Democracy in Global Life

In World Social Forum 2004 in India several thousands indigenous people participated into 80 seminars, panels, conferences, debates, work-shops, marches or cultural presentations to highlight the issues of indigenous rights, land, identity, culture or resources.

India has the world’s largest population of indigenous peoples, ‘Adivasis’; about 70 million people in more than 700 tribes, and provides thus most adequate context for estimation of that, how global economy affects indigenous people. They protested against the effects of globalization, which constructs the roads of internal colonization, displacement, privatization, pollution etc. into the vast remote indigenous areas, which were earlier beyond the reach of modern industrial ‘development’.

In WSF-debate “Survival of Indigenous People/ Adivasi Globally” on 20.1.2004 in Mumbai, with audience of about 2000 people, various indigenous speakers made it clear how the survival under the prevailing conditions of globalization needs restoration of indigenous identity, rights to land and natural resources :

“Transnational corporations take our livelihoods, work and means of survival”. “For mines or damns our lands are taken away and our life become commercialized”.. The conclusions of the debate expressed clearly the need for local struggle and unified universal efforts to defend indigenous lands and rights.

Indigenous people’s lands, human rights and subsistence are taken away by mining, oil and gas exploitation, dams, privatization of water, canals and rivers, geothermal energy, logging, industrial reforestation and agribusiness with GMOs and patents on life, ranching and wild-life reserves for ‘eco-tourism’ industry. Suffering the consequences of such ‘developments’ in most painful scale “world’s indigenous peoples… have… perceived development as a very negative concept”. (UN-report on “Indigenous peoples and their relationship to land”, E/CN.4/Sub.2/2001/21, paragraph 67).

The conclusion of the WSF debate on Survival of Indigenous People Globally declared the possibility of an other world of indigenous development based on indigenous peoples’ own needs and intentions and their universal rights to survive.

2.2. Global Threats for Indigenous Life in Context of India

“In India around 80 per cent of the mineral resources, major proportions of sylvicultural and hydel
resources are located in tribal predominant areas. The situation is more or less same in many of the tribal predominant areas outside India” (Anthropologist B.K. Roy Burman; Tribal Peoples of India - Emerging Heritage, 2000)

The occupation of the lands and means of subsistence of Adivasis, dalits, peasants and other poors of the marginalized majority in India into the hands of global export business, continue to effect for example following violations of human rights and justice :

The hunger of 320 million Indians results from land being occupied by foreign export production because one could walk into the moon along a bridge made from India’s full bags of unused stocks of 60 million tonnes of export foodgrain. Largely foreign-owned corporations profit by exporting these India’s food stocks dumped below poverty line prices and vast amounts are even rotting in the stocks. (“Stop the Rot” by Devinder Sharma, Hindustan Times, 31.1.2004)

In India “some 50 million persons have been displaced since 1950 on account of various development projects”. Adivasis have lost nearly half a million hectares of land to outsiders and work now often as cheap farm hands on the land that was their own. Thus about 25 million Adivasi have been displaced and “there are almost no tribal schools in which teaching is in tribal languages”.. (Harsh Mander; “Tribal Policy. Pulling Back From the Brink?” January 2004, pages 13 and 22). “Tribals constitute at least 55.16 percent of the total displaced people in the country” (“Draft National Policy on Tribals” by Ministry of Tribal
Affairs of India, 2004, page 5). Adivasis are among the poorest in India; an individual earns averagely less than $1 a day.

Deprived of land, identity and their earlier self-sufficient life, Adivasis are thus forced now into slums, useless or polluted areas without water, into hunger and sickness to pay the costs in the name of our ‘development’ (under the terms of World Bank), ‘protection of nature’, population management, ‘participation’ and justice.

In India the Supreme Court is likely to evict 1,5 million families (as noted by Pradeep Prabhu in WSF-seminar on 20.1.2004, Mumbai).

Factually “the World Bank’s support for the building of dams in India and elsewhere” is carried on “without the involvement, consent or consultation of indigenous peoples”. “The construction of dams that flood lands” which they inhabit, “convert indigenous peoples into cheap labourers for industry, because the exploitation of their lands and the environmental degradation have deprived them of their livelihood”. (UN-report on “Indigenous peoples and their relationship to land”, paragraph 67).

