Launch of UN publication on State of the World's Indigenous Peoples (Pudsey Liberal Democrats)

Pudsey Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Launch of UN publication on State of the World's Indigenous Peoples

January 14, 2010 1:48 PM
Originally published by Diana Wallis MEP

Diana with Lars Anders Baer (left) and Janos Tisovszky (centre) at the launch of the UN's Indigenous people's report in Brussels Speaking at the launch in Brussels today, Diana Wallis said:

"This is an important and very timely report. Important, in that it provides a base line of invaluable information on the current situation and issues of indigenous peoples. Timely, in the sense that the EU is now at a new stage, with a new Parliament, a new Commission and new powers, so this gives us an excellent working tool as we formulate new external and internal policy.

"Perhaps it is even more timely because of the whole global debate on climate change and with the fall out from Copenhagen. Indigenous peoples tend to be in the front line of climate change whether in the Arctic or the Amazon. Their traditional knowledge and cultures should be used and respected. For example, thousands of their languages are threatened which means that potentially every time a language is lost we also lose another way of looking at the world and the way we relate to it; we cannot afford such loss."