UN Human Rights Rapporteur Reports on Mission to Kanaky (New Caledonia)

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Statement by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, upon concluding his visit to New Caledonia– 4 to 13 February 2011

Noumea, 13 February 2011

In my capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, I have conducted a visit to New Caledonia from 4 to 13 February 2011. My visit offered me a unique opportunity to witness conditions relevant to my mandate and to consult with a wide range of stakeholders. I would like to thank the authorities of the Republic of France for their cooperation. I am also grateful to the Customary Senate for the assistance it has provided to me in the preparation and conduct of my visit.

The objective of my visit has been to hold consultations and receive information in order to examine the human rights situation of the indigenous people of the country – the Kanak people –while recognizing fully the history of New Caledonia. I have sought to understand the approaches that the Government of France as well as the Government of New Caledonia and the Kanak people have chosen in their efforts to progressively achieve a harmonious and productive coexistence among all sectors of the country's population, through implementation of the Noumea Accord of 1998.

I have had the opportunity to consult with the High Commissioner and other French officials, the President and ministers of the Government of New Caledonia, officials of the three Provinces, the members of the Customary Senate, and other customary authorities. I also wish to thank the representatives of numerous Kanak and non-governmental organizations, including trade unions and women, youth and environmental organizations that have provided information to me.

In addition to my meetings in Noumea, I traveled to the three provinces of the country. I visited authorities and members of indigenous communities in Kone, Thio, Saramea, Lifou and Ouvea. I also visited the detention centre in Noumea. I am grateful for the warm hospitality with which I have been received by Kanak customary authorities and their communities and by government authorities.

I am encouraged to learn of a consensus among stakeholders around the Noumea Accord, which provides a framework to transfer powers from France to New Caledonia institutions and allows for the possibility of full independence. I especially welcome the provisions of the Noumea Accord that promote the culture and customary institutions of the Kanak people as an integral part of social and political fabric of the country, as well as the provisions that provide a foundation for the many initiatives being taken to address the conditions of disadvantage that Kanak people face in all spheres of life. I note that the Noumea Accord can and should be interpreted in a manner fully consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration complements the United Nations policy on decolonization.

During my visit I have learned of numerous steps to implement the Noumea Accord and related positive developments, but I have also learned of many challenges that remain. I have heard from Kanak authorities and members of indigenous communities repeated expressions of frustration about ongoing patterns of discrimination, limitations on the exercise of their customary rights, poor social and economic conditions, and lack of adequate participation in decisions affecting them in many respects.

In coming weeks I will evaluate the information I have gathered and meet with French authorities in Paris to further discuss the human rights situation of the Kanak people. Subsequently I will be developing a report with recommendations, and that report will be submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council and made public. My expectation is that the report will contribute to further constructive dialogue with the governments of France and New Caledonia and with representatives of the Kanak people.

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Déclaration à l'issue de visite en Nouvelle-Calédonie-4 à 13 Février 2011  13 February 2011

Déclaration du Rapporteur spécial des Nations Unies  sur les droits des peuples autochtones, James Anaya, à l'issue de sa visite en Nouvelle-Calédonie-4 à 13 Février 2011

Nouméa, le 13 Février 2011

En ma qualité de Rapporteur Spécial des Nations Unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones, j'ai effectué une visite en Nouvelle-Calédonie du 4 au 13 Février 2011. Cette visite m'a offert une occasion unique de me rendre compte des réalités relevant de mon mandat et de consulter un large éventail de parties prenantes. Je tiens à remercier les autorités de la République de la France pour leur coopération. Je suis également reconnaissant au Sénat coutumier pour l'assistance fournie dans la préparation et le déroulement de ma visite.

L'objectif de ma visite a été de tenir des consultations et de recevoir des informations en vue d'examiner la situation des droits de l'homme des peuples autochtones du pays - le peuple Kanak- tout en tenant pleinement compte de l'histoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. J'ai cherché à comprendre les démarches retenues par le gouvernement de la France, le Gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et le peuple kanak dans leur effort visant à parvenir progressivement à une coexistence harmonieuse et fructueuse entre toutes les composantes de la population du pays à travers la mise en œuvre de l'Accord de Nouméa de 1998.

J'ai eu l'occasion de m'entretenir avec le Haut Commissaire et d'autres responsables de l'Etat français, le Président et les ministres du gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, les représentants des trois Provinces, les membres du Sénat coutumier, et d'autres autorités coutumières. Je tiens également à remercier les représentants de nombreuses organisations Kanaks et non-gouvernementales, y compris les syndicales et les organisations de femmes, de jeunes et les organisations environnementales qui m'ont fourni des informations.

