November 23, 2000

Subject: Miscellaneous Subjects #43: Calculated scheme to deny voting rights to people of color in Florida + *ALERT*: BUSH THUGS INTIMIDATE TO STEAL ELECTION + USA: FIVE DAYS LEFT TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE + COLOMBIA'S ENVIRONMENT A CASUALTY IN U.S. WAR ON DRUGS + KENYA'S MAU FOREST DISMEMBERED FOR POLITICAL PAYOFFS + BIRD HABITAT CENTRAL TO UK PORT EXPANSION BATTLE + HAWAIIAN JUDGE HALTS LOBSTER FISHERY FOR BENEFIT OF MONK SEALS + Forget the Election -- Remake the world yourself + 12th Amendment - Join a Legal Challenge to the Texas Electors + Declaration of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change

Hello everyone

The 2 main themes of this compilation are the growing evidence of electoral fraud in Florida and the deadlock caused by the US delegation in The Hague.

Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans on this list! ;-)

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000

P.S. Check this! US chief negotiator at the Hague gets a custard pie.
Reuters Photo at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/nm/20001122/ts/mdf133616.html

AND "Energy crisis threatens a winter of discontent" at:
http://www.business.scotsman.com/cfm/home/headlines_specific.cfm?headlineid=4901&subset=archive




From: CINDIPACHA@aol.com
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000
Subject: Re: Florida voting irregularities

Hello Friends...

I thought it most important to continue sharing information that media has chosen to exclude from the general public...please let me know if you prefer not to continue to receive information

...thanks

Cindi

Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 14:28:39 -0800
From: Susan Guberman-Garcia <susangg@megapathdsl.net>

Subject: Calculated scheme to deny voting rights to people of color in Florida

I spent several hours this morning watching the NAACP public hearing on the Florida vote on C-SPAN.

Having done so, it is very clear to me that there was a systematic and calculated effort to lessen the Gore vote by denying the franchise to as many African Americans as possible.

. . . The hearing was orderly, well run, and transcribed by a court reporter and was presided over by NAACP President (and former Congressional Black Caucus chairman) Kweisi Infumi. The hearing was much like a Congressional hearing (but without the wordwaste and puffery that usually dominates Congressional hearings),

There were several panels of witnesses, 2 to 4 people per panel. The witnesses included voters who were denied the right to vote, NAACP activists who worked the get-out-the-vote effort all day, NAACP phone-standby volunteers who worked the phones fielding election-day complaints, poll workers and news media people. The witnesses were all credible and impressive, their information detailed and often accompanied by notes with names, dates, places. I would not hesitate to call any of these people as witnesses if I were handling a lawsuit on their behalf.

Witnesses testified that they (and family members and others in their presence) were denied the right to vote because they";were not on the rolls"; even though some of them had their voter registration cards as well as identification showing their names and addresses.

This violates Florida law. In many cases, the poll workers who refused them declined to make any effort to validate their status and told them to";come back later."; Some poll workers were sympathetic and attempted to get approval for the voters to go ahead and vote but were denied by ";headquarters.";

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: Two poll workers testified that they had been instructed by";headquarters"; that they should apply ";qualification"; procedures VERY STRICTLY and if there is the slightest doubt, DENY THE REQUEST TO VOTE. They were also told to refrain from giving out any written verification of the refused voters' requests, including affidavits (this is illegal; the law REQUIRES that any voter whose attempt is challenged be given an affidavit of challenge signed under oath by the poll worker).

And in fact, many of the denied voters asked for an affidavit or something in writing to prove they had attempted to vote and ALL such requests were refused. NONE were given the chance to cast a";challenge ballot"; (which I gather is similar to the";provisional ballot"; that is used in California when there is a dispute as to whether someone is entitled to vote or not).

Witnessses testified that they and others who were African American (but not white) voters were asked to provide BOTH photo ID and a current voter registration card and many who could not do so were denied the right to vote even though the law does not require that the voters present both ID and voter registration cards.

A newswoman who spent all day at various polling places witnessed the above time and time again. When she tried to intervene, she was threatened with arrest. This newswoman (who happens to be white and a former policewoman) accompanied one black voter to SIX polling places as she was turned away time after time because, despite her having a voter card and ID, she was "told" this is not your polling place.

