It is with deep sadness that we face yet another killing of Lumad life (Mindanao, Philippines), this time of a leader of a Teduray chieftain in Maguindanao province on 2 October 2015. As reported, "Lencio Arig, a member of the Minted sa Inged, or council of leaders of the Timuay Justice and Governance, was shot dead in Sitio Keninan, Barangay Ramongaob, South Upi town by at least two gunmen as he walked home with his wife and young daughter," the leader known as someone who "always went out of his way to avoid conflict."

IOSDE strongly condemns all violence, intimidation, and other acts of human rights violations against Human Rights Defenders, and in particular those living and breathing the front lines for Indigenous Rights and especially in that context traditional healing, leadership, women's roles as revered and sacred, peaceful leadership, traditional territories, and self-determination including true sovereignty, separation from external powers and/or autonomy. Tragically, such violence against Human Rights Defenders is both historic and current with no respite; it is a norm for those defending Indigenous Rights and/or equality. Moreover, it is especially so for those defending rights that whilst confronting States, persons in power, business and authorities directly concerning laws, policies, and actions that are in deepest violation of the fundamental human rights, including true and actualized Indigenous self-determination, traditional leadership, traditional religion and sacred places and lifeways and territorial rights therein.

IOSDE has recognized from its inception that strategic killing of Indigenous Human Rights Defenders as well as their allies, and in particular or persons with deep meaning to their representative collectives for being true, faithful, kind-hearted and genuine in their positions and relations, is a strategic intimidation tactic on the part of the offenders or contractors. We also know that such intimidation tactics will never work as the offender/contractor intends; such tactics only strengthen the commitment of us all - globally, regionally and locally - to persevere all the more in support of the very rights and change those murdered, maimed and otherwise reduced and violated stood and stand for. In fact, IOSDE's very purpose is, in part, to collectively overturn the horrors created by those powers that be that meet human rights equality in action with violence. There are no reasons other than power and greed for violence to meet Human Rights Defenders. In fact, human rights, and Indigenous Rights therein, as well as Women's Rights and others rights, are to be engaged by brilliant minds, spirits and hearts of the world so to create safe and peaceful change for human rights progress.

It is with the attention and empathy of the international communities in the world that these actions will be reviewed and treated as the true genocidal acts that they are. When the citizens of the world come to realize that the very concept of citizenship that they may take for granted is actually a concept of statehood built on the backs of slaves, Indigenous Peoples, women, and desecration of the equality of all peoples and religions, the world will begin to mediate for a more peaceful state of life for all humans, as the collective that we truly are, without such horrors as the murder of Lencio Arig, the Lumads and Human Rights Defenders.

This statement can be found in pdf form for further distribution here:
IOSDE Statement on the Murder of Teduray chieftain 'meant to silence lumad struggle for rights', Mindanao, Philippines, 9 October 2015

IOSDE friends and family,

Our friends and family who are the Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao, Philippines, have long been experiencing attacks that put them into severe and critical crisis, and in recent months and weeks the situation has worsened and needs even more immediate attention.

Militarization of these Indigenous regions has lead to an increase in massacres of innocent Indigenous persons and advocates, false criminalizations (including but not limited to false accusations of participation in the NPA, New Peoples' Army) in the form of illegal military and paramilitary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and detainment of innocent persons, and civilians experiencing heavy military operations that are causing documented massive human rights violations and displacement. This is all happening for the disguised purpose of land-grabbing for State, businesses and other national and international interests and at the heavy cost of lives and a cultural genocide happening right before our eyes, and with no end to the torture in immediate sight.

These are not acceptable living (or dying) standards for any peoples or persons in this world today, and the situation needs immediate attention, halting and remedy. These are criminal acts. All States in the world contributing to or turning a blind eye/benefiting from the torture and murder of Indigenous Peoples rather than condemning it and taking action against it, near or far, are part and parcel to the industrial complex of genocide of Indigenous Peoples and neglecting their human rights duties and responsibilities both specifically and in general.

