July 01, 2021
UNDRIP support model for others
Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson says New Zealand’s participation in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a way of supporting other indigenous peoples around the world.
Mr Jackson yesterday set out the next steps towards developing a draft plan for implementing the declaration, involving consultation first with Māori and then with the wider public.
This won’t be limited by the ideas put forward in He Puapua, a report developed by a group of independent advisers.
Mr Jackson says New Zealand’s efforts to give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi means it was already well down the path and in some areas ahead of what the declaration was trying to achieve.
"We have an obligation as a country to share our experience, to say this is where we are, this is what we are doing, this is where are going, and I think all indigenous people around the world can learn from each other and if we can be an example and if we can help in the fight for rights for indigenous people then all the better, because we are already doing a number of things," he says.
Mr Jackson says a number of Māori including Pauline Tangiora, Aroha Mead and the late Nganeko Minhinick worked over many years in UN forums with other indigenous peoples to develop the declaration.
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