UN Agency Rep Sent To Chile’s South To Discuss Mapuche Rights
Written by Dustin Zarnikow - Friday, 20 August 2010
International Labor Organization reviews progress on indigenous convention
International Labor Organization (ILO) Standards Director Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry is meeting in Temuco this week with Araucanía Region (IX) officials to discuss the lack of progress in implementing the ILO’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention.
The meeting occurs in the midst of a hunger strike by Mapuche prisoners and just after a nation wide demonstration on behalf of the hunger strikes that resulted in more than 100 arrests.
After 17 years of deliberation, Chile ratified ILO Convention 169 in 2008. Chile was one of the last Latin American countries to ratify the convention, which was established in 1989, and has reported delays on the first treaty-implementation progress report scheduled for September.
Dep. Gonzalo Arenas confirmed the draft’s delay and said a special session to address indigenous issues has been scheduled with the Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Foreign Affairs for Sept. 7.
The convention requires that indigenous communities be consulted when legislative or administrative measures affect them. According Sen. Jaime Quintana, who was expected to attend the meeting with the ILO, the progress report states that authorities have not yet spoken with the Mapuche community to seek agreement on the proposed treaty - as required by the UN agency.
The Convention’s ratification was made difficult by the long history of indigenous conflicts of the Araucanía Region with activist Mapuche groups, and its implementation has also been a long, drawn out process. Still, Chile’s courts have already begun integrating the convention’s stipulations into some of their rulings.
“We are concerned that […] we have a very poor compliance with the standards required,” Quintana said.
SOURCES: LA TERCERA, RADIO U CHILE
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Source: The Santiago Times