Sioux Nation Treaty Council - est 1894

A Statement submitted by the 1894 Sioux Nation Treaty Council under the sponsorship of the International Committee for the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, an NGO in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, under General Debates, Agenda Item No. 4.

To genuinely support ending the negative impacts of colonialism, as this body agreed to do with HRC Resolution 48-7, Indigenous nations with Treaties, Agreements or Constructive Arrangements with colonizing governments must have the opportunity to participate in the UN Decolonization Committee process. This involves being listed for future decolonization efforts on the Decolonization List. Otherwise, Resolution 48-7 is only empty words. The sponsoring State and the supporting States of Resolution 48-7 know that their words are their honor and must be upheld, contrary to the words and agreements of colonizing governments.

The fact that negative colonialism is still being practiced today is confirmed by the latest knowledge of the hidden actions of two colonizing governments: Canada and Australia. The release of Australian state papers revealed that these two colonizing States worked together to weaken and undermine the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) after twenty (20) years of secrecy.¹ The Declaration that was passed in 2007 is proof of their actions as it is not the Declaration that was approved by those Indigenous Peoples that had been working on the draft since 1982.

The only Declaration approved by those Indigenous Peoples is the 1994 Original Declaration, not the current one. Additionally, when ending the 2004 Prayer Fast-Hunger Strike to uphold the Original 1994 Declaration, the Vice President of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Ambassador Gordon Markotic and Mr. Dzidek Kedzia, Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights promised that if no consensus was reached at the Intersessional Working Group on the Draft Declaration by December, 2004, the only Declaration to be approved would be the 1994 Original Declaration. No consensus was reached and the Declaration that was given to this Human Rights Council was the one drafted by the chairperson-rapporteur.²

Therefore, we are requesting that two actions be taken:

1. A Resolution should be approved and submitted to the General Assembly for their consideration that all Indigenous nations with treaties, agreements or constructive arrangements with colonizing governments must have the opportunity of decolonization through the United Nations Decolonization Committee, and
2. The current Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples needs to be replaced with the 1994 Original Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which was also approved by the UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, and the Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

In the Preamble of the United Nations Charter, it states:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

...to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small,

to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,…

 Now is the time to finally recognize the Indigenous nations with whom colonizing governments gained their identity. Now is the time to free Indigenous nations from the colonizing dominance of colonizing governments.

¹“Canada led efforts to weaken original UN Indigenous rights declaration; Canada and Australia crafted government-friendly UNDRIP substitute in 2002-03, documents show”, Brett Forester, CBC News, Posted: Jan 15, 2024.

²Indigenous Nations Rights in the Balance, An Analysis of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Living Justice Press, St. Paul, MN, USA; 2013. International copies can be obtained fromThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.