[E-rundbrief] Info 742 - Sacred Water and UNO

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 742 - Indigenous Environmental Network (USA): Sacred 
Waters, Recommendations (Part 2, Part 1: see Info 741); World Indigenous 
Water Caucus: 2008 Protection of Water intervention submitted by the 
Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development and supportive Indigenous 
NGO/IPO's to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 7th Session, 
New York, April/ May 2008. (Siehe auch Info 741)

Bad Ischl, 14.10.2008

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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This is the follow-up to the Info 741: Indigenous World Forum on Water 
and Peace

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Sacred Waters

Indigenous Environmental Network

Part 2

What YOU Can Do:

Treat Water as Sacred.

Respect our traditions. Pray for the water, make offerings to keep water
pure and available for the People and all Life.

Be a Water Protector.

Be aware of water sources around you and make it your business to know
these water sources are safe, protected, and/or being managed properly.
Be cautions of mining, energy power plants and agricultural and other
industrial developments that use and waste great amounts of water.

Be AWARE

Know where your drinking water comes from. Recent trends are to
privatize both drinking water and wastewater systems. In many cases your
tap water is of highter quality than bottled water.

Conserve Water

Whether you live in areas of lots of water or where water is scarce,
remember water is a precious resource. Whether in the home, in the
tribal community or within industrial development, we can no longer
afford to waste water.

Avoid Consuming Bottled Water

Unless it is an emergency, bottled water is not the solution. Fill
re-usable containers with tap water and take them with you.

Do Not Pour Chemicals Down the Drain

Watch what you pour down your drain and what you put in your garbage.
Everything you thourw out will find its way back into the hydrologic cycle.

"Perhaps the key to new ways of thinking and interacting with the Earth
is reflected within the hydrologic cycle itself."
Laura Watchempino, Water Quality Specialist - Acoma


Hydrology of the Earth


"We believe the aquifers breathe. They breathe in the rain and snow and
breathe out in the form of springs. The springs are breathing holes —
passageways to Paatuuwaqatsi (the water world)." - Black Mesa Trust Website

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2008 Protection of Water intervention submitted by the Seventh
Generation Fund for Indian Development and supportive Indigenous
NGO/IPO's to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Seventh Session, New York, 21 April - 2 May 2008, under Item 3: Special
theme: Climate change, bio-cultural diversity and livelihoods: the
stewardship role of Indigenous peoples and new challenges

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Seventh Session

New York, 21 April - 2 May, 2008

Item 9: Future Work of Permanent Forum

Water is Sacred

Collective Intervention

World Indigenous Water Caucus

Thank you Madame Chair.  We wish to acknowledge and pay respects to the
Onondaga Nation whose territory we are meeting on today.  This is a
collective statement from the following Indigenous organizations forming
a World Indigenous Water Caucus to do ongoing work (List of 
participating organizations see at the end of the text):


Worldwide, billions of people still lack safe drinking water and
adequate sanitation, and related illnesses kill 4,500 children per day
of whom the most vulnerable victims are the indigenous children. At the
last Permanent Forum, 26 Indigenous Organizations made a collective
intervention, requesting the forum recommend a World Indigenous Forum on
Water and Peace. This recommendation was adopted as part of the final
report of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in its
sixth session (E/2007/43, par. 54). These recommendations are follow-up
to this recommendation.

Recommendations:

We recommend that the Permanent Forum urge all UN agencies that deal
with water and all nation states to:

1. Provide full financial support for a World Indigenous Forum on Water
and Peace, that is led by, planned and developed by a wide
representation of Indigenous peoples, both from Indigenous communities
and Permanent Forum members. This forum can include government
representatives, NGO’s and corporations. The funding should be equitable
to that provided to the World Water Forum.

2. Regarding water governance and protection:
     * Urge nation states to change their constitutions to include the
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP).
     * Fully recognize and implement Indigenous peoples governance of
water through the implementation of DRIP at all levels of jurisdiction,
including regional and municipal governments.
     * Include Indigenous peoples in any decisions and policy
development affecting water, at all levels of government;
     * Place strong controls on fossil fuel exploration, and call for
moratoriums on nuclear power production, mega-hydro dam construction and
deforestation;
     * Encourage the full participation of Indigenous peoples within
each of the UN programs, in the planning and implementation to find
solutions to the crisis of water today.

3. Regarding water and spirituality:
     * Recognize Indigenous peoples’ right to practice their own forms
of spirituality
     * Declare all waterways, especially water sources as sites that are
governed by Indigenous peoples;
     * Include in all school systems the urgent need for the recognition
of Indigenous governance of waters and the sacred nature of water;
     * Call the UN Committee for the Protection of Sacred Sites and the
UNESCO World Heritage Sites to recognize Indigenous peoples’ critical
role in protecting sacred sites, including sacred sites of waters for
the protection of all of life.

4. Regarding water and language:
     * Equitably fund community-based Indigenous language revitalization
programs, including research and development, on par with other forms of
education;
     * Make funding available for the sharing of best practices between
Indigenous communities so that they can learn about what has worked for
other tribes;
     * Implement the recommendations of the expert panel on Indigenous
languages;
     * Support a World Indigenous Forum on Languages.

5. Regarding water and education:
     * Include in education programs local Indigenous contributions to
education about traditional values;
     * Support the development of Indigenous peoples’ media and the
inclusion of Indigenous peoples’ traditional teachings in the media of
dominant societies by urging nation states to include Indigenous
peoples’ contributions to the media industry, so that the media is a
positive force in the education of Indigenous perspectives of water.

6. Regarding water and corporations:

     * Recognize the sacred nature of water;
     * Recognize the right of all of life to water and call for a
moratorium on the privatization on water. Water should not be
commoditized and water services have to be kept in the public, not the
private sector;
     * Provide access to clean water and good infrastructure to make
clean drinking water accessible to all, regardless of race, ethnicity,
or economic status;
     * Establish a Charter of Corporate Accountability that is guided by
Indigenous peoples and respected by companies;
     * Require corporations to engage with full effective participation
and to obtain free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous peoples
on decisions that affect our waterways.

7. Urge nation states that are signatories to the UN Convention on the
Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to understand that they are responsible to
recognize the pre-existing covenants that Indigenous peoples share with
the Creator and Mother Earth and our responsibility to protect all
waters, both marine and inland.

8. Request a study to examine alternatives to globalization, and that
traditional Indigenous forms of economies be examined and learned from.

9. Call nation states to abolish nuclear arms and proliferation, because
all war threatens all waters, all of life.

10. Include Indigenous peoples, especially Elders and women, in
disarmament commissions and peace negotiations.

11. Increase significantly funding for safe, affordable, and sustainable
supplies of drinking water and sanitation in the poorest regions of the
developing world, particularly in the Indigenous Peoples’ territories.

12. Finally, we recommend that the Permanent Forum consider adopting
water as the theme for its next session.

List of participating organizations:

Center for Organization Research and Education

Bangsa Adat AlifUru of Maluku

Movimento Guaman Poma deAyala

Nihiyaw Cree Language and Culture Society

The Koani Foundation

Ka Lai Maile Ali`i Hawaiian Civic Club

Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development

The Living Nation

Indian Federation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples

Dimasa Peoples’ Council

Federation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Asia

All Dimasa Student’s Union

Organización de Mujeres Kuri Inti

Asian Indigenous Women’s Network

Rapanui Parliament

Pacific Caucus

Australian Aboriginal Caucus

Native Women’s Association of Canada

Indigenous Environmental Network


Source and more texts: www.ienearth.org

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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