Finally, she returned to her original polling place and was allowed, finally, to vote. The newswoman testified that at one polling place in Healdsberg County, there were numerous police cars who were stopping African American voters and asking for ID and";what are you doing here?"; She saw them stop one elderly man after he left the polls, order him to";assume the position"; and question him, as he tried to explain he had just voted (and was wearing a button that said";I voted";).

When she tried to intervene, she was told to move on or she would be arrested, and when she did so out of fear for her safety, she was followed for several miles by a police car. This newswoman, who is white and a former policewoman, broke town in tears because she was ashamed that she left the scene.

The newswoman testified that she was leaked a list of over a thousand absentee voters by an election official. This was a list of absentee voters who were disqualified for being ";felons"; (their votes were not counted but they were not informed of the rejection of their vote or the opportunity to challenge it; the Republican commissioner who leaked the list told the newswoman that the instructions were to NOT notify the rejected absentee voters of their disqualification.

The newswoman happened to know one of the people on the list and it is someone she knows has never been convicted of a crime, let alone a felony. Many witnesses testified that people who came in to vote were required to answer a litany of questions even though they were on the rolls and had ID, the questions had to do with whether they had been convicted of a felony since the last time they voted, was their address correct, etc.

Only African Americans appeared to be asked these questions. A police lieutenant testified that a box of ballots was sitting in the police station. Someone called in that it had not been picked up. The police department claimed that they had tried to call the election commission on Friday but nobody answered because it was a holiday. As of now (actually, the hearing was Saturday but C-SPAN aired it this morning), the box is still sitting in the police evidence room, sealed with evidence tape. A minister testified that nobody ever came to pick up the box at his church (a polling place for his precinct) and STILL HAS NOT DONE SO!!

The president of Haitian Women of Miami testified that she was threatened with arrest for attempting to enter the polling booth to help first time Haitian voters who needed translation assistance, and even though she presented a copy of the statute that permits such assistance inside the booth she was told that she would be arrested if she did not leave and the police were actually called.

None of the Creole speakers who asked for Creole ballots (which were printed for the first time this election) were given them and although there were Creole speaking volunteers present to assist those voters, they were denied the right to do so. Handicapped people were able to get into some polling places but the polling booths were not acceptable to them and requests for special ballots or other assistance was denied in African American precincts, according to the witnesses. I could go on...but is it necessary?

These are THOUSANDS of denied voters. Does anyone not know a pattern and practice of obstruction when they see it? Does anyone not see the last gasp of the OLD SOUTH being called upon one more time to put its own man into the White House? Thusands of voters were deliberately and systematically denied their right to vote because Bush's brother and his cronies knew they were voting for Gore.

WHERE IS THE NEWS MEDIA? Why is this damning evidence not on the FRONT PAGE OF EVERY NEWSPAPER IN THE COUNTRY? Why is it being COMPLETELY suppressed on the corporate media television stations and in the corporate print media? Why is the systematic denial of the Voting Rights Act tolerated? There is no remedy other than to allow EVERY SINGLE DENIED VOTER HIS AND HER VOTE. NOW. And we who have volunteered to uphold justice have the responsibility to do whatever we can to ensure that occurs, whether its volunteer in the legal fights, write letters, emails and faxes, raise or give money, call our news media, call our congressional people, or if necessary, engage in civil disobedience in memory of Martin Luther King, the little girls who were burned to death in a church and every racist atrocity that has been brought back to life by the shame in Florida. If not now, when? If not us, who? THE RACIAL PROFILING OF THE FLORIDA VOTE IS THE CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS -- not the delay in crowning King George.

Susan Guberman-Garcia,
Attorney at Law.
Phone: 510-792-2639
Fax/Voicemail: 510-405-2016
Email: susangg@megapathdsl.net




Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000
From: Mark Graffis <ab758@virgin.vip.vi>
Subject: *ALERT*: BUSH THUGS INTIMIDATE TO STEAL ELECTION

From: Louis Posner <lposner1@n...>
Date: Wed Nov 22, 2000 11:31am
Subject: MIAMI-DADE COUNTY SUSPENDS HAND RECOUNTS

Notwithstanding a Florida State Supreme Court ruling mandating recounts,
the Miami-Dade County election Board suspended the hand recount. This
decision was a direct result of Republican 3 pressure, uintimidation and
rioting by pro-Bush forces right in the election board building.

