Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus
6 December 2019
ECO is happy to share this part of our platform with the Indigenous Peoples Caucus to help amplify their voice.
Kia ora, bula, tabea, buorre beaivi, ya”ateeh, Indigenous greetings to you all.
With everything that is on the line this year, with these negotiations and the push by countries to accept a bad agreement, rather than taking the appropriate consideration to ensure a strong Article 6 outcome that protects the rights of structurally oppressed peoples, we are very pleased to announce that as Indigenous Peoples” Caucus we have been granted a dedicated space in this daily ECO Newsletter to share the issues that are most important to us, and our communities.
The people who are affected first and worst by climate change have also continually presented the appropriate holistic solutions for the climate crisis we are all in. Indigenous Peoples, Disabled Peoples, Women, LGBTQI+, Global South, and Youth are on the frontlines combating climate change within our own communities, and we are here contributing the MOST to a fair COP25 outcome for ALL.
Indigenous Rights, Disability Rights, Women’s Rights, LGBTQI+ Rights, Youth and Children’s Rights are ALL Human Rights, and this is our red line.
While people with lived experience must be centered and supported to lead across all COP25 workstreams, there is also a huge role for our allies to play. CAN and ECO have made a start in providing this space for our Indigenous voices. However, we challenge all attendees at the COP25 to also explicitly look for partnership opportunities with Indigenous Peoples and other structurally oppressed and marginalised groups.
It is not ambitious to think seven generations ahead, it is the minimum.
It is not ambitious to respect the rights enumerated by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), it is the minimum.
It is not ambitious to meet NDCs, it is the minimum.
Upholding our rights is not “ambitious”, it is the minimum.
But we do not want the minimum, we want to help you be ambitious.
Some ways you can be ambitious, and support us this COP25 are:
- Advocate for the inclusion of our rights as the minimum standard and overarching safeguards in Article 6;
- Give speaking and media opportunities to structurally oppressed groups;
- Give us your interventions. Period. We need them more than you do;
- Call for a Constituency for People with Disabilities;
- Hold the ground and ensure that countries know that no agreement is better than an agreement that is silent on our rights; and
- Ask countries that support human rights language how you can help get this across the line.