DOCUMENT: RUSSELL.TXT DECLARATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES The Fourth Russell Tribunal held in Rotterdam in 1980, arose in response to a need expressed at the International Conference Against the Discrimination of Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere held in Geneva, Switzerland in 1977. The Geneva Conference demonstrated that certain Nation-States of the Western Hemisphere practice gross violations of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Indigenous Peoples represented at the conference recommended that a Tribunal be formed in order that cases may be presented and witnesses heard to inform the world of the nature and effect of those abuses. We have witnessed the accusations brought before the Fourth Russell Tribunal. We have heard our Brothers and Sisters speak of mass executions, kidnappings, tortures, rapes and assassinations committed and permitted by the governments of Nation-States with political acts of terrorism and oppression directed against Indigenous Peoples, organizations and Nations. We believe that the charges brought before the Tribunal provide the most eloquent testimony that Nation-States have national policies of ethnocide and genocide of Indigenous Peoples and that such policies are unacceptable to the conscience of humanity. We condemn genocide and ethnocide in all its forms. The Indigenous Peoples suffer the most outrageous abuses of their rights. Nation-States have adopted national policies designed to deny peoples their right to exist as distinct peoples of the world, including the right to practice their culture, to speak their language, to the peaceful possession of their national territory and their right to a national identity. In almost every case Indigenous Peoples suffer from the unlawful taking of their lands through national policies which are designed to deny Indigenous Peoples of their right to their lands. The municipal laws of many Nation-States do not provide justice to the Indigenous Peoples. The accusations and the testimonies of the Indigenous Peoples at this Tribunal have affirmed that Nation-States are not the sole instruments of dispossession and genocide. Certain religious organizations, especially missions of Christian denominations, act in partnership with governments in policies intended to dispossess peoples and to destroy their languages and other elements of culture. There has been conclusive demonstrations that the economic interests of ruling classes of the Nation-States as well as the economic interests of the ruling classes of industrialized countries, as represented by the activities of transnational corporations, have been instrumental in dispossessing peoples of their lands and freedom. Because of the power of these economic interests in influencing and determining national policies, whole peoples have been forced into economic slavery on the plantation, in the mines, and in the factories of the oppressors. People are being driven from their homelands and forced to live in poverty and despair on the margins of their rightful territories, as exiles in their own land. Those of our people who express opposition to the policies which created these horrifying conditions are subjected to the brutal repression, persecution and discriminations which are the tools by which the people are denied their rights to exist as distinct peoples of the world. We, the Indigenous Peoples gathered here at this Fourth Russell Tribunal call upon the people of the world to take action to right these horrible wrongs. We reaffirm our support of the principles set forth in the Declaration of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere adopted by the Geneva Conference of 1977 and we call upon the People of the world to work for the rights of Indigenous Peoples to exist as distinct peoples of the world and to condemn genocide and ethnocide. We support the principle that Indigenous Peoples have the right to exist as distinct peoples of the world, and that they have a right to possession of their territories and the right to sovereign self-determination. We call upon the people of the world to join us in asserting that the genocide and dispossession of Indigenous Peoples is a matter of rightful concern to the world community, as are matters involving a consistent pattern of gross violation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Nations under principles established by International Law, and that action must be taken by world organizations and specifically the United Nations. Finally, we call upon people of conscience to join us in our call for recognition of Indigenous Peoples and Nations as full members of the world community of nations and peoples with a right to representation and membership in world organizations and especially the United Nations. We, the Indigenous representatives at the Fourth International Russell Tribunal, 1980 resolve with respect to the following: 1.) GENOCIDE That the Tribunal denounce the physical extermination which is instrumental through the repression of Indigenous leaders, many of whom have been assassinated, tortured, persecuted, kidnapped and exiled. 2.) ETHNOCIDE That the Tribunal denounce the campaign of destruction directed against the Indigenous Nations through the denial of their culture, languages and traditions, this being the instrument used by the Western colonialists for the ruling classes of whom they are intermediaries. 3.) TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS That the Tribunal denounce the transnational corporations which exploit our resources (minerals, petroleum, forests, etc.), destroying at the same time the ecology of our territories, and for which they count with the complicity of governments and their instruments of repression. 4.) EMIGRATION OF WHITE RACISTS That the Tribunal denounce the South American governments which would attempt to relocate racist Rhodesians to regions of majority indigenous populations, as in the case of Bolivia, with the express purpose of strengthening western domination. 5.) STERILIZATION That the Tribunal denounce the sterilization campaigns, direct and indirect, against the Indigenous populations, with the purpose of impeding the population growth of Indigenous Nations, heightening their potential for struggle and thus threatening the western societies' economic and political interests. 