En plus de mes rencontres à Nouméa, je me suis rendu dans les trois provinces du pays. J'ai rendu visite aux autorités et aux membres des communautés autochtones à Kone, Thio, Saramea, Lifou et Ouvéa. J'ai également visité le centre de détention à Nouméa. Je suis reconnaissant pour la chaleureuse hospitalité avec laquelle j'ai été reçu par les autorités coutumières kanak, leurs communautés et les autorités gouvernementales.

Je suis encouragé d'apprendre de la part des intervenants qu'il y aurait un consensus autour de l'Accord de Nouméa, prévoyant un cadre pour le transfert des compétences de la France aux institutions de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et qui permettrait à l'avenir la possibilité d'une indépendance totale. Je salue en particulier les dispositions de l'Accord de Nouméa qui promeuvent la culture et les institutions coutumières du peuple kanak en tant que partie intégrante du tissu social et politique du pays, ainsi que les dispositions mettant en place une fondation pour les nombreuses initiatives entreprises afin de traiter les conditions désavantageuses auxquelles est confronté le peuple Kanak dans tous les domaines de la vie. Je note que l'Accord de Nouméa peut et doit être interprété en pleine conformité à la Déclaration de l'Organisation des Nations Unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones. Cette dernière va de pair avec la politique des Nations Unies sur la décolonisation.

Lors de ma visite, j'ai pris connaissance de nombreuses mesures visant à mettre en oeuvre l'Accord de Nouméa et autres évolutions positives afférentes. Néanmoins, j'ai aussi pris connaissance de nombreux défis qui subsistent. Les autorités kanaks et les membres des communautés autochtones m'ont fait part de manière réitérée de leurs frustrations quant à la perpétuation de tendances à la discrimination à leur encontre, aux restrictions à l'exercice des droits coutumiers, aux mauvaises conditions sociales et économiques et à l'absence de participation adéquate aux processus décisionnels les concernant à de nombreux égards.

Dans les semaines à venir; je vais évaluer les informations recueillies, rencontrer les autorités françaises à Paris afin de discuter plus avant de la situation des droits de l'homme du peuple Kanak. Ensuite, je rédigerai un rapport assorti de recommandations. Ce rapport sera rendu public et soumis au Conseil des Droits de l'Homme de l'Organisation des Nations Unies Conseil. Mon attente est que ce rapport contribue à la poursuite du dialogue constructif entre les gouvernements de la France, de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et les représentants du peuple Kanak.

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Interview with ABC News Australia

In New Caledonia, the question of indigenous rights never seems to be too far from the headlines. In recent weeks, the goverment of Phillipe Gomes has fallen in a dispute over role of the Kanak flag, and results from the 2009 census have revealed that those people who identify themselves as Kanak earn less, are worse educated, and have a shorter life expectancy.

Also on the horizon is the culmination of the Noumea Accords, which promise a referendum on independence sometime between... and twenty-nineteen. Against this background, the United Nations recently sent its Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, to New Caledonia to investigate the state of Kanak affairs. So does he believe Kanaks run the risk of losing their identity?

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts

Speaker: James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

ANAYA: I wouldn't say they're concerned about losing their identity in a real fundamental sense. They have a very strong sense of identity. I was very impressed by that, just in an outward sense, what you see on the surface, the very rich manifestations of their cultures, but beyond that it seems that their sense of identify and the integrity of the culture go quite deep, and they do certainly, and this is expressed to me and I think is well known to the French authorities and is something that has been documented in a number of reports, they do feel that that identity is and has been under threat.

They have experienced what indigenous peoples around the world are experiencing as a result of historical patterns of colonisation and that is a direct assault on their identity, their way of life, the ways of life that are connected with territories, particular land areas, particular customs connected to those land areas, customary institutions that have governed their communities for centuries. These things have been under assault for sometime and that has been the experience like I said of indigenous peoples around the world. And so they're looking to resist or at least overcome those threats and there have been changes put in place and part of those are connected with the Noumea accord. The Noumea accords does provide what they describe as a road map, a framework for moving forward.

What the Noumea accord does though is leave open a number of questions that you've pointed out and what will happen in 2014, the Noumea accords doesn't resolve that, but it provides for various possibilities, among those is a possibility of an independent New Caledonia and possibly this continued association in some way with France. But whatever possibility is arrived at, what the Noumea accords points to is the need to secure Kanak identity and their place as a distinct peoples within whatever framework is ultimately arrived at for New Caledonia.

