Statement by Marie-Danielle Samuel June 5, 2002 NYC
Main Representative to the UN for Yachay Wasi (NGO/ECOSOC & DPI)
Organizer of the Cultural Heritage and Sacred Sites Panel

From the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:

PART III Article 13

Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of human remains.

States shall take effective measures, in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, to ensure that indigenous sacred places, including burial sites, be preserved, respected and protected.

This panel was planned to bring the issues, outlined in Article 13 of the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to the attention of the members of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Speakers from Indigenous nations and UN agencies, along with a compilation of sacred sites issues submitted by world Indigenous communities, hosted by the NYU School of Law, brought the need to respect the spirituality of Indigenous peoples expressed in their sacred sites to an audience composed of UN observers and the general public.


YACHAY WASI - NGO/UN ECOSOC & DPI - NYC - Cuzco, PERU
"Yachay Wasi means House of Learning in Quechua"
Luis Delgado Hurtado, President
La Conquista 3 puerta, Saphi
Cuzco, PERU

Phone: 51-84-252618 or 248567 (eves)
Marie-Danielle Samuel, Vice President
708 West 192nd Street # 6B, New York, NY 10040 USA
Phone: 212-567-6447
Fax: 917-529-0922

Email: yachaywasi@igc.org
http://www.yachaywasi-ngo.org