Below are a few of the urgent appeals and statements. Please make special note of both the factual documentation provided in all statements as well as the Urgent Appeal of Lingkod Katribu (at the end of this entry) for material support in the form of donations for survival and relief for Lumad refugees. For more statements, see statement and appeal attachments to the formal and shareable version of this statement on letterhead here: Organizations, Networks and Advocates on the Intensified Attacks in Mindanao

For the downloadable IOSDE Press Release click here, or contact us at [email protected].

Please distribute this information widely and help however you can!

In Solidarity

IOSDE Founder & Director,
India Reed Bowers

From Kitaotao, Bukidnon; a mercy mission for the peasants and lumads affected by militarization:

Thousands of indigenous people from different villages of Bukidnon and North Cotabato are affected of the on-going heavy military operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the 8th and 23rd Infantry Battalion. The recent ransacked of 57 houses in Brgy. White Culaman, Kitaotao, Bukidnon which led to the illegal arrest and detention of 17 civilians including children and pregnant woman, all peasants and lumads, who belong to the Matigsalug tribe cause trauma to the community. Most of the arrested civilians were leaders and participants of the protest held last June 8-10 to assert the distribution of the relief from the 8 Million calamity fund intended for drought or ‘hulaw’. The protest was led by their local organizations: Kahugpongan sa mga Mag-uuma sa Kitaotao (KMK), Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa Barangay White Culaman (NAMABAW) and Tinananon, Kulamanon Lumadnong Panaghiusa sa Arakan (TIKULPA).

The elements of the AFP under the aforementioned Infantry Battalions are constantly conducting zoning operations, subjecting the people to a hamlet controlled by the military, forcing people to surrender as if they were NPAs and several human rights violations.

Economic activities of the people from the affected villages are greatly affected by the military hamletting.

The incessant attacks of military personnel on schools located in the area are very alarming and a gross violation of the right of the children for education. Aside from encamping the school premises, the military are persistent on threatening the parents, teachers and students that they will burn the schools. The military burned their stocks of pad papers and notebooks. The military forcibly closed the cooperative being managed by the community, their clinics and resolutely attempted to close day care centers in the area.

Here are some of the documented incidents in the area from June until August 2015:

• June 8-­10, 2015 a rally was conducted concerning the announced calamity fund for 2,000 people affected by the droughtcovering 11 barangays under the Municipalities of Kitao­tao and Kibawe, Bukidnon.

• After three days of protests, the local government units released the calamity fund and 1,000 sacks of rice to respond to the complaints that there is no food available for the people.

• Days after the protest, the Kitao­tao mayor called for a meeting with the officials of barangays, Indigenous People Mandatory Representative (IPMR) and military intelligence group to identify the leaders of the protests.

• It is confirmed that barangay officials requested the military and police to occupy Brgy. White Culaman.

• On August 22 the soldiers arrived in White Culaman. The military claims that they possess arrest warrants and search warrants of around 64 persons. But residents expressed that it’s just a mere list of names and not a legal document. They have stayed for nine days. They comprised of around 50 individuals from the combined troops of the 8th IB and 23rd IB of the AFP. Some of them are in civilian clothes and wore bonnets and no any identification patches, claimed they are elements of the Philippine National Police and the AFP. They stayed at two buildings in the center of White Culaman, the church of the Seventh Day Adventist, the barangay hall, and houses particularly at Sitio Malinaw.

• On August 25, 2015 soldiers arrived at the center of White Culaman and went into houses to serve the “warrants”, they forcibly took ten persons and tied them with rattan and twine and took them to the barangay stage and called for an assembly with the cooperation of the barangay captain and officials.

• On August 26, 2015 four other persons were detained, adding the count to 14,which included a 7­year old minor and a breast­feeding child. They were also bound and brought to the stage.

• On August 27, 2015, a helicopter brought the detained persons to a place located somewhere between Maramag and Cagayan de Oro. The spokesperson of the 8th IB confirmed they had 12 people in their custody. They claimed they released four people, three of them were sent home but did not arrived there, and one was forced to be a cook serving the military staying in White Culaman.

• The 14 civilians were bound and detained for one day and one night. Four were released, as three of them were sent away but one was made to cook for them. But the three persons did not return to their families, and the 12 are now in Maramag, based in a battalion headquarters as of this writing.

• Houses were forcibly entered to serve the“search warrants”. The house surroundings were dug for alleged explosives as listed items in the warrants and also on other things not listed in the warrants as well.

