Hundreds of indigenous delegates from the world over are holding a meeting in Geneva's extremely hot summer to discuss the consequences of globalisation for indigenous peoples. Under the presidency of Cuban diplomat Miguel Alfonso Martínez, the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples (WGIP), which met from 21 to 25 July, is giving priority to tackling the issue of "indigenous peoples and globalisation".

 It is also evaluating the activities implemented within the framework of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, cooperation with other United Nations organisations in the sphere of indigenous issues and the situation of the law, amongst others.

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, CONAIE, is taking part with a delegation of 10 people headed by the Quechua indigenous leader Humberto Cholango, who has declared that his organisation will express to the WGIP the need for a second decade dedicated to indigenous peoples, following an evaluation of the impacts of the first decade which culminates next year.

In addition, Cholango expressed his concern regarding the Free Trade Area of the Americas, FTAA, whose implementation is planned for 2005, since it will violate the rights of indigenous peoples. Cholango also demanded an end to the fumigation being carried out by the Colombian government in the Putumayo area, under the pretext of eradicating the cultivation of coca, which is giving rise to serious devastation of the Ecuadorian indigenous communities close to the Colombian border.

Mónica Chují, international relations advisor to the CONAIE, has demanded that the United Nations and the States accept, without restrictions or qualifying clauses, the indigenous peoples' right to self-determination and that the media be democratised so that "we can have spaces of dissemination in our own native languages".

 Effects of globalization

 "The indigenous peoples are suffering the consequences of globalisation, which wants to impose one single model that does not respect sustainable development, natural resources, such as water and biodiversity, nor does it take into account the fundamental rights of use and customs and their implementation in each of the territories", explains Humberto Cholango. The Ecuadorian indigenous leader's concern is shared by delegates from other parts of the world.

Ricardo Pane, from the former Dutch colony of Surinam, points out that the mining and forestry concessions in favour of foreign companies are being implemented without the consent of the communities. "We have a fatherland, but we do not have the land", said an indigenous from Bangladesh. "Our island, Tubalu, will soon disappear, submerged under the sea because of climatic changes", added another indigenous from the Pacific. It is the same everywhere.

Liberal globalisation shows no mercy to the weakest, as it does not take into consideration any of the rights of the indigenous peoples recognised by the international community but, on the contrary, guarantees the transnationals freedom of total exploitation, generally with the complicity of the States from the north as well as the south of the planet One of the five members of the WGIP, Senegalese El Hadji Guissé, presented a working document for consideration by the indigenous delegates which tackles the consequences of globalisation in terms of the environment, poverty, health and lack of knowledge of the rights of indigenous peoples.

 Basically, Guissé is setting out the fact that these peoples have always lived in salubrious natural surroundings, without any contamination, protecting and respecting other ways of life which integrate with the environment. They have always used their natural surroundings to feed themselves, cure themselves, cloth themselves, in essence, to live a healthy life. But this is changing with globalisation.

"The hunt for areas to exploit has meant that the States and transnational companies have agreed to sell the lands on which the indigenous peoples live, and who are subsequently removed from the land. Globalisation has enabled these companies to exploit, at their whim, the natural resources of the indigenous peoples. These companies should be considered directly responsible for ecological destruction and contamination of water and air. The current pace of this contamination is, without doubt, provoking important climatic changes which will aggravate even more the problems of health, food and education faced by poor countries", says Guissé in the aforementioned document.