We have now removed all doubt that the Bush Camp is anti-democratic and
fascist. If the Bush Camp is willing to use intimidation and force to
disregard the Courts, the Democratic process, and our Constitutional right
to vote, can you imagine what they will be like if they gain power

Possibly the most important call to make in this campaign. PLEASE, TAKE
FIVE MINUTES AND CALL NOW the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board:
Ask that they HAND COUNT ALL BALLOTS, per Supreme Court ruling
[and reserve their giving in to intimidation by Bush's thugs]

Phone: (305) 375-5553
Fax: (305) 375-2525

The recount in Miami/Dade -- the only county with a recount that
was expected to produce enough votes to erase the Bush lead -- has just
been stopped by the local county canvassing board after a noisy protest by
100-200 Bush supporters, largely made up of anti-Castro Cubans.

CNN said that the canvassing board had decided that given the tight
deadline of Sunday at 3pm, they would start their recount with just
undervotes (ballots that were not read by the machine.) According to the
Orlando Sentinel, in an article on 11/10, this partial recount procedure
is exactly the procedure that was used in Seminole County (see article at
http://orlandosentinel.com/elections/1110sem.htm ). CNN also said that
there were 10,750 "undervotes" to be counted and that the majority were
from "African-American precincts" likely to yield more votes for Al Gore.

FOX news said that the mob outside, predominantly made up of anti-Castro
Cubans, got wind of this partial recount and massed in the hallway right
outside, on the 18th floor. FOX showed footage of this group, many of whom
were holding signs showing federal agents removing Elian Gonzalez from the
home of his Miami relatives. According to FOX, dozens of protesters were
"banging on the wooden doors" of the room where the recount was taking
place begging to be let in. According to MSNBC, the room on the 18th floor
where some of the machines needed in the recount were located did not
offer enough space for all of the observers. When many were excluded from
the room, the crowd then became suspicious of what was taking place behind
closed doors and began shouting.

After these incidents, the recount was stopped and the canvassing board
met again to hear testimony and reconsider its decision, in the presence
of dozens of journalists and two Republican congresspersons from the Miami
area. The half-hour hearing was televised on all major cable news
networks.

The board, which had voted 2-1 to continue the recount just days earlier,
voted 3-0 to stop the recount completely.

The Gore team immediately announced that it was considering a challenge to
this decision.

CLIP




From: "Brian Hill" <bhill@igc.org>
Subject: Re: Green Files #15: Urgent Action to Cool Down Global Warming
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000

Jean;

I am at the Hague with a small team of colleagues. Anything we can do
from here??

Brian Hill

AND MY REPLY WAS:

Dear Brian

Nice to hear from you my dear friend ;-)

Off the top of my head I cannot think right away of something to suggest but I'm including a couple people who might think of something as Bcc to this email and I've included it in the next ERN compilation so as to give everyone the possibility of offering you directly suggestions and advices if any.

I'm sure the big environmental organizations such as Greenpeace have all kinds of actions planned or under way there to help things move ahead but the biggest hurdle to any significant breakthrough are the Republican representatives in the US Congress who sent a delegation of 6 Republicans in the Hague, as I heard on the radio this morning, to tell everyone there they will do their utmost -- with the full support of George W. Bush if elected -- to make sure the US never ratifies this treaty, thus ensuring that the one country on Earth that produces the most greenhouse gases (25% of the world's total) will continue to pollute the atmosphere as much as they want and thus doom the entire world to a certain future of environmental havoc worldwide. These ecocriminals should be ashamed but I guess they have been so much brainwashed by their Big Oil business friends and paymasters that they just don't want to see what they are doing. Yet again, the American public is an all too willing accomplice in this selfish shortsightedness since they are the ones driving all those SUVs and enjoying the much vaunted and so profligated American Way of life that alas almost everyone wants to emulate around the world.

The politicians say they cannot raise the taxes on gas in the US because the public outcry would be so terrible that they would be thrown out of office. Yet in a recent issue of Time Magazine, it was said that the current average price of a gallon of gas in the US which is around $1.47 is only 1 cent higher than the price of the same gallon of gas sold in the US *50 years ago*, once the price is adjusted for inflation... Can you believe this! It should be twice or more this price considering that this is a fast dwingling non-renewable resource. But the sad reality is that the US politicians are too weak to face up to the all powerful oil and auto industry lobby to which they have sold their soul. They prefer jeopardizing the future of untold billions of humans and of nearly all Life
on Earth rather than jeopardizing their oh! so precious political careers...

That's what it all comes down to: we are all hostages to these men and women pretending to be elected to represent their constituents when in fact their own selfish, personal interests is all that matters to most of them.

