Submitted by:  The Foreign Affairs Committee  

For centuries the indigenous peoples of the world have been living in balance and harmony with nature and their environment. Understanding that their culture has much to offer in such areas as native medicine, aware that modern methods are continuing to destroy their lands – for example, by clearance of the rain forests and by mining – and aware of the implications of these changes on the massive potential damage likely to be caused to the very precarious climate of the whole world, and conscious that the Declaration signed on 13 September 2007 is non-binding, the National Council of Women of Great Britain urges HMG carefully to monitor the progress of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to use its influence with the European Union to ensure that all EU States promote this UN legislation so that it is fully implemented.