[Text Fwd] [famoksaiyanfriends] Guam Legislation Would Support Indigenous Rights, Oppose Military Build-Up

* Text Fwd from Martha Duenas on Sept. 8, 2010

Overseas Territories Review
Guam Legislation Would Support Indigenous Rights, Oppose Military Build-up
NEWS RELEASE
06 September 2010

Vice Speaker of the 30th Legislature of Guahan Benjamin J.F. Cruz introduced Resolution 420-30 (LS) to Support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Rights of Indigenous Chamorro People.

Vice Speaker Benjamin J.F. Cruz introduced Resolution 420-30 (LS) to support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration is an international human rights document that recognizes the world’s indigenous peoples under international law. The Declaration is a significant tool toward eliminating human rights violations against over 370 million indigenous people worldwide.

Resolution 420-30 (LS) fully supports the rights of indigenous Chamorro people as the intended beneficiaries of the Declarations provisions. In light of the military buildup, Resolution 420-30 (LS) asserts the buildup’s effect is to imperil the selfdetermination rights of the Chamorro people, to reduce their voting power due to drastic colonial population increase, and reduce them to a minority in their ancestral homeland.

Resolution 420-30 (LS) states the adverse impacts of the military buildup from the possibility of land condemnation to the eradication of 70 acres of coral reef, the desecration of 3,500-year-old burial sites, and over-tapping of Guam’s water system.

In Resolution 420-30 (LS), Cruz supports H. Res. 1551 introduced by Representative Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, of American Samoa, to urge the United States to promote respect for the full application of the Declaration’s provisions. Resolution 420-30 (LS) calls upon President Obama to support H. Res. 1551, to sign the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and to halt a military buildup that may result in the ethnocide of the indigenous Chamorro people of Guam.

Also see: Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus Addresses UN Human Rights Council

U.N. Indigenous Forum Adopts Decolonisation Agenda

Chamoru Summit stresses indigenous leadership

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