• Children and minors were harassed through questioning on where fire arms are buried, and they were threatened or offered 100 pesos to reveal what they are finding.

• Investigations and psy-war against men, women and children in Sitio Malinaw, White Culaman.

• Barangay officials, soldiers and PNP troops organized the people to rise against the NPA particularly those living in Sagasaan and Palkata in White Culaman.

• Suspected members of NPAs were madeto surrender and threats to add more in their list as identified by their intelligence.

• Forced recruitment of CAFGU in sitios.

• On August 25, 2015, students and teachers of the Father Fausto Tentorio Memorial School run by MISFI Academy in Sitio Dao, White Culaman were victimized by indiscriminate firing by military elements around their community. The guns were pointed towards the school.

• This resulted to trauma of students and teachers and the group learned there were threats of burning down or closing the school and health center of MISFI regardless of its legality, this was based from the statement of the barangay captain during the said meeting with the military.

• Hamletting civilians from sitios and the center of White Culaman to make them act as shields for barangay officials and the military for three days.

HELP!


From MAPASU/KASALO:

AFP, STOP DECEIVING THE PEOPLE! ARREST AND PROSECUTE THE KILLERS OF THE LIANGA MARTYRS - UNDERLINGS OF THE 75TH IB AND EXECUTIONERS OF THE BANDIT BOCALES-BELANDRES-EGUA!

The Lumad people under the Kahugpungan Alang sa Lumadnong Organisasyon sa Caraga (KASALO Caraga), with the progressive organizations in Caraga are grieving and angry at the killing of Lumad-leaders Dionel Campos, Chairman of the Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod (MAPASU) and Datu Juvello Sinzo of Kiwagan, San Isidro, Lianga, Surigao del Sur. Emerito Samarca, Executive Director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV) has struggled with and served the Lumad people for a long time that we consider him a Lumad by heart and commitment, if not by tribe.

Theirs are only among the latest successive killings done by armed bandits organized and released like rabid dogs by the 75th IBPA and 36th IBPA. No denial can dissuade the people from knowing the truth that the military control these criminals and assassins –killers of our leaders and members. The 7th IBPA is known in the municipalities and provinces within its AOR as brutal, killing many as they did in Lianga.

The other units of the AFP in Lumad communities in Mindanao, employ the same brutal tactics of armed bandits, or soldiers themselves, sowing terror to silence the Lumad people who have long been struggling for the recognition of their right to self-determination, especially on the issue of ancestral lands and its resources. Annihilate the head and brutally suppress to shock and awe – this is the military tactic used in the hope of declaring a so-called definitive victory in the last days of Noynoy Aquino and the AFP’s Oplan Bayanihan.

We remember what happened. It was not only we, but also the visitors that celebrated the ALCADEV’s Foundation Day with us, who saw that those who occupied our school, who were in the middle of our community, were soldiers of the 75thIB, 36th IB and Special Forces, and with them were several known members of the armed bandit group of Bocales-Belandres-Egua. We are all witnesses to the truth of what happened.

1Lt. Patrick Martinez, Col. Isidro Purisima, Gen. Iriberri, Sec. Coloma and Noynoy Aquino were not there. Their pronouncements trivialize the killings, disregard our sufferings and fears, belittle our search for justice and security for our families – their lies insult our dignity as human beings, as honest people and as responsible Filipinos. The continuing vilification of our organization, our schools, our community and our persons while we are grieving insults us. Is it easy for them to make up stories to fool us into believing that it was an encounter? Will they again accuse us of being NPA, that our schools are that of the NPA, that the NPA are teaching us to justify summarily killing us? WE WILL NOT QUIETLY ACCEPT THESE BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL LIES!

IF THEY INTENDED TO SILENCE US, THEY ARE WRONG! They have made a mistake in killing Onel, Emok and Datu Bello, because instead of intimidating and silencing hundreds of us who directly witnessed the brutal killing of the three, many have given strong testimonies, many refuse to be silenced and many refuse to hide what they know: many are crying for JUSTICE!

