I WOULD like to share to the CNMI community, especially the Chamorro and Carolinian indigenous communities, the 17 principles set forth by the United Nations World Council of Indigenous Peoples about their rights as a nation to freely exercise within their country.
Principle 1. All indigenous peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of this right, they may freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, religious and cultural development.
Principle 2. All states within which an indigenous people live shall recognize the population, territory and institutions of the indigenous people.
Principle 3. The cultures of the indigenous peoples are part of the cultural heritage of mankind.
Principle 4. The traditions and customs of indigenous peoples must be respected by the states, and recognized as a fundamental source of law.
Principle 5. All indigenous peoples have the right to determine the person or group of persons who are included within their population.
Principle 6. Each indigenous people has the right to determine the form, structure, and authority of its institutions.
Principle 7. The institutions of indigenous peoples and their decisions, like those of states, must be in conformity with internationally accepted human rights, both collective and individual.
Principle 8. Indigenous peoples and their members are entitled to participate in the political life of the state.
Principle 9. Indigenous peoples shall have exclusive rights to their traditional land and its resources, and where the lands and resources of the indigenous peoples have been taken away without their free and informed consent, such land and resources shall be returned.
Principle 10. The land rights of an indigenous people include surface and subsurface rights, full rights to interior and coastal waters, and rights to adequate and exclusive coastal waters and adequate and exclusive coastal economic zones with the limits of international law.
Principle 11. All indigenous peoples may, for their own needs, freely use their natural wealth and resources in accordance with Principles 9 and 10.
Principle 12. No actions of course of conduct may be undertaken which may, directly or indirectly, result in the destruction of land, air, water, sea ice, wildlife, habitat, or natural resources without the free and informed consent of the indigenous peoples affected.
Principle 13. The original rights to their material culture, including archeological sites, artifacts, designs, technology, and works of art, lie with the indigenous people.
Principle 14. The indigenous peoples have the right to receive education in their own languages or to establish their own educational institutions. The languages of the indigenous peoples are to be respected by the states in all dealings between the indigenous peoples and the state on the basis of equality and nondiscrimination.
Principle 15. Indigenous peoples have the right, in accordance with the traditions, to move and conduct traditional activities and maintain friendship relations across international boundaries.
Principle 16. The indigenous peoples and their authorities have the right to be previously consulted and to authorize the realization of all technological and scientific investigations to be conducted within their territories and to have full access to the results of the investigations.
Principle 17. Treaties between indigenous nations or peoples and representatives of states freely entered into, shall be given full effect under national and international law.
These principles constitute the minimum standards which states shall respect and implement.
NOEL QUITUGUA
Koblerville, Saipan