Mining and other industries produce also toxic heavy metal emissions and other pollution into air, soil and water causing cancer, respiratory diseases, bronchaitis, suffocation, tuberculosis and are distroying cattle, harvest of plants and fruit trees.

“There is also a process of invisible displacement. During mining operation massive subsoil water seepage goes on continuously… As a result, quantum of soil moisture in the agricultural and forest land on the surface goes down with corresponding reduction in productivity and increase in the proportion of persons below poverty line”.. (Anthropologist B.K. Roy Burman, Observations, February 2004)

India has vast Adivasi movements, in which many tribal people continue to maintain that they will never abandon their land (for example within Narmada Bachao Andolan and Ekta Parishad movements), even if it means their death by drowning or starvation.

Ekta Parishad organized during February 2004 “one month long walk in Orissa… over hundreds of villages”, Sterlite Mining Area and Chilka lake area and Barbera Wild Life Sanctury”. There “about 154 villages issued notices by forest department and now asked for leave the place (villages)… they are Saber primitive tribes who lived this place since hundreds of years”. “At the end of this Yatra we submitted 17,883 petitions to the state government for solving the problems of landless and deprived communities here”. “Villagers decided to direct walk to Bhubneshwar (capital of Orissa state)… and 5000 tribals and dalits and other marginalized people started to walk”. “Finally Chief Minister of Orissa agreed to set up a Task Force there (like Madhya Pradesh) for distributing the land to the landless poor ready to solve other land related problems”. (Ramesh, Ekta Parishad, 2004)

Globalization is in India has undermined human rights also by privatization of public services of health, education and water. Even rivers and large lakes, such as Chilika lake, get privatized. “Under the heading of “participatory development” the World Bank” funds such “water users associations”, by which only those who can pay high price, “take control over the community water resources, operate and manage” them. “The price of irrigation water has increased almost 10 times” serving “to undermine the activities of small and marginalized farmers to access water”.

DDT and other pesticides of big cultivations are poisoning the soil, food and water in India resulting to sicknesses and deaths of people and animals. “More than 30 per cent of food samples tested” and “many brands of bottled drinking water in Delhi and Mumbai contain dangerous levels of toxic pesticide residues exceeding… safety standards”. Also “the enclosure of the environment through IPR’s laws denies sustainable survival option for those who sustain the environments… particulary indigenous people”. (Anubhuti newsletter 2003, Anubhuti Publications, Orissa, India, pages 16, 19, 21-22 and 39-40)

“Patents… over products derived from indigenous and local community knowledge” such as basmati rice or other seeds, neem tree oil extraction or healing of wounds by turmeric (which have been used over generations in India) discriminatorily ”misappropriate the cultural heritage and traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples”. (“Trade and Indigenous Peoples Human Rights” in a document on 5th WTO Ministerial by UN human rights office OHCHR). Rich countries and their TNCs urge rights for such profits, patents and unstable funding, where funds “can easily be withdrawn” from the land and for “investments… carried out without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples”, leading to the lost of lands and forests. (UN-report on human rights of indigenous people, E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/2003/2, paragraphs 21 and 24).

“With the forest gone, fruit trees, roots, vegetables and herbal medicines are no longer available”. Adivasi livelihoods, health and culture get lost under markets and “western medicines, which… destroy the family’s economic resources” and exposes Adivasi women to misuse and pseudo-marriages by which their lands become further traded away. (Impact of Globalization on Adivasi Women and Children of India, Ahmedabad 2002, p. 7-9 and 11). Even in the name of nature conservation, a lot of money is used “to remove forest dwellers from their homes as a measure to protect.. resources and… wildlife and bio-diversity ripe for exploitation”. Adivasi lands are taken into the use of ‘eco-tourism’ and of mono-cultural teak plantation industries, both in a same area and funded by World Bank. (Truth Force. The Land Rights Movement in India, 2003, page 50.)

“In the span of a single generation, communities and families have been displaced as many as four to six times”. “Bands of homeless destitutes grow visibly larger and more crushed, as one approaches the main road” or infrastructures, which have “diminshed the viability of livelihood” of hills and valleys, flooded or undermined. (Suresh Sharma; “Tribal Identity and the Modern World” Tokyo, 1994, pages 200-201).

