IP groups to file shadow report to UN body against racial discrimination

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 June) – Indigenous peoples’ groups and a coalition of local and international organizations have been holding rounds of consultations for a “shadow report” that will contest a document that government will submit to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) in Geneva, Switzerland by the end of this month.
 
The government, which is taking its turn in the rotating leadership of UNCERD this year, has committed to comply with the committee’s June 30 deadline in submitting an assessment of its performance in complying with substantive articles in the Geneva conventions. The articles are enshrined in agreements concerning, among others, the respect for human rights, economic and social rights, political and civil rights, and other protocols that protect discrimination of indigenous peoples.

 
Cathal Doyle, a rights activist affiliated with the Irish Centre for Human Rights, said during a break in the “shadow report” consultation here Tuesday that they are anticipating that government would highlight its accomplishment in passing an indigenous peoples’ rights law but downplays incidents of violations of economic, civil and political, and cultural rights of indigenous peoples.
 
Doyle, who was here to represent an international network of civil society organizations working for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, said that their group have documented at least 40 cases of violations of the UN protocols and that can be considered as discriminatory of indigenous peoples in three round of national consultations.
 
The consultations were initiated in Baguio City for communities in Luzon and Visayas on June 13 to 14, and Davao City for tribal folks in Mindanao on June 16 and 17.
 
In the 40 cases documented nationwide, Doyle said that the bulk of incidents of violations of the UN agreements on rights were related to large-scale corporate mining projects in ancestral domain.
 
Lawyer Manja Bayang, coordinator of the Indigenous People’s Rights Monitor, said that based on results of the consultation, the issue on mining also left an impact on indigenous peoples rights to self-determination as well as on controversial issues related to the communities’ rights to free and prior informed consent.
 
Other issues that are discriminatory to indigenous peoples are corporate plantation projects for industrial trees, bio-fuels, as well as governmental policies related to declaration of ancestral lands into environmentally protected areas and massive military operations. The issue on conversion of rice and corn lands for bio-fuels and other types commercial crops may yet spawn food crisis, especially among the indigenous peoples, Bayang said.
 
The Philippine government, as a signatory to UNCERD, is required to submit a report to the Committee at least once every four years but has failed to do so since 1997. In 2007, the International Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has instructed the government to submit a report on June 30 this year or the UN body will move on with the review of the Philippine record based on other information available in the committee.
 
Among all the UN treaty bodies, UNCERD is the most focused on the government compliance of international rights agreements in relation to indigenous peoples.
 
In 2007, two Subanen leaders filed a rights violations complaint against the government before UNCERD in relation to mining projects in Mt. Canatuan. Doyle said as a result of that complaint, UNCERD has asked international civil society groups to submit a parallel report in relation to the governments record in the elimination of racial discrimination.
 
Boyle said that civil society works on the premise that the category of racial discrimination does not pertain to the biological aspect of race but the existence of acts of racial discrimination in the form of governmental policies that are discriminatory especially to indigenous peoples.
 
Dulphing Ogan, chair of Kalumaran (Alliance of Indigenous Peoples Organizations) Mindanao, said that the bulk of the cases that they are submitting to UNCERD were already filed before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) while some of it were in the regular courts. Most of these cases, particularly those submitted before the CHR, have not been acted upon, he added.
 
In Mindanao, what will be included in the shadow report are cases of displacement and aerial bombing of Mandaya and Mansaka communities by the military in Bangaga, Davao Oriental; dislocation of Ata-Manobo villages in Talaingod, Davao del Norte; alleged arbitrary arrest of Ata-Manobo woman leader Bibyaon Bigkas, the killing of Datu Dominador Diarog due to a reported land grabbing incident, evacuations of Ata Matigsalug villagers due to military operations in Compostela province.
 
Other incidents included in the report are alleged forced recruitment of indigenous peoples into paramilitary forces across the Southern Mindanao region, a planned construction of a hydroelectric plant in Davao del Sur; and a case of dislocation due to an Industrial Forest Management Agreement in Caraga, Davao Oriental.
 
The group has also included in its filing a reported evacuation in Liangga town, Surigao del Sur; and a case of corporate mining project-related discrimination of Subanen folk in Midsalip and Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur.
 
Ogan said indigenous peoples consider the report an important arena in their continuing struggle in calling for government responsibility on the dislocation and other forms of violations of indigenous peoples’ rights.
 
“The shadow report is not the end of our struggle but it will strengthen and inspire us to further organize our ranks against the discriminatory policies of the government,” Ogan said.
 
The incidents of rights violations were documented with Philippine-based non-government organizations working with indigenous peoples that include the Indigenous People’s Rights Monitor, Philippine Indigenous People’s Links, Tebtebba, Philippine Indigenous People’s Links, Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamayan ng Pilipinas, the Legal Rights Resources Center, Anthrowatch and EED Task Force on IP Rights. (Jowel F. Canuday / MindaNews)
 
 
Originally posted July 10, 2008 by Keystone