Category Archives: Rights of Indigenous Peoples

“At the heart of all the violations of our human rights has been the failure to respect our integrity, and the insistence on speaking for us, defining our needs and controlling our lives.” – Karbi leader Dharamsing Teron quoted by Meenaxi Barkataki-Ruscheweyh in Performing Ethnicity to Resist Marginalisation: The Tangsa in Assam (PhD thesis. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit, 2015)
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1039320680
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?page_id=27

“We are in a situation where if we do not act every moment, we will have to own up to the responsibility of complicity to violence. Therefore, constructive action is our only future. There is none other, for otherwise there will be no future for us.” – Ganesh Devy in “Constructive action is our only future”
https://india-seminar.com
http://www.india-seminar.com/2002/513/513%20ganesh%20devy.htm
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=6310

“We also need, here and worldwide, to focus on those rights in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights that corporate media have simply expunged from public discourse.” – P. Sainath (founder of PARI “People’s Archive of Rural India”) in “We Didn’t Bleed Him Enough”: When Normal is the Problem (counterpunch.org , 12 August 2020, first published in Frontline magazine)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/12/we-didnt-bleed-him-enough-when-normal-is-the-problem/

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights empowers us all. The principles enshrined in the Declaration are as relevant today as they were in 1948. […] We can take action in our own daily lives, to uphold the rights that protect us all and thereby promote the kinship of all human beings.” – United Nations manifesto on the purpose of celebrating “Human Rights Day” each year on 10 December
https://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/

“The power of the Universal Declaration is the power of ideas to change the world. It inspires us to continue working to ensure that all people can gain freedom, equality and dignity. One vital aspect of this task is to empower people to demand what should be guaranteed: their human rights.” – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in “illustrated edition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (2015 ed.)
https://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=25720

Excerpts from the “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”:
“Indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such […] all peoples contribute to the diversity and richness of civilizations and cultures, which constitute the common heritage of humankind […] all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust, Reaffirming that indigenous peoples, in the exercise of their rights, should be free from discrimination of any kind.” – Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007
https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=29168