So if you can do anything to make everyone there more aware that there is hardly any hope as long as we will let the future of our planet in the hands of self-serving politicians, then perhaps some real change will come about.

Perhaps going around in the Hague near the Climate Convention in a mock funeral procession with a replica of the Earth in an open casket with some final symbolic immolation of the Earth would drive the point in some people's mind that the future our planet is really at stake right now... Or you may also hold some kind of vigil out there. Don't know! Keep me/us informed if you decide to do anything special...

Warm regards

Jean

BRIAN REPLIED:
Watch for Julia Butterfly's press conference from the Hague today.




From: Voitron50@aol.com
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000
Subject: Fwd: (ENS) World News November 20, 2000

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS) http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"


FIVE DAYS LEFT TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, November 20, 2000 (ENS) - The president of
climate change talks under way in The Hague says governments could still be
talking in 2008, such is the lack of compromise.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-20-10.html

******

COLOMBIA'S ENVIRONMENT A CASUALTY IN U.S. WAR ON DRUGS

By Brian Hansen

WASHINGTON, DC, November 20, 2000 (ENS) - The aerial fumigation program that
has grown out of the U.S. government's so-called "war on drugs" is
endangering the fragile ecosystems and indigenous cultures of Colombia's
Amazon Basin, a coalition of groups warned today at a news conference on
Capitol Hill.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-20-15.html

******

KENYA'S MAU FOREST DISMEMBERED FOR POLITICAL PAYOFFS

By Robert Otani

NAIROBI, Kenya, November 20, 2000 (ENS) - One of Kenya's few remaining
moist forests is set to lose another 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) of
land, intensifying a conservation crisis brought about by the Kenya
government's systematic destruction of the country's forest cover.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-20-02.html

******

BIRD HABITAT CENTRAL TO UK PORT EXPANSION BATTLE

SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom, November 20, 2000 (ENS) - A UK company plans
to build a container terminal on 240 hectares of open grazing marsh and
mudflats described by environmental groups as an internationally important
wildlife haven.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-20-11.html

******

HAWAIIAN JUDGE HALTS LOBSTER FISHERY FOR BENEFIT OF MONK SEALS

HONOLULU, Hawai'i, November 20, 2000 (ENS) - Hawaiian monk seals, one of
the most endangered marine mammals in the world have won protection from a
federal court. An estimated 1,300 to 1,400 monk seals are still living on a
chain of tiny islands stretching northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-20-01.html

******

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: NOVEMBER 20, 2000

Environmentalists Urge Clinton to Ground Airport

Companies to Develop Low Emissions Truck Engine

Georgia Park is for the Birds

Activists Dump Biotech Contaminated Corn at EPA Office

Scientists Launch World's First Marine Census

Georgia Awards Grants for Greenspace Protections

Researchers Launch Study of Texas Aquifer

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Signs Giant Panda Import Permit

Feds Bolster Efforts to Halt Marine Poaching

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-20-09.html

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.




Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000
From: pat kostakeva <patkosta@yahoo.com>
Subject: Forget the Election -- Remake the world yourself

Like all other readers, I feel outraged by this election, yet I am sure Bush will win. He has the powerful support of his father and all his associates behind him, including oil interests and Wall Street.

The only way each individual reading this can help shape the world now is to join the organizations lined up against the Republicans in Washington. Join the Democratic Party, now, and work for change in the next election. Join the Sierra Club, Audubon Society and Nature Conservancy (did you know the Nature Conservancy owns more land than any private landholder in the U.S? And it is all under proper conservation care? Support them!) so these groups can count you in their membership roles when they do battle in Washington against the powerful anti-conservation (i.e., oil and development) lobbies. The first target will be the Alaskan Northern Wilderness -- mark my words! Join Sierra Club and FIGHT!

Your support for Non-governmental organizations is now the only way for your voice to be heard. Join and get active. Planned Parenthood is another that desperately needs your help if Bush is elected. Bush will overturn all abortion laws, and only Planned Parenthood is powerful enough to stand up in court to fight. All these groups, and many more, need your money, your voice and your volunteer effort. In order to keep what little democracy we have left, we have to get out and work!

As lightworkers, get active with your local Metaphysical Church or group and tell others about our way of life and outlook on spiritual matters. It is vitally important if we are to turn the country and the world around.

