Respecting rights of indigenous peoples and communities

Respecting and according of the rights of indigenous peoples in their ancestral homelands and of their descendants in the diaspora.

In a nation-state comprising multi-ethnic and tribal groups including indigenous peoples, peaceful coexistence can best be guaranteed when human rights and fundamental freedoms are assured, and the relationship with and between all peoples is capable of guaranteeing economic, social, cultural and democratic participation on a basis of equality of opportunities and respect for indigenous customs and traditions.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was set up as a non-governmental, non-political, developmental and cultural apex organization of the Ogoni people of Nigeria. It has over 100,000 members. Ogoniland has since 1962 produced US$ 30,000 million worth of oil for Nigeria but the Ogoni people have received minimal economic benefit, are living in increasingly desperate circumstances, now with a heavily polluted and blighted countryside. The Ogoni oil fields are managed through a joint venture in which the government is a majority partner and which produces half of Nigeria's oil output of 2 million barrels a day. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, delivered to the Nigerian government in 1990, claims the right to political autonomy, to use economic resources for self-development, the right to protect the Ogoni environment and ecology from degradation, and the right to adequate and direct representation in all Nigerian national institutions. A set of demands delivered to the oil producer demanded that the company must now clean up the mess, pay reparations of US$ 4,000 million and either operate in an environmentally conscious way or quit the land. Following a peaceful demonstration in favour of their demands, the Nigerian government has reacted to the Ogoni mobilization with brutal repression. It declared Ogoniland a "military zone". Over 1,000 Ogoni have been killed in clashes with the military, eight villages destroyed and its leaders arrested.

The Kari-Oca Declaration confirms the human rights of indigenous nations, particularly around self-determination.