Chair,

I have the pleasure of speaking on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The European Union welcomes this informal consultation on the important topic of enhanced participation for Indigenous Peoples and thanks the co-facilitators for taking on this important task.

The negotiation process and previous consultations have allowed us to get a comprehensive picture and overview on the various realities with regard to indigenous peoples all over the world. 

The EU will continue to actively engage in all efforts to enhance the full, effective and meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in relevant United Nations bodies, including the meetings of the Human Rights Council, on issues affecting them.

It is from that viewpoint that the EU engaged proactively in the consultations on “Enhancing the participation of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them” and that we supported the resulting resolution (A/RES/71/321) during the 71st session.

The EU believes that this process paved the way for consensual and concrete outcomes for enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ participation at the UN during the current 78^th Session of the General Assembly.

The EU has a longstanding commitment to Indigenous Peoples’ participation in decision making. The EU Council Conclusions of 2017 underscored the crucial importance of further enhancing opportunities for dialogue and consultation with indigenous peoples at all levels of EU cooperation, including in EU funded programmes and projects under all aid modalities, to secure their full and effective participation and their free, prior and informed consent in accordance with the UNDRIP in a meaningful and systematic way, and to inform and underpin EU external action policy and its implementation worldwide. The commitment to Indigenous Peoples’ full, effective and meaningful participation is contributing to the EU implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the Agenda’s core principle of leaving no one behind. 

Allow me to recapitulate the main elements in the EU approach on enhanced participation.

When it comes to "selection criteria", the EU has always advocated for a flexible approach due to the diversity of Indigenous Peoples in the world and their different ways of self-identifying and self-determining. This diversity of contexts and environments in which Indigenous Peoples live has to be taken into account. We also believe that the principles of article 18 of the UNDRIP (on the right to participation, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures (….) should apply without discrimination of any kind.

The selection process should be open and transparent with some form of review-mechanism being built into the final decisions that are taken.

On the issue of venues, the European Union can support participation by Indigenous Peoples’ representative institutions in all General Assembly meetings, in meetings of its 2nd and 3rd committees, as well as in ECOSOC and Human Rights Council meetings, on issues affecting them.

Participation modalities should include, within practical constraints, the opportunities to speak at relevant meetings and to provide written information relevant to those meetings. Additional modalities of participation in meetings of the General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies should be varied as determined appropriate by the chair of each meeting who should take into account the nature of the matter at hand and the need to provide opportunities for Indigenous Peoples from all regions to fully, effectively and meaningfully participate in decision-making affecting them.

The European Union will remain engaged in this process with the objective of securing a consensual, clear and concrete outcome. We hope that progress can be made on this important issue.

I thank you.