Instead of arguing about holy sites in Israel, work to let people know that they themselves are God's only Holy Sites! The fiasco of this election makes this all so clear. I cannot believe that someone who has 200,000 more popular votes is not being elected president! It is astounding, but the only way to fight back is to get active now with the big groups who can fight for you in Washington.

Peace and Light on the Path.

Rev. Pat Ormsby Ministry of the Divine Guiding Angels




Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000
From: Mark Graffis <ab758@virgin.vip.vi>
Subject: USA: 12th Amendment - Join a Legal Challenge to the Texas Electors

From: Dr. Jai Maharaj <address.below.or@web.site.www.mantra.com/jyotish>

If You Care About the 12th Amendment, Join a Legal
Challenge to the Texas Electors

We believe George W. Bush and Richard Cheney are both
inhabitants of Texas. The 12th Amendment to the United
States Constitution prohibits electors from voting for
two candidates from their own state. Lawrence Caplan, an
attorney in Palm Beach, has filed a lawsuit to block the
certification of the 32 Texas Electors who intend to vote
for Bush and Cheney. We are working with an attorney in
Philadelphia, Phil Berg, who is filing a "Friend of the
Court" (amicus curiae) brief in support of this lawsuit.
If you want to participate in this lawsuit or future
legal action challenging the Texas Electors, please fill
out the linked form accurately and completely. There is
no fee to participate.

Source - http://www.democrats.com

Go here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/ddc5/petition.html

Tuesday, November 21, 2000
News Plus
http://www.mantra.com/newsplus
Om Shanti




From: "Alberto H.F.Machado" <amachado@ism.com.br>
Subject: Declaration of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000

Declaration of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change

[source: NativeNews; Thu, 16 Nov 2000 13:37:42 -0500]

From: Atencio Lopez Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 11:15 AM

Second International Indigenous Forum on Climate Change

DECLARATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The Hague, November 11-12, 2000

I. PREAMBLE

We, the Indigenous Peoples of our Mother Earth, as partners with in the United Nations Family, have collectively developed our rights, responsibilities and aspirations in international law and formal declarations, including the U.N. Draft Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Rights. In the light and spirit of these instruments we welcome this opportunity to participate in the UNFCC -Process, for the recognition, promotion and protection of our rights. As the Delegates of Indigenous Peoples and organisations convened on the occasion of the Sixth Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate Change in the Second International Indigenous Forum on Climate Change at the Hague from November 11th to the 12th, 2000, we affirm the Albuquerque Declaration, the Quito Declaration, Lyon Declaration and Position Paper of the First Forum of the Indigenous Peoples on Climatic Change. Furthermore, we address the Parties and other participants at this Conference to share the conclusions of our Forum:

II. CONSIDERATIONS

1. Earth is our Mother. Our special relationship with Earth as stewards, as holders of indigenous knowledge cannot be set aside. Our special relation with her has allowed us to develop for millenia a particular knowledge of the environment that is the foundation of our lifestyles, institutions, spirituality and world view. Therefore, in our philosophies, the Earth is not a commodity, but a sacred space that the Creator has entrusted to us to care for her, this home where all beings live.

2. Our traditional knowledge on sustainable use, conservation and protection of our territories has allowed us to maintain our ecosystems in equilibrium. This role has been recognised at the Earth Summit and is and has been our contribution to the planet's economy and sustainability for the benefit present and future generations.

3. Our cultures, and the territories under our stewardship, are now the last ecological mechanisms remaining in the struggle against climate devastation. All Peoples of the Earth truly owe a debt to Indigenous Peoples for the beneficial role our traditional subsistence economies play in the maintenance of planet's ecology.

4. Over twenty international instruments affirm, promote or suggest the rights of Indigenous Peoples to full and direct participation without discrimination in the development of national and international policies that have the potential to impact upon us. However, while instruments such as the ILO Convention covers a wide range of Indigenous Peoples rights, such as labor issues, land rights, social and economic rights, cultural rights, political representation and self-governance, they fail to adequately protect our concerns with regard to the destruction of the Earth's climate.

5. We reaffirm our ancestral rights to self-determination and our right to decide without any outside interference on issues directly or indirectly related to our lands and territories, that include terrestrial and marine ecosystems and that are among the most diverse and particularly fragile on the planet.

6. There have been advances in the legal-philosophical debate for the recognition of our collective rights. Furthermore, we think that there have been regional and national advances on this matter, but unfortunately, grave and systematic human rights violations and violations of the fundamental liberties of the Indigenous Peoples persist.

