WACC Statement on International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

Promoting Communication for Social Change

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WACC Statement on International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

On the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, August 9, 2009, the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) calls for recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ communication rights as integral to their human rights.

“Such rights are not just a matter of civil and political rights, but include economic, social and cultural rights” says the Rev. Randy Naylor, WACC General Secretary. “Implementation of human rights demands recognition of communication rights – those rights that empower individuals and communities to express their needs, to make their voices heard, and to participate fully in their own development.”

Russell Pemba expressed similar sentiments on behalf of the Mayan Collective El Jornalero, a WACC supported project in Yucatán, Mexico. “Our Mayan forebears, those of the ancient words, visionaries of time and the stars, weavers of ideas, left us an invaluable inheritance: their words, written in books and codices, spoken daily in our communities. For us those words are the symbol of our communication.”

Today, Mayan communities and indigenous peoples elsewhere are witnessing the silencing of those words. For indigenous communities, access to information and the media are endorsed in a number of international agreements which also recognize their right to create their own media. In some cases, that right is also consecrated in the country’s Constitution.

And yet governments in many countries including, among others, Mexico, Honduras and Chile, have recently attempted to repress and in some cases have defeated indigenous efforts to create their own media. The Mayan collective El Jornalero of Yucatán, México, says: “Enough. We have the right to exist!”

In 2006 Latin American indigenous communicators called on participants attending the World Congress on Communication Development in Rome to ensure that indigenous people’s voices and ideas are heard and are a matter of priority in development plans.

The following year the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples approved by the UN General Assembly in 2007 recognized Indigenous peoples’ communication rights in several of its articles. The statement reaffirmed, “that communication is a fundamental element for liberation, transformation and social development and the full enjoyment of the rights of indigenous peoples. We demand conditions to guarantee the exercise of the right to communication and development of indigenous peoples, linked to equitable access to the media and to information and communication.”

As the Second Decade of Indigenous Peoples enters its fourth year, it is time to implement all the recommendations contained in the UN Declaration and to encourage governments, non-governmental organisations and the private sector to recognise that the recommendations must be translated into concrete policies if Indigenous Peoples are to participate on equal terms in national and international life.

WACC celebrates and commends the recognition of rights in the new constitution of Bolivia, a country where indigenous people constitute more than 57% of the population. And WACC will continue to work alongside secular and faith-based organisations to ensure that Indigenous Peoples’ communication rights are part of the agenda to redress the historical, social, political, and economic marginalization of Indigenous Peoples around the globe.

http://www.waccglobal.org/

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Communication Rights Programme Manager

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WACC promotes communication for social change. It believes that communication is a basic human right that defines people's common humanity, strengthens cultures, enables participation, creates community and challenges tyranny and oppression.

The World Association for Christian Communication is a UK Registered Charity (number 296073) and a Company registered in England and Wales (number 2082273) with its Registered Office at 71 Lambeth Walk, London SE11 6DX. It is an incorporated Charitable Organisation in Canada (number 83970 9524 RR0001) with its head office at 308 Main Street, Toronto ON, M4C 4X7.