This week’s High Level Political Forum, has been an almost dizzying extravaganza, featuring hundreds of side events and welcoming delegates from countries around the world. Taking place at UN Headquarters in New York City, the Forum’s participants have thus far delved into some of the world’s most complex ecological, economic and social problems. From peace and security, to human rights and development, the High Level Political Forum has been covering it all.
One of the Forum’s main mottos and the Sustainable Development Goal’s prime mission has been to “leave no one behind”. What we can take from last week’s discussions, however, is that the only way we can truly and authentically leave no one behind, is if we ensure that those that are often forgotten and overlooked, are empowered with a sense of agency to ensure that they are “caught up”.
A recent interview with Dr. Kanyinke Sena, Director of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), during one of the Forum’s many side events, provided some interesting insights into this. He speaks to us about the absence of consultation with indigenous peoples when it come to the nomination of the world’s revered and valued heritage sites: “About 300 heritage sites of the 1000 around the world are in indigenous people’s territories globally. Unfortunately, indigenous peoples have not historically been part of this discussion. They are not included in the process of nominating a site, yet these are in their lands and territories. IPACC is working hard on these issues” said Dr. Sena.
Progress has indeed been slow in terms of indigenous people’s involvement in this regard, but hope is nearing. This hope, has been carefully crafted and curated by indigenous groups themselves, and came to fruition at the recent 41st session of the World Heritage Committee, where the International Indigenous People’s Forum on World Heritage was formed. The Forum aims to bring indigenous peoples together to begin discussing issues of world heritage, so that they may be involved in the nomination of their own lands as world heritage. “They want to be involved in assessing world heritage sites, they want to be involved in the management of world heritage sites in their territories. They also want to be involved in monitoring the status of world heritage sites that are found in their territories. They want to be involved in the entire process. We established this International Indigenous People’s Forum on World Heritage as a vehicle for enabling indigenous people’s participation in these processes” said Dr. Sena.
In the next year, International Indigenous People’s Forum on World Heritage Sites hopes to build the capacity of indigenous peoples to understand the World Heritage process through which sites are assessed and nominated. Guidebooks, global capacity building workshops and regional workshops are planned in various parts of the world, in order to bring attention to the issue.
It seems as though the International Indigenous People’s Forum on World Heritage is a step in the right direction in leaving no one behind, in practice.