On the 22-23 September 2014, was held the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in the UN headquarters in New-York. Giovanni Reyes, member of the Steering Committee, took part in it, on behalf of the ICCA Consortium. Here are his closing remarks:
In response to man-made and natural calamities as shown previously, we in the national coalition of indigenous peoples in the philippine have organized in each of the 13 islands of the Calamian Group of Islands among Tagbanua indigenous peoples and 6 among Ikalahans of the Caraballo Mountain range disaster response teams and from there, set up disaster response committees to be incorporated in their respective organizational structure – the functions of which are to serve as organizational arm in ensuring that disaster management formulation, training and implementation is participatory and within the framework of tried and tested traditional governance systems.
At international levels, I urge all parties of the Human Rights council to endorse or support the ongoing work of the Global ICCA Consortium that is taking the lead role in supporitng indigenous peoples worldwide strengthening traditional governance systems. After all, the triadic pillars of territories, traditional governance systems and indigenous knowledge is about indigenous peoples’ human rights at its pristine best.
Thank you
Giovanni Reyes
You can find online a video of the Half-day panel discussion on the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples in disaster risk reduction, and prevention and preparedness initiatives. Watch it here!
Giovanni Reyes’ remarks can be found segments 43:26 and 2:05:15, his closing remarks mentioning the ICCA Consortium can be seen segment 2:38:35.
