UNITED
NATIONS, May
28 --
Alongside the
Permanent
Forum on
Indigenous
Issues
at the UN for
the past week,
there's been
talk of the
World Bank
versus IMF as
well as of the
controversial
Reducing
Emissions from
Deforestation
and forest
Degradation,
REDD or REDD
Plus, program.
Inner
City Press on
May 28 put
questions
about these to
a panel
including
Mexico's
outgoing
ambassador to
the UN in New
York, Luis
Alfonso de
Alba, Grand
Chief Edward
John and Joan
Carling of the
Asia
Indigenous
Peoples' Pact.
Video
here, from
Minute 11:41.
Luis
Alfonso de
Alba, who is
soon to move
to Vienna,
replied that
the
outcome
document of
the 2014
World
Conference on
Indigenous
Peoples will
be "very
general" but
will aim to
address the
areas on which
governments
need to do
better.
Joan
Carling said
that REDD Plus
is, in fact,
popular in
Cambodia.
Inner
City Press
cited
opposition in
Panama. She
said it varies
from place
to place,
depending on
how it impacts
indigenous
people. She
said it
should be up
to them, and
not to NGOs
which claim to
work with
them,
"imposing
their
ideological
views."
Chief
Ed John went
further,
citing
Keystone, tar
sands, the
Exxon Valdes,
BP and the
Gulf of
Mexico. He
said his
people in
Canada still
"take
their fish"
and are
impacted by
these
policies.
There
were no other
questions in
the briefing
room. Inner
City Press,
co-founded of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
thanked the
panels
generally and
asked about
the World Bank
and IMF. Video
here,
from Minute
21:20.
Joan
Carling said
she'd made an
intervention
during the
session on the
World Bank,
about the
needs for a
human rights
framework
beyond "do
no harm."
(Even that
would be a
major step
forward for
the UN,
considering
for example
their
introduction
of cholera in
to Haiti.)
Grand
Chief Edward
John pointed
out that the
World Bank
speaks of
prior
"consultation"
rather than
consent. But
what about the
International
Monetary Fund?
What are they?
Inner City
Press put in
the question
to the IMF on
May 23. Watch
this site.
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