazon 
rainforest to the Kalahari Desert, indigenous peoples have for 
centuries faced existential threats due to racism, greed, misguided 
policies of forced assimilation, and indifference. However, for the 
surviving groups, the length of their struggle belies the acuteness of 
the threat. In Brazil, the Guarani people have been driven from their 
land and are plagued by alcoholism, poverty, and a suicide rate many 
times the national average, replaced by expanding sugarcane farms.
  Anthropologists explain that the loss of land by indigenous groups 
often leads to social disintegration and economic dependence on the 
state, as we know only too well from our own experience. We see it in 
places like Botswana, where the San people, traditionally nomads, have 
been uprooted from their ancestral lands to make way for diamond mines, 
forced into settlements, and exposed to HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. 
Their way of life, which the Botswana Government should be protecting, 
instead is being destroyed.
  The circumstances of each indigenous culture, whose members total as 
many as 400 million people worldwide, differs from continent to 
continent but they face similar threats. To defend their rights, 
protect their land, and preserve their cohesiveness, a key policy 
change is needed. We must commit to honoring the principle of free, 
prior, and informed consent.
  For too long, governments, often including our own, have paid lip 
service to consulting native populations as a substitute for obtaining 
their consent for actions that directly affect them. More often than 
not, such consultations have been cursory or conducted in a manner that 
divides members of indigenous communities against each other. I am 
pleased that in 2010 President Obama formally declared our Nation's 
support for the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 
reversing the position that the United States had held since the 
declaration's adoption in 2007.
  While that was a positive step, combatting discrimination against 
indigenous peoples requires more than policy statements, it requires 
action. That is why I want to highlight the ongoing threat to these 
populations and call attention to the new position of advisor for 
indigenous peoples' issues.
  In today's globalized world, ensuring the rights of indigenous 
peoples is everyone's responsibility. Respect for their rights is not 
only necessary for their continued survival as distinct cultures but 
also to help ensure the well-being of the entire planet. Whether we are 
talking about biodiversity protection, climate change or sustainable 
development, indigenous peoples have much to offer. Their ancestral 
knowledge, developed over millennia, has been vital to preserving what 
is left of the world's critical ecosystems and can play a key role in 
finding solutions to challenges that humanity is currently facing.
  I look forward to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, a high-
level plenary meeting of the General Assembly that will take place at 
the United Nations in September of this year. Its main objective is to 
share perspectives and best practices on the realization of the rights 
of indigenous peoples and to pursue the objectives of the U.N. 
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The World Conference 
provides an important chance to give real meaning to the principles 
expressed in the declaration and is a historic opportunity for the 
United States to lead the international community by putting forward a 
concrete plan of action aimed at ensuring that the collective rights of 
indigenous peoples, including the right to free, prior and informed 
consent, are recognized and respected.

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