Tara/M3 and Shell Raised at UN Forum
international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report 
Friday May 09, 2008 13:05
by TaraWatch
info at tarawatch dot org
Tara at Seventh Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The Hill of Tara/ M3 motorway and the Shell refinery were raised at the Seventh Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues by Margaret Connolly of Retrieve Foundation on April 19 2008.
The Hill of Tara / M3 and Shell developments were raised at the Seventh Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues by Margaret Connolly of Retrieve Foundation on April 19 2008
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council, with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.
(PressZoom - 09-05-2008) - Hearing from delegates on the multiple ways in which their respective countries had failed to implement the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, despite having supported its adoption, members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues discussed today how the body could be more effective in encouraging implementation.
Noting that infrastructure projects financed by European Union member countries continued to force indigenous peoples from their homelands, while European mining companies devastated the environment, the Chair of the European Parliament called on the European Union to develop a normative framework for dealing with such issues in a way that respected human rights. It should also develop the capacity to mediate between indigenous communities and State authorities that were in conflict.
MARGARET CONNOLLY, speaking for the Retrieve Foundation, said that, so far in Ireland, there was no dialogue about the rights of indigenous peoples. Instead, the desecration of indigenous lands and sacred areas continued, namely the Hill of Tara and surrounding areas. There had been no prior consultation with the indigenous community about Shell Oil’s exploration of those lands. In the absence of indigenous spiritual guidance, conferred by traditional rites-of-passage ceremonies, indigenous youth were experiencing high levels of depression, addiction and suicide. The Irish Government must inform its indigenous peoples of its commitment to the Declaration.
MORE INFORMATION:
Press release from forum:
http://presszoom.com/story_144717.html
UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/
For discussion of these issues, please join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hilloftara/
Retrieve Foundation
(a cross border group running programmes on Women Healing Women, etc
Ait na Macalla, Templetown, Carrlingford, Co Louth
Tel 042 937 66 73
EMail retrieveeire@eircom.net
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4"In the absence of indigenous spiritual guidance, conferred by traditional rites-of-passage ceremonies, indigenous youth were experiencing high levels of depression, addiction and suicide. The Irish Government must inform its indigenous peoples of its commitment to the Declaration."
That's a good one. As an indigenous youth I didn't realize that I was in need of (yet more) spiritual guidance, murry-ah.
The desecration of the Gabra Valley and the surrounds of the Hill of Tara in County Meath continues on a daily basis. Private business interests take priority over history and culture, backed to the hilt by all aspects of State beurocracy.
A planned raw-gas, high pressure pipeline to cut a swathe through several Special Areas of Conservation in Mayo, including Sruwaddacon Bay that forms part of the Children of Lir legend. A short distance from Ceide Fields, the oldest stone-walled field structures in the world. Private business interests take priority over history and culture, backed to the hilt by all aspects of State beurocracy.
Living in today's Ireland it is hard for many to believe how backward we are. In fact, I am sure to many that they see the word 'indigenous; and backward as being synonymous. Those traditional folk in funny clothes, celebrating some mad ceremony. How quaint, or stupid, you might say. But actually, indigenous and human rights are one in the same, And human rights are an integral part of the theory and law of sustainable develoipment. All 'native' people have human rights, which are protected under international law. That law applies to all states, and also the successive state, ie the Republic of Ireland that succeeded the coloniser.
But Ireland is still being treated like a colony, or a third world country, and citizens and natives are in need of protection from both foreign multinational corporations and from their own government, whose actions and alliances are threatening the resources and heritage the Governent holds in trust for us, and for future generations. Shell and the M3 are prime examples. The foreign corporations use the State police as their own private security firms. We saw today the bill for Shell is allegedly at 8 million. And that figure is then used against the people in media spin as well. We as citizens and natives are treated like monkeys.
The question of whether or not there is an 'indigenous' Irish population is an interesting one. We are no different from Africa, America, and other countries in that we were conquered, and then much later released. During colonial times, Irish were legally on par with natives of other lands. However, in many cases where there is law relating to rectifying past wrongs it relates to an ethnic minority, which was mistreated...and is still clearly identifiable today. That is not the case in Ireland, where the 'natives' remain a majority, and are racially indistinguishable from the former colonists. Names do identify people to an extent, but that is not scientific. So, does indigenous law apply to Ireland?
I would say it does, because it is grounded upon continuous tradition, custom and attachment to land. Indigenous rights apply because of who we are, not because of how we were mistreated. From our indigenous status, we derive human rights to the environment...much in the way people derive an easement from using a certain piece of land over a long period of time.
For us to cock our noses, and look down on the notion of customary rights, is very small minded. You don't have to wear funny clothes, perform ceremonies, or subscribe to a religious sect to have rights. The right to have a share of the gas. The right to walk up to Tara any time you feel like it. The right to drive down the road, without paying. These rights, and many others, are slipping away, day by day. It is quite obvious to people outside of Ireland... Maybe it's the Guinness in the air here (for the time being anyway) that clouds the mind...
The author of that posting is typical of the kind of stupid, vacuous nosebag that Shell love to encounter when they target aThird World
country such as ours: No ability at any kind of intelligent analysis of the issues, just a glib one-liner that might get half a giggle on the Ray
Darcy show. I bet he's hoping Dustin wins Eurovision, so that we can show Europe that we're all grown up now, and can 'laugh at
ourselves'. So come on, everybody, let's get ready to don all the accoutrements of modern Irish Culture: The feathers, the plastic beak,
the Eircom jersey and the bonce boppers with green lights at the top (de riguer for watching England playing Rugby at Croke Park). And
let's cheer the Turkey home.
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