Around
Rio+20,
France Said to
Undermine
Indigenous,
BofA to
Pollute
Process
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 29 --
During the Rio
+ 20
negotiations
at the UN,
amid
frustration at
a
metastasizing
text full of
brackets and
co-chairs
"grabbing
power," a
repeated
complaint to
Inner City
Press was that
France,
through the
European
Union, was
trying to
switch away
from the
phrase
"indigenous
people" to a
watered down
reference
which mixed
indigenous and
"other local
communities."
Given
their long
fight to adopt
the UN
Convention on
the Rights of
Indigenous
People, there
was much
resistance to
France's
initiative,
and much
frustration
that France
"refuses to
explain it,"
as one
Francophone
indigenous
advocate put
it to Inner
City Press.
The
French Mission
to the UN is
among the
least
accessible:
when its Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
was last
President of
the Security
Council, for
example, he
held only
three question
and answer
stakeouts in
the whole
month,
compared to
more than a
dozen by this
month's
Presidency.
The
Francophone
advocate
described
trying to get
an answer,
without
success. The
French Mission
is set to hold
a confidential
briefing for
select press
Thursday at
4:15 pm --
will the
question be
raised? Of the
"background"
format, one
invitee
snarked, "Now
when we quote
a 'Western
diplomat'
it'll be clear
to whom we're
referring."
Another
recurring
concern, at
least for
some, was the
way in which
the UN under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has
allowed
corporate
interests free
reign in the
UN.
Ban named a
panel on
Sustainable
Energy for
All, and named
as its
co-chair the
chairman of
Bank of
America, being
protested by
Occupy Wall
Street and
others as the
bigger funder
of mountain
top removal
coal mining.
At
a civil
society press
conference at
the UN on
March 27,
Inner City
Press asked
about both
issues: the
switch of
indigenous
language and
Bank of
America's
role. The
representatives
of the Council
of Canadians
and Greenpeace
both expressed
concern at the
being "used"
by corporation
which are
"destructive;"
opposition to
lumping
indigenous and
other local
communities
was confirmed.
On
March 25,
protesters
aligned with
Occupy Wall
Street brought
tents to the
small lawn in
front of the
UN, as a
"mock'upation"
of the UN by
BP, Bank of
American and
others. They
were stopped
by police. But
who will stop
those who seek
to roll back
what
indigenous
people have
fought for?
Watch this
site.
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