The Human Rights Council’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples concluded its first session in Geneva on Friday, 3
October after adopting a number of proposals to the Human Rights
Council including those on the Durban Review Conference on Racism,
the right of indigenous people to education and the participation of
indigenous peoples in sessions of the Council and United Nations
human rights treaty bodies.

The Expert Mechanism, which is charged with providing thematic
expertise on the rights of indigenous peoples to the Human Rights
Council, met in Geneva between 1 and 3 October at the Palais des
Nations in Geneva where more than 300 participants attended the
inaugural meeting. The vast majority of those attending the session
were indigenous people who actively participated in the three-day
meeting expressing their own personal accounts and human rights
situations affecting their communities.

As mandated by the Council through a resolution adopted at its
session last week, the Expert Mechanism began to identify and suggest
proposals to the Council for its consideration in 2009. The group
also adopted their agenda and programme of work at the beginning of
the session.

In view of the upcoming Durban Review Conference on racism taking
place next year, the Experts were asked to assist the Preparatory
Committee of the Conference by undertaking a review and submitting
recommendations as contributions to its outcome. The Experts
recommended that the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
should acknowledge that the right of self-determination and the
principle of free, prior and informed consent are now universally
recognized through the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.

Additionally, the Experts began work on preparing a study on lessons
learned and challenges to achieve the implementation of the right of
indigenous peoples to education to be concluded in 2009. In another
proposal, the Expert Mechanism invited the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous
peoples and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to contribute to
the study and requested the Human Rights Council to authorize a two-
day technical workshop/review to finalize the study.

Through another proposal the Expert Mechanism requested the Human
Rights Council to suggest to the General Assembly to broaden the
mandate of the United Nations Voluntary Fund to support the
indigenous peoples to participate in the session of the Human Rights
Council and the Treaty Bodies. An additional recommendation proposed
that the Chairperson- Rapporteur of the Expert Mechanism, or a
designated member of the Expert Mechanism, participate in the session
of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and invites all relevant
mandate holders, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous
peoples, to be present during sessions of the Expert Mechanism.

Among the issues raised by participants during the session were those
pertaining to the holding of regional seminars on thematic issues,
the situation of indigenous women, the effects of the global food
crisis on indigenous communities, access to education in indigenous
languages and the implementation of recommendations laid out in the
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Experts also
recommended to the Council that the Declaration be considered as one
of the human rights standards in the Universal Periodic Review
process.

Speaking at the opening of the session was Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy
High Commissioner for Human Rights, who encouraged the experts to
consider ways on how they will contribute to the promotion and
implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
through its research-based advice and studies. While the Declaration
was non-binding, it nonetheless offered the basis for reconciliation
between indigenous peoples and States, she reminded. The work of the
Office of the High Commissioner, she added, was to assist States and
indigenous peoples in implementing the Declaration and the Expert
Mechanism had an instrumental role to play in that regard.

Recalling that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the
Indigenous Peoples was one of the first new international human
rights instruments adopted by the Human Rights Council, the President
of the Human Rights Council, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, in his
opening statement, said the Declaration, along with the ILO
Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in
Independent Countries and other human rights standards, provided the
international normative framework to uphold the rights of indigenous
peoples. The establishment of the Expert Mechanism represented
a “significant achievement of the reform of the human rights
machinery”, he added.

Also addressing the meeting was James Anaya, Special Rapporteur on
the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous
peoples, and Michael Dodson, member of the Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, who both addressed ways they can contribute to the
work of the Expert Mechanism and coordinate their own mandates.

At the onset of the meeting, John Henriksen (Norway) was elected to
serve as Chairperson- Rapporteur of the first session and Jose Carlos
Morales (Costa Rica) as Vice Chairperson- Rapporteur. The other three
members of the Expert Mechanism are Catherine Odimba Kombe
(Democratic Republic of the Congo), Jannie Lasimbang (Malaysia) and
Jose Molintas (Philippines) .

The Expert Mechanism will hold its second session in 2009. The date
will be decided at the 10th regular session of the Human Rights
Council to be held in March 2009.

For more information about the Expert Mechanism please visit their
webpage – www2.ohchr.org/ english/issues/ indigenous/ expertmechanism/ index. htm