We will honor the deaths of our recent martyrs through our strong commitment to the truth. The threats against us continue, especially against the leaders, teachers and strong witnesses of what happened in Lianga. Many have been sent threatening texts, our families who are still in Brgy. Diatagon are being visited to silence those who have been exposing the truth. The police and military officials are visiting our families, including the families of those who were killed, to prevent us from telling the truth. BUT WE WILL NOT BE COWED BY THESE THREATS TO OUR LIVES BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT WE ARE ON THE SIDE OF WHAT IS RIGHT AND TRUE.

STOP THE BRUTAL OPLAN BAYANIHAN OF NOYNOY AQUINO AND AFP!

Defend our communities! Defend and protect our schools!

TAMBULI TU KALINOW! PANEYTOW TU KAHUSOY! BUGDUKA TU ANYADAN! Call for peace! Achieve justice! Defend the right to education!

12-13 September 2015
DAY OF CONDEMNATION AND UNITED ACTION FOR JUSTICE
Butuan City

For the downloadable Statement of Support click here

IOSDE supports the following 2 September 2015 Statement made by six Indigenous women's organizations of Manipur concerning the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (seventh amendment) Bill 2015 passed in the State Assembly on 31 August 2015:

Joint Statement of Indigenous Women in Manipur

We the Hmar Women Association, the Kuki Women Union, the Zomi Mothers Association, Churachandpur Joint Women Organization, the Mizo Peoples Convention Women’s wing, Naga Women’s Union representing the voice of indigenous women in Manipur assert that we are peoples different from the dominant societies.

We are a people who have been living and practicing our culture and traditions which is unique and distinct from the dominant societies.

Our social, cultural, economic and political life has been passed down from our ancestors and we continue to practice them.

We belong to a worldview that defines land as collectively owned by the people and not the State. We are against any form of attempt to alienate us from our land. Land is central to our identity and life.

Therefore, the exclusive agreement between the government of Manipur and the JCILPs on the Manipur Land Revenue and land Reforms (seventh amendment) bill 2015 and which was subsequently passed in the Manipur Assembly on August 31, 2015 should not and cannot include the land of the indigenous peoples; namely in the district of Churachandpur, Tamenglong, Chandel, Ukhrul and Senapati.

We condemn the Manipur Government for going ahead with the passing of the said bill in the face of strong protest by the tribal civil society organisations registered with the 12 hour bandh from 6 AM to 6 PM of 31st August, 2015 in the tribal areas.

We also condemn the use of brutal force by the Manipur State Police force which has led to killings of 7 tribal civilians and injuries of more than 20 on the evening of 31st August and the 1st September, 2015. The use of violence by the state to silence the legitimate voice of the tribals and insult their sentiments is most unacceptable in a democracy.

(JL. Sawmi)
President,
Churachandpur Joint Women Organization

(Heshi Haokip)
President
Kuki Women Union, Churachandpur

(Joycee)
President,
Zomi Mother’s Association

(R. Lalkhumi)
President
Mizo Peoples’ Convention Women’s Wing

(Chongpouzing)
Secretary,
Hmar Women Association, Churachandpur

(L.M. Tabitha)
President
Naga Women’s Union

A big Thank You to the Nordic Research Network for Sámi and Indigenous Peoples’ Law (NORSIL) for warmly hosting IOSDE's Founder and Director, India Reed Bowers, to speak on the work of IOSDE and to participate in the NORSIL conference in Tromso this June 2015. NORSIL's projects and discussions as well as the academic works of its members are thoughtful and important in the fields of both Sami Law and Indigenous Law.
For more on NORSIL click here.

More information here: http://igg.me/at/Nepal-Earthquake-IndigenousSupport

IOSDE has teamed up to help the Lawyers' Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP), http://www.lahurnip.org/, to gather international collection and distribution of relief to earthquake victims in remote indigenous villages in Nepal via LAHURNIP's Humanitarian Relief Committee (LHRC). Indigenous peoples are affected disproportionately.

Please donate and help!

More information here: http://igg.me/at/Nepal-Earthquake-IndigenousSupport

IOSDE is honored to represent International Networks in the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of the Indigenous Peoples' Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL). IPMSDL provides invaluable support to Indigenous Rights by increasing the visibility of both grassroots and global issues while promoting true justice for Indigenous Peoples. In IPMSDL's own webpage words:

"The international Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) is comprised of indigenous leaders and advocates from different countries in Asia, Pacific, Australia, Africa, Europe and North America. IPMSDL was established in 8 November 2010.

