17 May 2007
Press Release
Department of Public Information
News and Media Division
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
HR/4920
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Sixth Session
6th & 7th Meetings (AM & PM)
INDIGENOUS FORUM DISCUSSES WAYS GLOBAL ANTI-POVERTY
GOALS
CAN BETTER REFLECT SOCIO-ECONOMIC INTERESTS
OF NATIVE, TRIBAL PEOPLES
Native American Tribal Leader Says Lands Being Plundered,
People Now in Life and Death Struggle to Protect Birthright
As the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today began consideration of how
global efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals could better
reflect the unique socio-economic interests of native and tribal peoples,
representatives of indigenous organizations and traditional bodies within
national Governments argued for, among other measures, creating more accurate
census records and stepping up efforts to preserve endangered traditional
languages.
The Millennium Goals summarize development priorities agreed at international
conferences and summits during the 1990s. At the end of the last century, world
leaders distilled the key objectives in the Millennium Declaration, agreeing to
a set of targets to reduce global poverty, turn back the ravages of HIV/AIDS and
improve living standards, all by 2015. The Forum chose “Indigenous Peoples and
the Millennium Development Goals” as a special theme of its fourth session, and
held that the indicators of achieving the Goals must be reviewed in six areas
most critical to indigenous peoples’ well-being: economic and social
development, the environment, human rights, education and health care.
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