Arctic Peoples

by Clive Tesar

The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is an important milestone in the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The United Nations has been working on this draft of the document for more than twenty years.

Only three of the Arctic Council nations have a seat on the Human Rights Council; Canada, Finland, and Russia. Thirty countries voted in favour of the declaration, including Finland, and twelve abstained. Canada and Russia were the only countries on the Council to vote against the declaration.

The adoption of the declaration by the Human Rights Council is a significant move, but it is not the end of the process. The document will now go to the United Nations General Assembly, where all of the states will have a vote.

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by Bobbie Jo Greenland 

There are a number of issues facing young indigenous people wherever they live in the world. In November 2005 I attended a forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, hosted by the International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). I was invited to make a presentation on the youth issues in my home region of Northwestern Canada. There were also presentations made by youth from other parts of the world, including South America. I learned that indigenous peoples, especially indigenous youth, are facing the same struggles and experiencing similar triumphs no matter how far apart they live. This is because our peoples have gone through similar situations in history.

One of the biggest concerns among young people today is the loss of language and culture. We are living with the results of what happened to our people over generations, as people from other places tried to take away our culture and make us like them. Young people today are living in between two worlds. Many of us are educated in both the Western world and in our traditional way of life as well. It is a great challenge to keep a balance between the two.
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