The IPMSDL stands for the right of indigenous peoples to govern ourselves and for liberation from imperialism, state oppression and human rights violations. It aims to uphold indigenous peoples’ rights to survival, self-determination, liberation and social justice. It works for the empowerment of indigenous peoples, and for the victory of the people’s will over the powers-that-be, while respecting the legitimacy and forms of struggle and self-determination that our peoples opt to employ."

Great work, IPMSDL team!

For full Statement click here

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
Fourteenth Session; New York, 20 April - 1 May 2015
Item 5: Half-day discussion on the expert group meeting on the theme “Dialogue on an optional protocol to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)”; 28 April 2015

Statement by made by India Reed Bowers for International Organization for Self-Determination and Equality (IOSDE)

"IOSDE is concerned that over the many years of submissions and interventions at the UNPFII from Indigenous Peoples concerning mass atrocities against their Peoples, families and communities and thus humanity through State- and business-initiated torture, murder, militarization, criminalization and systematic devastation the Permanent Forum and UN system still refer to such horrors as human rights violations only. The concern is that Indigenous victims’ submissions are not being outwardly identified as reporting atrocities also in the context of international crimes and violations of international criminal law from a legal and/or victim-based advocacy  perspective and analysis...

...for full Statement click here...

IOSDE welcomes the initiative of the Permanent Forum to have sent the WCIP follow-up questionnaire to UN agencies as a way to create dialogue with said agencies on follow-up to, in general, implementation of Indigenous Rights. IOSDE also gratefully welcomes the transparency and willingness of the Office of the Prevention of Genocide to have completed such a questionnaire. However, upon reviewing the Office of Genocide’s responses, it is clear that the Office of the Prevention of Genocide must not only urgently and drastically build its capacity to immediately and thoroughly analyze the situations of Indigenous Peoples around the world collectively and per-peoples in the context of genocide. It is also clear to all of us who have been in this movement for decades living and breathing the struggle that such an analysis needs to happen both in accordance with current international criminal law, including restorative justice, and the testimonials of the victims themselves, including within the context of testimonials concerning cultural genocide and statements delivered at the UN at mechanisms such as the Permanent Forum, which, essentially, could have been, say, a tribunal, including in the form of restorative justice, concerning the crimes of humanity and genocide occurring against Indigenous Peoples...

...for full Statement click here...

IOSDE welcomes and further recommends the submission given to the forum by the UN agency the IDLO, concerning development within UN of rule of law, speaking of informal and legal justice systems of Indigenous Peoples working on the ground and incorporating Indigenous justice systems. IOSDE recommends the Forum firmly engage the Trusteeship Council (via ECOSOC), in the context of Indigenous Peoples rights to decolonization and self-determination, and Office of the Prevention of Genocide in incorporating Indigenous voice and analysis of the world-wide Indigenous situation, with a particular eye to the protection of traditional Indigenous religions, healing, lands and leadership as well as human life security itself and living culture in these regards.

IOSDE recommends the Forum members and additional persons with an eye for criminal law as well as spiritual and traditional elders and leaders focus together on the massive database of victims testimonials in what is called the UNPFII Papersmart and UN archives, and processes these testimonials with the seriousness that they deserve with an eye to both criminal and human rights law, empowering the content and contributors of the statements themselves rather treating them as means to dialogues and thus money flow and empowerment for a few universities, states or designated experts.

In the spirit of the UNDRIP and participating in the ending of cultural genocide, IOSDE recommends the Forum also ask Indigenous community-based spiritual leaders and elders how to develop the UN system, and not  just those who attend these sessions or have UN access, and allow those leaders to be deemed experts and governance if they are such in their communities and amongst their Peoples.

IOSDE also recommends, in the spirit of the UNDRIP, that UN positions concerning Indigenous Peoples are effective and inclusive in prioritizing the voice and complaints of the Peoples themselves as well as their due space in space and time at the UN, and undergo processes of selection that are fair, transparent and open, maintaining also representation from spiritual leaders and elders who hold the sacred goals this movement was  built upon and professes. In this way, perhaps even the UN can itself not participate in the cultural genocide of Indigenous Peoples, including cultures of traditional Indigenous values and religions."

