Category Archives: Rights of Indigenous Peoples

What is the Biodiversity Act?
“An Act to provide for conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of biological resources, knowledge and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.” – The National Biodiversity Authority in “The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Biological Diversity Rules, 2004” (promulgated by the Government of India, 5 February 2003)
http://nbaindia.org/uploaded/act/BDACT_ENG.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=11066

“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/

“It is “universally accepted” wisdom in state-based international law that all peoples have the right to freely choose their political status and their social, economic, political and cultural future without external interference. Peoples have rights and the right to exist.” – Rudolph C. Rÿser (Founder, Center for World Indigenous Studies) in Biodiversity Wars: Coexistence or Biocultural Collapse in the 21st Century (2020), Chapter 1 “Original Peoples”
https://www.cwis.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Chapter-1_Biodiversity-Wars.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=37546

“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

“[The National Human Right] Commission remained engaged, suo-motu or on the basis of complaints, with instances of custodial death and rape, death in police custody, illegal detention and torture, police high-handedness, death in police and para-military firing and encounter, atrocities against vulnerable sections of society – women, children, disabled and the elderly – often compounded when they belong to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.” – National Human Right Commission, “Annual Report – 2014-2015”, p. 257
https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/NHRC_AR_EN_2014-2015_27022019.pdf
www.nhrc.nic.in
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=25720

“Custodial deaths in India are a cold-blooded play of power and class, which cannot be viewed in isolation. When law enforcement agencies become perpetrators of violence, it becomes an ominous case of abuse of authority, which is antithetical to the rule of law-based system of democratic governance where human rights rule supreme. […] UN Convention Against Tortures seeks to prevent all types of tortures and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment around the world. Currently, the Convention is under review to make it more effective. Except seven countries that include India, all UN member nations have ratified the UN Convention Against Tortures.” – MY Siddiqui in “Time to tame torturers” (tehelka.com, 29 October 2020)
http://tehelka.com/time-to-tame-torturers/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=25720

“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 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