Workshop on Indigenous Women
Asian Rural Women’s Conference, 6 March 2008
Workshop report

Facilitator:  Vernie Yocogan-Diano of Innabuyog and APWLD (TF WEN)
Documentor and Reporter:  Olga Djanaeva of Alga and APWLD (TF-RIW)

The workshop was attended by participants from Kyrgyzstan (1), Bangladesh (2), Philippines (2), India (8) including a group interpreter, and a staff of APWLD (1) or a total participants of 14. The workshop was organized by Innabuyog, an alliance of indigenous women’s organization in the Cordillera, Philippines and the Task Force on Rural Indigenous Women (TF-RIW)of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). 

A concept note for this workshop was prepared and circulated to the participating networks/organizations. The concept note served as the guide in running the workshop. Participants began the discussion with passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP) by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007. This development was acknowledged as a victory of IP movements and their advocate all over the world. This achievement is a product of more than two decades of lobby work in the UN and other fora where IPs brought their voices and concerns. This development should not however relax IPs from pursuing the right to self-determination. The workshop participants believed that IPs may have this instrument as an additional tool to assert their rights with governments, corporations and other aggressors, however this will not be a guarantee for government-states, corporations, IFIs and institutions of these power structures to change their character with regard the land, territories and resources of IPs as their base for profit and commerce.

Ultimately, an improved situation of the IPs will be measured by how the IPs will hold on the recognition of the concrete impact of the UN-DRIP to the lives of indigenous women and their peoples will depend on the strength and power of IP organizations/movements  

The following have been identified by the workshop participants as the key continuing issues of IPs in Asia:

  1. Non-respect of IP land and the resources within ancestral territories by states and corporations. Development aggression or enforced projects by state and corporations e.g. mining, energy projects, forestry projects, reservations, tourism, land conversion projects, etc. These rights violations become more intense with the globalization process where imperialist states and their corporations are racing to control the remaining and scarcer resources of Asia and the world.

  2. Militarization, localization of the global war of terror, state terrorism which all lead to human rights violation to IPs/women, individually and collectively.

  3. Commercialization of culture and piracy of indigenous knowledge and practices. States and corporations, after they stole our lands and natural resources, come back to tell us that we neglected our land and resources and thus we need to be taught about land and natural resource us and  management.

  4. Undermining, demonization and exploitation of viable indigenous socio-political systems by the state, corporations and some fundamentalist religious institutions. The military is also tapping these systems as part of their tactics in  winning the hearts and minds of indigenous communities in times of militarization.

  5. Increased violence against indigenous women and children in all spheres, as a result of the above. Increased displacement economically, politically and socio-culturally.

  6. Identity problems especially among the young, resulting from the above impositions including forced migration.      

The workshop also came out with the following strategies and recommendations:

  1. The sector remains to have marginal participation which is an indication of low attendance of indigenous women in the conference. Hence, it is important to enable attendance of more indigenous women by providing travel support/sponsorship in this kind of conferences/gathering.

  2. Building and strengthening of indigenous women’s organizations/networks in various levels. Enabling these organizations to link  with networks/organizations of IPs/women in Asia. Continue the holding of workshop-discussions on emerging issues affecting indigenous women and coming up with clear positions and actions on these. Sharing of available materials in capacitating/empowering indigenous women which had been useful in our practice of organizing and mobilizing indigenous women.

  3. Making use of available international mechanisms to address the issues/concerns of IPs/women like the UN and building the capacity of IP/women to make use of these based on their priority. Developing of other mechanism which enables more participation and representation of indigenous women which does not always have to take place in expensive and visa-difficult venues like Geneva and New York.  

  4. Making use of national mechanisms and enabling national-local indigenous women’s organizations/groups to develop mechanism by which they hold dialogues with their governments on issues of accountability, respect for rights and enabling justice for IPs/women.

  5.  Holding of consultations and discussion in all levels on how indigenous women can truly make use of the UN-DRIP to their advantage and in the advancement of our right to land and self-determination.

  6. Making donors support and comply with the UN-DRIP and not simply providing token assistance/support.

  7. Integration of IP/women concerns/issues to wider peoples/women’s movements-networks like the ARWC, hence enabling quantitative and qualitative participation of IP/women representatives (support to recom. #1).

  8. Enable the accessibility of indigenous women’s organizations to existing programs on indigenous women of regional networks in Asia (like APWLD, PAN-AP, AIPP, AIWN).

An additional working paper for the workshop was the situation of indigenous women in Asia prepared by Vernie Yocogan-Diano in the preparatory consultation for the conference in end July 2007 in Manila. 




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