2.3. Survival of Indigenous People Globally - Hope in Unity

WSF-Mumbai seminar report by Rajesh K. Jha

WSF-debate on ‘Survival of indigenous people, Adivasis Globally’ was created by a congregation of activists, workers and intellectuals working among the Adivasis or indigenous people. It was organised by Friends of the Earth (Finland) along with Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Ramanika Foundation, National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM), Agragamee and Shoshit Jan Andolan, LAMP and others.

Over 2000 people attended the seminar, which was Chaired by two eminent persons-tribal and scholar of Jharkhand Ramdayal Munda and Marko Ulvila (Friends of the Earth Finland). Others who graced the dais included leading tribal leaders and activists. Some of the prominent persons on the occasion were-Ms. Heidi Karjalainen (Finland, Sami Community), Ghanshyam, Indu Netam, Nirmala Putul, K M Metri, Kaluram Dhondade, Vahru Sonwane, Dr. Sunilam, Vasavi and others. Veteran Socialist leader Surendra Mohan and venerated social activist Ramanika Gupta were also present among other participants. On this occasion Vagish K Jha, the WSF Coordinator of Adivasi, Tribal, Indigenous people managed the stage on behalf of the Friends of the Earth and Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam. Finnish activists in WSF also participated.

The seminar began with the energetic Drum beating by the tribals from Jharkhand before the well attended hall. The thunderous applaud by the participants set the tone of the seminar. The seminar discussed many of the issues confronting the Adivasis. Overall two issues dominated the proceedings namely - (1) The Adivasi rights over natural resources and (2) the issue of Adivasi identity (culture, language, etc). The meeting lasted for more than 3 and half-hours.

Even the talk portion from the dais began with a recital of a poem by a young tribal poetess which drew an evocative picture of the deep pain of an Adivasi lady poetess followed by a song about the destruction brought about by the on going Highway project in their area. Ms. Heidi Karjalainen (Finland), a representative of the Sami community of Finland spoke about Sami Community and shared their concerns about language and livelihood with the participants. Bhanwar Singh from Rajasthan representing Astha said the Adivasi right over land, forest and water must be recognised. Many other speakers echoed this sentiment. The govt. was criticized for having laws, which deprive the Adivasis of their right continuing for thousands of years on the land and natural resources of their area. It was pointed out that the Adivasis are also falling prey to the tune of globalisation and some of them are acting as agents of the forces of exploitation. In the North Eastern state of Mizoram, there is a fight going on between the tribals. The Mizos are unable to tolerate Chakmas because of religious and cultural differences. It was weakening the fight against oppressors. It was stressed that the entire process of development is being carried out at the cost of life and livelihood of Adivasis. Many a times, the govt. and other outside agencies were fooling and exploiting the Adivasis. If an alternative world is to be built, it must oppose all kinds of oppression. Speakers called upon Adivasis to be self reliant and carry on their struggle unitedly.

Cheeniya Nayak from Maharashtra spoke about the problems of the Banjara Community. He said that they are a very ancient community and have great tradition of velour. Despite having a rich language and a population of 8 crore, the Banjaras are not recognised as one group and denied many of their due rights. Speakers underlined the need to develop the tribal language and imparting education in their own language to foster a sense of identity. Indu Netam from Chhattisgarh informed the gathering of the struggle being waged at Bastar against the MMDC project of mining. The people have refused to vacate the land in Bastar despite promises of compensation. She said that the smaller states have made it much easier to ‘buy’ legislators against the interest of tribals. Speakers pleaded to have a development model that is in conformity with the tribal way of life and tradition. Cetan Manjhi spoke of starvation death in Orissa and compared it with the times when Adivasis had rights over land and forest. In these times, there was hardly any case of starvation death. The Adivasi way of living is inclusive, harmonious with nature, tolerant and equitable.
Dr. Sunilam, MLA from Madhya Pradesh and an acclaimed activist for tribal rights urged upon the tribals to unite for a stronger voice in politics. He drew attention to the fact that in many parts of Jhabua, Adivasis are being communalized. Ramanika Gupta talked about the non-inclusion of Adivasis in the census on flimsy grounds. Extolling the Adivasi culture of equity, community living and harmony she called for unity among the tribals. Addressing the question of identity among tribals by allowing inter-tribal marriage was the best way to protect the identity, said a Tribal representative from Meghalaya. Dynamic leader from Jharkhand Ghanshyam, talked about the tradition of direct democracy among tribals and its potential to act as a model of democracy for the country as a whole. Veteran socialist leader and thinker Surendra Mohan critized the development models for its destructive impact upon the Adivasis.

