On September 30th, 2010, the 15th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to renew the mandate and change the name of the former “UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous People.” This position is currently held by Professor James Anaya and will now be called “the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
The position was established in 2001, at a time when it was not possible to use the plural term “Indigenous Peoples” in the title because this term had not yet been accepted by the UN system. With the General Assembly’s adoption of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, the plural “Peoples” can now be used. It was therefore both surprising and disappointing when a small number of states continued to object to using the term “Peoples” in the rapporteur's title as well as in other references in two resolutions under discussion addressing Indigenous Peoples’ human rights. (States have objected to the plural because they feared that acknowledging the presence of a separate people within their borders would undermine the state's sovereignty or encourage separatist movements. Those fears were addressed in extensive negotiations for the declaration and should now be moot.)
The second resolution addressed other areas of work on the rights of Indigenous Peoples including the UN Voluntary Fund, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the organization of half-day panel on Indigenous languages at the Human Rights Council next year.
The final texts of both resolutions (A/HRC/15/L.5 and A/HRC/15/L.6) will be available on the Web page of the UN Human Rights Council: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/15session/.
