Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation at the Third Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on the Indigenous Issues, May 10-21, 2004 in New York City Item 5: Future Work of the Forum Date: May 20, 2004 Speaker: THACH Dhammo Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Distinguished representatives of Member States, Indigenous Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations, Ladies and Gentlemen My name is Dhammo Thach, Representative of the Khmers Kampuchea Krom Federation. I have the honor to speak at the Forum today on its future works. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. As the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Annan has highlighted in his opening remark, ” the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People have been marked by many striking achievements for indigenous peoples at the United Nations, not least of which is the creation of this Forum. Despite those gains, the aspiration of the indigenous peoples have been ignored; their lands have been taken; their cultures denigrated or directly attacked; their languages and customs suppressed; their wisdom and traditional knowledge overlooked; and their sustainable ways of developing natural resources dismissed. Some have even faced the threat of extinction. They continue to suffer from prejudice and ill-will. In many cases they are trapped in the middle of conflicts, conscripted into armed forces, faced with summary executions and relocated from their lands. They are subject to extreme poverty, disease, environmental destruction and sometimes permanent displacement. Stressing that such grave threats must be confronted without delay to keep them from festering and deepening.” Fortunately, the United Nations is ready to confront problems that the indigenous people are facing, so do the Member States. The Permanent Forum needs more resources as well as active support from pertinent UN agencies including the UN Security Council to promote peace and harmony in between the indigenous people and the dominant groups in the society. This forum should be more involved in the world affairs on behalf of the indigenous people than just providing opinions to the ECOSOC. This forum should have real ability to safeguard the indigenous people’s rights, and also to promote their culture and identity. Madam MARJATTA RASI of Finland, President of the Economic and Social Council, said the Permanent Forum was fast becoming an indispensable part of the United Nations system, a focal point for indigenous issues at the United Nations and a meeting place for indigenous peoples, Member States and other stakeholders the world over. Additionally, Mr. Ocampos, the UN Under Secretary on Economic and Social Affairs has stated during the opening session of this Forum, last week: The marginalization, extreme poverty, discrimination and other human rights violations to which indigenous peoples were subjected must be ended. The international community must learn that participatory human sustainable development constituted the road to peace and prosperity for all peoples, including indigenous peoples. The Millennium Development Goals must include indigenous peoples in their implementation, he added. If those Goals were to be achieved by the year 2015, the necessary institutions, funding, programming and other mechanisms must be established this year with the participation of indigenous peoples. Mr. Chairman, there have been many excellent speeches and oral interventions through out the week from all quarters of this forum. Many excellent recommendations have been raised on indigenous women and on the six mandate areas. For its future works, I would like to appeal to the forum as the following: 1. To ask the UN, to provide more resources for the forum to establish necessary institutions, programs and mechanism to monitor and report on the implementation of forum recommendations, and to enable the indigenous people’s participation and feedback on the implementation of the UN mandate areas and other issues that are important to them. 2. To request the ECOSOC and Security Council as well as Member States to timely response to the appeal of the forum on matter that is significant to peace and security and when human rights of indigenous people are at risks. 3. To create contact information of all IPO, NGO, and UN agencies. 4. To provide training and support for indigenous organizations on how to develop and implement the indigenous media including Newspapers, Radio, TV and Internet in their community. 5. To devote major efforts on the indigenous people’s census, data collection and statistics, etc to be part of the Secretariat’s responsibility as important as one of the six mandate areas. 6. To create the University of the Indigenous People that has many branches around the world. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Venerable THACH, Dhammo
