Comparing Experiences from Africa, Latin America and North America
November 17-18, 2011 | McGill Faculty Club and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Simultaneous interpretation: English, French, Spanish
Across the globe and across time, one of the most egregious historical dynamics has been the consistent denial of basic rights for indigenous peoples. While the context and specific forms such dynamics take vary immensely according to distinct national and local contexts, the basic problems do not. An important international acknowledgement of this sad history came on September 13, 2007, when the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The fact that this nonbinding declaration took over 20 years to negotiate underscores both the importance of the Declaration’s adoption, as well as the extreme complexity of the challenges facing over 370 million people around the globe.
The conference is intended to start a process for understanding this complexity more fully by bringing together indigenous peoples from Africa, Latin America and North America, along with key actors at the national and international levels actively involved in trying to find practical solutions to problems of poverty, exclusion and victimization faced by indigenous peoples everywhere. Given the growing importance of urbanization for indigenous peoples around the globe, particular attention will be paid to the consideration of the urban dimensions of the challenges facing indigenous communities as a crosscutting theme of the conference. The conference has two more immediate goals: 1) establishing a more dynamic dialogue between those directly involved in these matters and university researchers who might make more positive contributions to their solution; and 2) establishing a platform for comparing relative successes and better understanding the shortcomings of less successful policies. Longer goals include finding the most effective policy approaches for addressing issues of greatest concern to indigenous peoples and laying the foundation for more positive relations between indigenous and other peoples wherever they might live. In other words, are there identifiable dynamics that determine the relative “success” or “failure” of distinct approaches to the issues of greatest concern to indigenous peoples and can knowledge of these dynamics provide new insights for designing better policies in the future?
To achieve these two sets of goals, the conference will entail a public component that will end with a wrap-up report and public discussion of potential future directions for collaboration, and a smaller working group meeting on November 19. The working group will consist of all people appearing on the conference program below, along with small group of invited participants due to space constraints. It will draft an agenda drawing on the discussions during the public portion of the conference. That agenda, along with a written rapporteur’s report covering both the public meeting and the working group meeting, are available in the "Projects and Documents" section to all interested people.
Thursday, November 17 Setting the Stage
McGill Faculty Club Ballroom, 3450 McTavish
15:00-15:30 Welcome
Prof. Philip Oxhorn, ISID Founding Director
Prof. Christopher Manfredi, Dean , Faculty of Arts, McGill University
15:30-17:00 Achievements and Pending Challenges After the Passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Tarcila Rivera, World Forum of Indigenous Women, IIWF
Hassan Id Belkassm, former member of the UNPFII for Africa
Robert Watts, Vice President and Senior Partner, First Peoples Group
17:30-19:00 Keynote Speaker
Dr. Natividad Gutierrez Chong, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
19:00-20:00 Reception
Friday, November 18 The Experience on the Ground
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Maxwell Cummings Auditorium, 1379 Sherbrooke West
9:00-10:45 Education: Building Identity and Respect
Jane Meriwas, Samburu Women for Education & Environment Development Organization (SWEEDO)
David Hughes, Pathways to Education Canada
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Donald Taylor, McGill University
10:45-11:15 Break
11:15-13:00 Health Maintaining Culturally Appropriate Healthcare
Emmanuel NENGO, Président du Comité de Surveillance au sein de l'UNIPROBA
Kristyna Bishop, Inter-American Development Bank
Sonia Heckadon, United Nations Population Fund
Connie Siedule, Director of Health, Tungasuvvingat Inuit Family Health Team
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Tim Johns, McGill University
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:45 Indigenous Lands, Resource Extraction and the Environment: Ensuring Fairness and Respect
Dallas Smith, President of Nanwakolas Council
Diel Mochire, Indigenous People of DRCongo
Veronica Huilipan, Observatory of Human Rights, Argentina
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Christa Scholtz, McGill University
15:45-16:00 Break
16:00-17:45 Political Participation: Autonomy without Marginalization
Donald Nicholls, Director of Justice and Correctional Services, Cree Regional Authority
Willie Littlechild, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and member, UN’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Monica Chuji, former member of Confederación de nacionalidades indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE) and UNDP Consultant
Job Morris, Botswana
Chair and Discussant: Prof. Ronald Niezen, McGill University
17:45-18:00 Break
18:00-19:00 Outlining Possible Ways Forward: Conference Wrap-up and Open Discussion
The following documents are available for download
Presentation by Diel Mochire, Programme d’Intégration et de Développement du Peuple Pygmée au Kivu
Presentation by Jane Meriwas
Presentation by Hassan IdBalkassam