7. Climate change is a reality and is affecting hundreds of millions of our peoples and our territories, resulting in famine, extreme poverty, disease, loss of basic resources in our traditional habitats and provoking involuntary displacements of our peoples as environmental refugees. The causes of climate change are the production and consumption patterns in industrialised countries and are therefore, the primary responsibility of these countries. The policies of developing countries and economies in transition that promote coal and uranium mining, logging, nuclear and large hydro electric power station and oil and gas extraction and transportation contribute to climate change and the destruction of our territories.

8. We are profoundly concerned that current discussions within the Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the practical implementation of the Kyoto Protocol do not recognise our right to adequate participation. These policies and mechanisms exclude us as participants, deny our contributions, and marginalize our Peoples. These policies and mechanisms will permit developed countries to avoid their responsibility to reduce emissions at source, promote the expansion of global capital, and deepen our marginalization.

9. We are also profoundly concerned that the measures to mitigate climate change currently being negotiated are based on a worldview of territory that reduces forests, lands, seas and sacred sites to only their carbon absorption capacity. This world view and its practices adversely affect the lives of Indigenous Peoples and violate our fundamental rights and liberties, particularly, our right to recuperate, maintain, control and administer our territories which are consecrated and established in instruments of the United Nations.

10. We reject the inclusion of carbon sinks within the CDM and disagree with the definition of carbon sinks as stated in the Kyoto Protocol. We, as Indigenous Peoples, manage the "natural carbon sinks" in our territories according to our world view and their integral use is a right that our people have and exercise according to our local and specific needs. We do not accept that forests are valued only for their carbon sequestration capacity.

11. We are profoundly concerned that the current proposed definitions of afforestation, deforestation, and reforestation pose a threat to the traditional uses of Indigenous Peoples of their lands and territories. We demand that these definitions be in accord with the already accepted definitions in other international conventions, specifically the Convention on Biological Diversity.

12. Concepts, practices, and measures, such as plantations, carbon sinks and tradeable emissions, will result in projects which adversely impact upon our natural, sensitive and fragile eco-systems, contaminating our soils, forests and waters. In the past, even well intentioned development policies and projects have resulted in disastrous social and ecological consequences. In this case, the concepts, policies and measures being negotiated do not consider the best interests of Indigenous Peoples. Consequently, we cannot accept any concepts,projects or programmes that ravage our territories or deny, limit, or restrict our fundamental rights and freedom.

III. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. We propose that COP guarantees the fullest and most effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in all activities related to the FCCC through:

a. notation of this Declaration,

b. accreditation of Indigenous Peoples with special status in the decision-making processes in the Conference of the Parties, meetings of the Subsidiary Bodies, as well as at all activities carried out within the Convention;

c. establishment of an ad-hoc, open-ended working group on Indigenous Peoples and climate change with the broad participation of Indigenous Peoples;

d. creation of a Division on Indigenous Peoples within the Convention's Secretariat;

e. inclusion of a permanent agenda item on Indigenous Peoples in the permanent agenda of the COP and its subsidiary bodies and all activities that they organise;

f. meaningful consultation between the FCCC and the CBD, the proposed Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and other bodies dealing with Indigenous issues;

g. inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in the IPCC, Executive Board of the CDM, expert review teams and the compliance committee;

2. We propose that COP establish appropriate programs of capacity building, formation and diffusion of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol and its activities with the participation of the representative Indigenous organisations.

3. We propose that COP support access for Indigenous Peoples as equal partners at every level of decision-making including needs assessments, case studies, and national and international policy-making activities concerning climate change impacts, causes and solutions.

4. We propose that to ensure the non intervention of oil, gas, nuclear and large hydro-electric power station, logging and mining companies, in their exploitation of natural resources in Indigenous territories, COP support Indigenous Peoples in our permanent struggle to defend the environment through such actions as: a. establishment of a moratorium on these activities in pristine areas and the promotion of locally appropriate, renewable, and efficient energy solutions;

b. imposition of legally binding obligations to restore all areas already affected by such activites, with the participation of Indigenous Peoples; and

c. creation of a fund for use by Indigenous Peoples to address the potential and actual impacts of development and climate change in the short and long term in a manner compatible with our traditional and customary cultures and lifestyles.

The Hague on the 15th of November, 2000

(CLIP - long list of signatories)







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