Topic: Indigenous Land Rights
Country: Ecuador
Delegate Name: Gabrielle Vuylsteke
School: Ann Arbor Community High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Ecuador position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
We, the Republic of Ecuador, agree with the statement that the United Nations declares in article 32.1 of its resolution on indigenous people’s rights: “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or use of their lands or territories and other resources.” In order for the first cultures of the world to survive and thrive, protection of their land rights is mandatory.
The population of Ecuador is diverse, with many foreign but naturalized citizens living along side native individuals. The sources of income for our citizens, as well as their cultural backgrounds, are mixed. As a country coming out of recent economic difficulty and recently adopting a new constitution, we recognize the lure of a homogeneous populace, but also value the differences in culture that our nation and others like it possess.
In order to protect the diminishing indigenous population and cultural diversity, we believe that a resolution protecting the land rights is necessary. We believe that the native citizens who reside in member states, and the indigenous of all nations, deserve the right to decide what happens to the land that they live on. In recent history, this right has been denied to them when governments have ignored the indigenous’ opinions and thoughts in favor of the majority of the majority of the nation’s citizens. We seek to give the native people the right to self-determination.
The native humans of the world need just as many political rights and recognition as the rest of the world’s residents. For the world’s indigenous population to be guaranteed rights that they deserve, the UN must write a resolution that insures land rights for the original populace in a way that reflects the will and fulfills the wishes of the world’s earliest peoples. This resolution will protect the indigenous’ rights and give them a voice in each nation.
