UN WORKING GROUP DECLARES OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL RECOGNITION
UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) Pacific Caucus has issued the following declaration against extension of U.S. federal Indian policy over Native Hawaiians (aka federal recognition).
The signed hard copy has signatures of all the Pacific peoples at the recent WGIP: New Caledonia, Aborigines, Maori, Malukas (under occupation by Indonesia), Hawai`i, as well as supporters from other nations.
Here's the text of the declaration -
Declaration of the Pacific Caucus Opposing Extension of United States Federal Indian Policy Over Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiians,] Hawai`i.
We, the undersigned, are the Pacific Caucus and other participants of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations. We are nations united in solidarity with the people of Hawai`i who continue to assert their fundamental human right of self-determination.
The United States has maintained an illegal occupation of Hawai`i since 1893 and has actively prevented the full expression of Kanaka Maoli self-determination.
Therefore, in recognition of the recommendations of the 1993 Peoples International Tribunal Hawai`i, and in support of the Hui Pu Declaration Rejecting and Condemning the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, we hereby declare that the United States Federal Indian Policy should not be unilaterally applied to Hawai`i through federal recognition.
All nations should be afforded the full exercise of self-determination as provided under international law and prevailing human rights standards.
Geneva, Switzerland, 22 July 2005
