NATIVE HAWAIIANS SPEAK AT UNITED NATIONS
Pacific Region Influence Grows At Fourth Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues
UN Headquarters, NY - Native Hawaiians and Pacific Region representatives join other Indigenous Peoples from throughout the world at the United Nations for the fourth annual Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The Koani Foundation, a Kaua`i based unity organization, is participating with other Native Hawaiian Non-Governmental Organizations in articulating and addressing human rights, environmental, economic and social issues at the international forum.
“We are treated like outcasts in our own homeland,” remarked Koani Foundation board member Kai`opua Fyfe. ”However, our Nation survives today despite more than a century of belligerent occupation, forced assimilation, and cultural oppression”.
The Permanent Forum has designated the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, and universal primary education for Indigenous Peoples as the focus for this year’s gathering.
The Koani Foundation is presenting recommendations on human rights and universal education for Pacific Region Indigenous Peoples.
“We Hawaiian Nationals are proclaiming our identities; reclaiming our heritage, our land, resources and rights,” Fyfe stated. “We will never accept second class citizenship in our Hawai`i homeland.”
In addition to Polynesian Triangle members Hawai’i, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Rapa Nui (Easter Island), other Pacific Region participants include representatives from Australia, Fiji, Papua, Melanesia and Micronesia
The forum, which runs for two weeks through May 27th, was established in 2000 at the recommendation of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