...For full Statement click here...

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)
Fourteenth Session; New York, 20 April - 1 May 2015
Item 3(c) (continued): Youth, Self-Harm and Suicide; 21 April 2015

Joint Statement by International Organization for Self-Determination and Equality (IOSDE), Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples

"We are concerned about the effects on Indigenous youth and children of the ongoing suicide, self-harm and violence resulting from the desecration and destruction of Indigenous sacred sites and thus traditional political, legal, and medicinal practices that Indigenous youth and children flourish from and have right to live with in peace and dignity as living culture. Along these same lines we are concerned about the effects on Indigenous youth and children of unresolved claims to the right of self-determination and decolonization, including territorial and political independence and sovereignty, and the lack of recognition of peoples as legal, self-governing peoples and nations equal to States.

For Indigenous youth to have access to their cultures as per international law, the territorial integrity of indigenous lands and in particular sacred sites must be recognized alongside Indigenous self-governance and legal traditions therein. Indigenous youth amazingly and brilliantly but unfairly shoulder burdens of structural inequalities and injustices against traditional Indigenous leaderships and legal processes. To force Indigenous children and youth to live amidst the oppressing of their own cultural systems and traditions as well as the destruction of their familial and communal sacred places and practices is to spiritually and culturally displace them. We want peaceful lives for Indigenous youth and children, where they do not feel they must go to battle for even our most basic fundamental rights, but where they can enjoy, share and experience those rights in action, such as rights including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Article 30 as also referenced in the UNDRIP Preamble.

Self-harm is not the only form of violence Indigenous youth face; the disappearance of youth in the face of State and business land-grabbing, dividing of peoples by imposed borders and laws, discrimination and systematic terrorizing and criminalization of Indigenous communities are also harms and violence to Indigenous youth. We do not want yet another generation of Indigenous youth and children to grow up in a world where their own tribe’s and people’s Indigenous cultural, spiritual, political and legal traditions are strategically placed in conflict and or manufactured submissiveness and/or dependence with the traditions and systems of colonizing or managing State(s)...

...for full Statement click here...

We recommend that Indigenous youth be supported by the UN and its bodies and mechanisms to create their own study on and exploration into the ways in which all of the many diverse Indigenous Peoples of the world have worked for and achieve self-determination, political, legal and territorial decolonization, and the continuation of traditional Indigenous healing, leadership and own Indigenous justice processes via  protection of own sacred places."

IOSDE was represented by Founder and Director India Reed Bowers at the Indigenous Movement's 25-26 September 2014 parallel forum in Amsterdam in conjunction with the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples held at the United Nations in New York City on 22-23 September 2014. Bowers participated in panels discussing presenting on Access to Justice under the theme 'Specific Cases of Indigenous Peoples and EMRIP' and first-hand feedback on the WCIP and what organizations can do under the theme 'Plan of Action: How can the EU and other Organizations Promote the Protection of Indigenous Peoples Rights'. The evening of the 25th was spent in an arranged circle dialogue on decolonization.

Full agenda for the parallel conference days can be found here.

Photos below from Indigenous Movement; for more photos click here.

Thank you, Indigenous Movement!

IOSDE represented at the UN General Assembly's High Level Plenary Session also known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) this 22-23 September 2014. The plenary session Outcome Document, in the form of a General Assembly Resolution, can be found here.

IOSDE welcomes the mentions of violence against Indigenous women in the Outcome Document, however we regret that the Outcome Document makes no mention of self-determination, a fundamental right of Indigenous Peoples that is most violated by States and past, present and ongoing colonization. IOSDE also notes the absence of mention of either colonialism or decolonization in the General Assembly Resolution Outcome document. These vital legal matters were addressed in the Indigenous Alta Outcome Document of the Global Indigenous Preparatory Conference for the WCIP held on 10-12 June 2013 in Alta, Norway/Sapmi. These topics were eliminated in negotiations for a final UN Outcome Document.

For IOSDE's intervention at UN EMRIP in Geneva in July 2014 concerning the lack of mention of self-determination in the first draft of the WCIP Outcome Document released click here.