Marko Ulvila, Finland, representing the Friends of Earth, expressed the hope that coming together of activists, intellectuals and tribal will foster unity and hoped that this process will continue. The meeting ended with ‘Mumbai Declaration’ on Adivasis read out by Dr. Munda. The declaration sought to highlight the element of equity, fraternity, harmony of tribal culture and the need to ensure their right to natural resources with self-respect, dignity and protection of environment.

The meeting brought together a large number of activists and worker active on Adivasi issues of livelihood, dignity, culture and identity. The well-attended meeting gave a message that there is hope in unity for all those who wish to carve out a better world.

2.4. Human Rights to Means of Subsistence in Indigenous Life

“We have rights and responsibilities towards our lands and territories. We are responsible to defend our lands”. “Globalization constitutes one of the main obstacles for the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples”. (Kimberley Declaration, International Indigenous Peoples Summit on Sustainable Development, Khoi-San Territory 28 August 2002).

Globalized ‘developments’ have “undermined self-sufficient economies of Indigenous Peoples leading to food insecurity, worsening poverty and loss of land, culture and identity”; in India, Philippines, Indonesia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Nigeria, Chad-Cameroon, USA, Russia, and all over the world. (The International Cancun Declaration of Indigenous Peoples on 12. 9. 2003).

To defend their dignity and universal human rights of to land, identity and resources, indigenous
peoples have urged internationally from the governments :

“Support the immediate adoption of the UN Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” and “protect our… right to self-determination”. “Our rights as peoples to our lands… and natural resources must be recognized” and respected. “Our survival as peoples depends upon it”.

“The human-rights framework should underpin trade, investment, development… policies”.

States should remove “investment liberalization rules” and “conditionalities”, which “facilitate the displacement of Indigenous Peoples and the appropriation of our lands, waters, resources and knowledge” and “stop the privatization and liberalization of health, education, water, energy, and environmental services”. (The International Cancun Declaration of Indigenous Peoples.)

In following we will examine, what do these fundamental rights of Indigenous Peoples to land, identity and use of resources require according to the international commitments and according to indigenous sense of justice, and how they could be used for indigenous survival.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) requires “a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of ... belief and freedom from fear and want” declaring that :

“Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized” - such as “adequate... health... food, clothing, housing… medical care” and just, safe and healthy “conditions of work which ensure... a decent living” for all. (UDHR, preamble and articles 22, 25 and 28).

This realization of universal human rights for all people demands that “all peoples have the right of self-determination” to “freely determine their political status and… pursue their... development”. (Article 1. in the UN Human Rights Covenants ICCPR and ICESCR, ratified by some 150 states) :

“All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources” in co-operation based upon their “mutual benefit and international law” so that “in no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence”. (Article 1.2. in ICCPR and in ICESCR)

“Draft National Policy on Tribals” (2004), by Ministry of Tribal Affairs of India would allow (page 5 on displacement) such “compulsory acquisition of land” “in the larger interest”, which “forces tribal people to leave… their chief means of livelihood”.

This policy of ‘compulsory acquisition of land’, which ‘forces tribal people to leave… their chief means of livelihood’ violates the fundamental human right that “in no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence” (which India has ratified), because:

a) States have to implement “the right of peoples to self-determination” so that all peoples may
“utilize… freely their natural wealth and resources” to realize “their own means of subsistence”. (Article 1 in ICCPR and ICESCR, and article 25 in ICESCR).

This right to self-determination of all peoples shall be respected by states “irrespective of whether a people entitled to self-determination depends on a State party... or not” and this right is set forth “before all other rights”.

This is “because its realization is an essential condition for the effective guarantee and observance of individual human rights and for the promotion and strengthening of those rights”. “This right entails corresponding duties for all States and the international community” to “take positive action” and to demonstrate “the constitutional... processes which in practice allow the exercise of this right” (Official legal interpretation by CCPR General comment 12, “The right to self-determination of peoples”;13/03/84). Realization of this human right to “self-determination of indigenous peoples will never be possible without indigenous peoples’ having the legal authority to exercise control over their lands and… natural resources” by their “recognized… distinct, independent… communities”. (UN human rights report; “Indigenous peoples’ permanent sovereignty over natural resources” E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/20, paragraphs 6 and 12).