6.) MISSIONARIES Because Indigenous peoples have their own traditional religions and because those religions are consistently under attack by western religions, that the Tribunal in the future look closely at programs conducted by missionary groups belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant and Evangelical denominations because of their obvious complicity in the genocidal process carried out against Indigenous Peoples. This would not indict those missionaries who have committed themselves to helping our peoples. In particular we would ask the Tribunal to immediately condemn, and in the future, completely investigate the activities of that great common danger, The Summer Institute of Linguistics. 7.) DEFINITIONS AND BOUNDARIES We condemn all Nation-States, such as Canada, that have divided our various peoples by legislative definitions, different modes of land settlements and imposed boundaries in continuing violation of Articles 10 and 12 of the "Declaration of Principles for the Defence of the Indigenous Nations and Peoples of the Western Hemisphere," Geneva Conference, 1977. 8.) SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS Before the tragedy of genocide and ethnocide on the part of the dominant societies and governments, we value the solidarity of those organisms, Nation-States and institutions that identify with our cause, but at the same time we reject those organizations which, under the pretext of defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples, foment division by supporting groups and organizations driven by political interest not based on our own history. 9.) DECLARATION That the Fourth International Russell Tribunal adopt the 1977 "Declaration of Principles for the Defence of the Indigenous Nations and Peoples of the Western Hemisphere" and the present "Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples at the Fourth International Russell Tribunal," 1980. 10.) 1948 CONVENTION That the Tribunal take into consideration the 1948 Convention On The Prevention And Punishment Of The Crime Of Genocide in relation to the violations against our peoples and Nations. 11.) PROTECTION OF OUR RELATIVES That the Tribunal condemn activities and enterprises that are destructive of our relatives, the four-legged of the land, the winged-ones of the air, the occupants of the waters and the creatures of the seas, including all other life forms necessary to their survival and a clean, healthy and renewable environment within which they may flourish. 12.) BOLIVIA That the Fourth Russell Tribunal condemn the military dictatorship of General Garcia Ortega Tajado and his Minister of the Interior, General Luis Arce Gomez, as responsible for the massacre carried out against the Indian miners, campesino communities and the marginal areas of the cities. Many of their representatives have been assassinated, imprisoned in concentration camps, kidnapped, persecuted and exiled. 13.) GUATEMALA That the Fourth Russell Tribunal condemn the government of General Lucas Garcia de Guatemala for the continual massacre and ethnocide of Indigenous Peoples there, a majority population. Also that the Tribunal should request the immediate withdrawal of the military troops which presently occupy vast areas of the country. 14.) EL SALVADOR That the Fourth Russell Tribunal condemn and repudiate the military Junta of El Salvador, for its obvious involvement in the numerous massacres of Indigenous Peoples in that country -- a tactic utilized to maintain the privilege of a minority which despoils the country and oppress the population. 15.) CHILE That the Russell Tribunal repudiate the Military Junta of Chile for its continuous violation of the rights of the Mapuche Nation, and the repression of its leadership since the military coup of 1973. Also, the ethnocide Law 2568/78 which divides the Mapuche communities into small parcels of land, therefore destroying the Indigenous concept of Life. 16.) SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE WORK We propose that a mechanism should be installed so the Tribunal and its results should be continuous. Permanent observations of, continual media dissemination as well as continuous challenges to the accused dominant governments, institutions and individuals must be guaranteed. Therefore we encourage our European friends to maintain their commitment in the future. These proposed follow-up activities should guarantee the continued monitoring of these volatile situations and should point the way to appropriate measures on the part of the European Support Committee. The Indigenous delegates recommend that such a work be placed under the authority of an Indigenous National Government, namely the Council of Chiefs of the League of the Haudenosaunee, in consultation with the International Indian Treaty Council, the South American Indian Council, and other authentic Indigenous bodies. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: -= THE FOURTH WORLD DOCUMENTATION PROJECT =- :: :: A service provided by :: :: The Center For World Indigenous Studies :: :: www.cwis.org :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Originating at the Center for World Indigenous Studies, Olympia, Washington USA www.cwis.org © 1999 Center for World Indigenous Studies (All Rights Reserved. References up to 500 words must be referenced to the Center for World Indigenous Studies and/or the Author Copyright Policy Material appearing in the Fourth World Documentation Project Archive is accepted on the basis that the material is the original, unoccupied work of the author or authors. Authors agree to indemnify the Center for World Indigenous Studies, and DayKeeper Press for all damages, fines and costs associated with a finding of copyright infringement by the author or by the Center for World Indigenous Studies Fourth World Documentation Project Archive in disseminating the author(s) material. In almost all cases material appearing in the Fourth World Documentation Project Archive will attract copyright protection under the laws of the United States of America and the laws of countries which are member states of the Berne Convention, Universal Copyright Convention or have bi-lateral copyright agreements with the United States of America. Ownership of such copyright will vest by operation of law in the authors and/or The Center for World Indigenous Studies, Fourth World Journal or DayKeeper Press. The Fourth World Documentation Project Archive and its authors grant a license to those accessing the Fourth World Documentation Project Archive to render copyright materials on their computer screens and to print out a single copy for their personal non-commercial use subject to proper attribution of the Center for World Indigenous Studies Fourth World Documentation Project Archive and/or the authors. Questions may be referred to: Director of Research Center for World Indigenous Studies PMB 214 1001 Cooper Point RD SW Suite 140 Olympia, Washington 98502-1107 USA 360-754-1990 www.cwis.org usaoffice@cwis.org OCR Software provided by Caere Corporation