Indigenous peoples have contributed much to the world’s cultural heritage and to the sustainable development of planet Earth, Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union, said from Brussels on Monday.
Aug. 9 was observed as “International Day of the World’s Indigenous People,” under the U.N.Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
”I pay tribute to the enormous contribution their traditions and knowledge have made to the world’s cultural heritage and to the sustainable development of our planet,” said Ashton, through the EU Delegation in Manila.
Joining the celebrations, albeit without drums and bugles, was the Philippines —home of the biggest groups of indigenous peoples, with at least 100 tribes and ethnics in the world-famous Palawan province alone, at least nine major so-called Islamized ones in Mindanao and Sulu and at least two in each of the 81 provinces of the country. Looking after their concerns is the governmental National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
For Muslim Mindanao alone, the EU in Manila has poured billions of Philippine pesos in development aid for education, health care, governance and rehabilitation of those caught in the conflict in Mindanao as well as those mired in poverty.
Ashton vowed “to strive to put an end to discrimination and unequal treatment —not only in principle, but most importantly in practice,” reminding that Aug. 9 “provides an opportunity for European Union to renew its commitment to promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.”
She said that as the end of the second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (2005 - 2015) nears, reflection is due “on what has been done to protect the rights of indigenous peoples, as set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and guarantee them equal treatment, and how much more remains to be done.”
She said the EU has supported the adoption of the UN Declaration in 2007, calling her organization’s support of IPs as one that “stands above the rest.” The Declaration would not have been achieved without the tireless advocacy of indigenous peoples’ representatives, she said.
”The Declaration advanced the rights and ensured the continued development of indigenous peoples around the world. Its message is a simple, but powerful one: The principles are therefore right; the challenge remains in putting them to practice. Regrettably, discrimination against and unequal treatment of indigenous peoples continues around the world,” she said.