b) States must realize “to the maximum of… available resources” this right to self-determination for all peoples according to their “mutual benefit” and “by all appropriate means, including… the adoption of legislative measures”, so that “in no case may a people be deprived of their own means of subsistence”. (Articles 1.2, 2.1 and 25 of ICESCR). States are thus responsible to ensure that:

“Indigenous peoples have the right to… be secure in the enjoyment of their own means of subsistence…and to engage freely in all their traditional … economic activities”. They have right “freely to determine their relationships with States in a spirit of… mutual benefit”.(Draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, preface and article 21)

c) Fundamental human rights must be realized universally as equal for all people without discrimination in relation to their right to their different own forms of ethnicity or culture; “language, religion..., social origin, property, birth” (etc.).

Rights “to own property alone as well as in association with others” are equal for all different cultural forms of owning property and for people’s all ethnic origins People have equal “right to own property alone as well as in association with others” “without distinction as to race,… or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law” (UDHR, Articles 2, 17.1 and 28 and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Article 5). Thus rights to self-determination of peoples regarding their different cultural or ethnic forms to own property alone or collectively shall be treated as mutually equal. (So that “all peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources” according to their cultures of economy and their mutual benefit; article 1 of international human rights covenants, ICCPR and ICESCR)

d) Also the cultures of peoples, who are minorities in a country, “shall not be denied the right, in community... to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language”. (ICCPR, Article 27).

“Rights... to enjoy a particular culture - may consist in a way of life which is closely associated with territory and use of its resources... culture manifests itself in many forms, including a particular way of life associated with the use of land resources, especially in the case of indigenous peoples. That right may include such traditional activities as fishing or hunting ....and measures to ensure the effective participation of members of minority communities in decisions which affect them.“ (Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 23 on article 27, 1994, paragraphs 3.2. and 7.) Nothing shall be thus “depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural … identities” or “dispossessing them of their lands,… or resources” or of the culture how “they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used” these “lands, territories, waters and… other resources”. (Draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, articles 7 and 25).

e) Indigenous peoples “shall not be removed from the lands which they occupy”. Their “rights of … possession…over the lands which they traditionally occupy shall be recognized”.

States have to “identify the lands which the peoples… traditionally occupy” and respect their “relationship with the lands… which they occupy or otherwise use”. “Relocation shall take place only with their free and informed consent” or “relocated shall be fully compensated for any resulting loss or injury”. In this case they shall be guaranteed “lands of quality and legal status at least equal to that of the lands previously occupied by them”, their “procedures… for the transmission of land rights… shall be respected”. They shall retain full “right to decide their own priorities for… development as it affects… the lands they occupy or otherwise use”. (ILO Convention 169, on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, articles 7, 13-14 and 16). “Eviction from their lands entails significant violations of their human rights and freedoms, such as the right to practise their religion, the right to adequate nutrition and food,… the right to health… the right to life and the right to non-interference with privacy, family and the home”. “Investments in large-scale… projects” in areas where indigenous people live, need “the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples”. (UN document on Review of Developments pertaining to the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People, E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/2003/2, paragraphs 21 and 24)

f) States are obliged to “eliminating the… plans and… legislation allowing for forced evictions” and “to protect all… who are currently threatened with forced eviction”.

(as is “strongly urged” by UN Sub-Commission Resolution on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, resolution 2003/17 on “Prohibition of forced evictions” : States have to “provide immediate restitution, compensation and/or appropriate and sufficient… land to persons and communities that have been forcibly evicted, following mutually satisfactory negotiations with the affected persons or groups and consistent with their… rights and needs”. This is because forced eviction “constitutes a gross violation of a broad range of human rights” such as rights to adequate housing, freedom of movement, privacy, property, adequate standard of living, to security of the home, person, tenure and equality”).

g) Indigenous communities have “by the fact of their very existence,… the right to live freely in their own territory” with “rights to…the resources” and “ownership… held by the community in their collective capacity and according to their own customary law, values, customs and mores”. (UN report; “Indigenous peoples’ permanent sovereignty over natural resources”, paragraph 16).

Indigenous peoples are entitled to have “rights to self-determination and to own, control and manage our ancestral lands…, waters and… resources” in the above demonstrated manner, freely according to that cultural relation to the land, which they have in their socio-economic culture. (Kimberley Declaration, International Indigenous Peoples Summit on Sustainable Development, Khoi-San Territory 28 August 2002).

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