This past semester I took a course with my faculty advisor from the World Bank, Bjorn-Soren Gigler, on Indigenous Peoples Economic Development in a Globalized Economy. It opened a new world of issues to me, such as the fact that over 500 languages are spoken in the Americas and that poverty corresponds directly to being indigenous (Psacharopoulos and Patrinos,1994; analysis here). I learned about theories of indigenous peoples development, the rights in the international system of indigenous peoples, and more. The capstone involved putting together a sample World Bank project of our choosing to improve the lives of an indigenous group of our choice. Mine centered on reducing malnutrition in Guatemala for the Quiche-Maya people (let me know if you’d like a copy, as it’s Grade A work!).
At the capstone of our course, Prof. Gigler urged us to restart a student working group on indigenous issues which had previously been active. So we held elections and my roommate Steve is our President (or the cacique, as I like to say) and I am the Secretary. I am going to be setting up a web site for the group using WordPress, and need your help in choosing a URL/acronym for the group that’s easy enough for people to remember. When starting a site on WordPress, the URL is http://___groupname___.wordpress.com, so I need to fill in that blank. So far I have a few ideas, but none seem too catchy:
- Georgetown Forum on Indigenous Issues (GFII)
- Georgetown Student Forum on Indigenous Issues (GSFII)
- Georgetown Working Group on Indigenous Issues (GWGII)
- Georgetown Student Working Group on Indigenous Issues (GSWGII)
Can you help me to come up with a good acronym? We can modify the name of the group if it fits better for the acronym.
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Our Friday field trip this week was to the Southern Cone HQ of the International Labour Organization (ILO) . We saw a film on the work of the ILO, which includes mediating labor disputes; holding international conferences on workers rights with both unions, governments, and businesses; providing technical expertise; improving working conditions and promoting employment; and more. Additionally, a poverty and employment specialist held a Q&A with us.
Significantly for our working group, the ILO was the first UN organ to take up indigenous peoples issues. ILO Convention 169 is the landmark case for indigenous peoples rights, and guarantees the right to cultural preservation, access to land and natural resources, public consultation, required approval to modify indigenous peoples land, and more. The Convention came into force for signatories in 1989.
Chile just ratified the 169 convention in 2008, but has yet to implement it. Two main reasons are: 1) that it recognizes the sovereignty of the Mapuche peoples, which part of the government does not favor; and 2) that requiring peoples’ consent before their land and natural resources are exploited threatens commercials interests. There’s a lot of important work to be done to make sure these conventions are upheld. Worse, if you think Chile is bad, the United States–true enough to its history in foreign policy and supposed support for human rights–has not ratified this convention, and also voted “no” on the 2008 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
ILO Southern Cone Office
Inside, with central heat!