COUTTS: And at the core of this is the ability to co-exist. Are the Kanak leaders worried that the symbols of that, the national anthem and flags of the two nations flying side by side is causing this much trouble, is it co-existence that they're also worried about?

ANAYA: I think they have an expectation of co-existence and they feel that that has been agreed upon and if one looks at the Noumea accords, one sees that is a feature of it, that there will be a co-existence and they have agreed that the non-indigenous or the people that migrated there since French presence have legitimate places in New Caledonia, at least those that have some roots there, a generation of so and so they are not taking the position, at least the ones I heard from, which I think represent the overwhelming majority. They've taken the position that only they have a place and they are talking about co-existence and Noumea accords does reflect that spirit of co-existence in a very pronounced way.

Now, of course, there are things to work out and that's where you have ongoing questions about things, such as the flag, such the symbols of that co-existence, as they are called in the Noumea accords themselves. And there seems to be as to the flag an ongoing, well certainly there is an ongoing debate about that, but within that debate there is gravitations toward as far as I can tell toward recognition of some place for a flag that represents something other than the French republic or the French identity and the question is what is or will be that other flag and that's the debate ongoing right now.

COUTTS: Well, you spoke to a lot of people presumably, in the recent visit to New Caledonia. We just touched on the surface there that the surface and symbols of co-existence seem to be challenged. Do the people that you spoke to think?

ANAYA: Let me just clarify what symbols of co-existence will be are still up for debate, but there is a consensus that I heard from all sides that I spoke to that those symbols will be of co-existence and not of dominance of one over the other.

S. James Anaya  is a Regents Professor and the James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy at the University of Arizona (United States). He was appointed as Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in March 2008 by the Human Rights Council. The mandate was created in 2001 by the then Commission on Human Rights, and was renewed most recently in 2010 by the Human Rights Council for a three-year period.

Decolonization and the open-ocean large canoe (Sakman)

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by Michael Bevacqua
Marianas Variety

"Decolonization is a process of choosing what we want from the past and crafting our own future."

Last year the group TASI or Traditions About Seafaring Islands organized a Sakman Summit; an event where experts on Chamorro culture, language, history and Micronesian traditional navigation gathered together to discuss various aspects about the recreation of the Chamorro sakman, or open-ocean large canoe.

Central to the gathering was developing a standardized vocabulary for all of the terms which you would need for navigation in Chamorro, such as parts of the canoe, tools, sea-birds, names for the different parts of the day, etc. I got to attend part of the summit and it was very inspiring to behold.

I've written before in this column and on my blog No Rest for the Awake – Minagahet Chamorro, about how critical in today's Guam the work of TASI is. They are decolonizing, and they are doing it in a way which provides important lessons to us all. They are not trying to return to a previous era, but rather showing us how it is entirely possible that things which were lost long ago, such as the seafaring skills and technology of Chamorros can and should have a place in today's world.

A common mistake which people make when thinking about decolonization is that it is a time travel adventure and in order to take something from the past which was lost or mutilated by colonialism, you must take everything and replace the present with it. In this sense, if you want to decolonize and bring to life something such as the sakman, which was long ago prohibited by the Spanish, then you must also start walking around naked, give up electricity and not use anything which has come to Guam since colonization. This idea is obviously ridiculous, but it is something you hear all the time, sometimes spoken with great conviction.

Several years back, I wrote an entire masters thesis hoping to answer why Chamorros would believe in such a silly and self-limiting notion of decolonization. In my research I related this interpretation of decolonization as being connected to a fear of not having the US at the center of Chamorro life, and how the world can seem ready to fall apart if that centrality appears to be threatened. So Chamorros create irrational fantasies and fears meant to ward off and prevent any possible discussion of decolonization or changing things in ways which might challenge the idea that America and its dominance makes Guam exist and could not exist otherwise.

But what TASI shows us is that decolonization is a process of choosing what we want from the past and crafting our own future. It means ignoring the empty but domineering logic which states that what is lost is lost, past is past and that indigenous peoples should simply look forward and accept the rule of those who claim their lands and not search for the sovereignty they once enjoyed.

TASI is built around the idea that something beautiful and important from the past should be revived. Even if it was once thought lost, it should not remain solely in books and in rhetoric alone, but should be brought to life and become part of who we are today.