And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: X-Originating-IP: [156.106.136.18] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "tom goldtooth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Third Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee For A Global Convention on Peristent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Geneva, Switzerland September 7, 1999 Sheila Watt-Cloutier Good morning. My name is Sheila Watt-Cloutier. I am President of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference Canada (ICC), Vice-president at the international level of ICC which defends the rights and represents the interests of Inuit in Canada, Greenland, the Federation of Russia and the United States. With me are Shirley Adamson of the Council for Yukon First Nations, and Larissa Abroutina of the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North. I spoke to you in Montreal and Nairobi about the effects of contaminants on our land, our country food, and our peoples, and of our growing fear of this threat to our cultures and our very existence. We had hoped to make this intervention yesterday, my apologies Mr. Chairman. However, I feel my intervention at this time is most related to Article D. Let me remind you that the breast milk of Inuit women in the eastern Arctic contains 1,210 ppb of DDT and DDE. By comparison, milk of non-native women in southern Canada have levels of DDT and DDE measuring 171 ppb. These levels in our people cause us great concern. For those of you who have heard me speak before, the following may sound repetitive, however, it is my feeling that these issues cannot be overstated when it comes to the survival of my people and the indigenous peoples of the circumpolar world. Anyone who has an eye on the circumpolar indigenous world will understand that the challenges we face as a people are monumental. We are trying on a daily basis, because of the tumultuous change that has occurred in our homeland over the past 50 to 60 years, to pick up the pieces for our children, to create solid, strong institutions that reflects wisdom and security. In terms of our children, the last thing we need to worry about is endocrine disrupting pollutants that affect the health and intellect of our children whom we are trying to prepare for strong leadership so that we may be able to survive culturally. We must not be made to choose between our cultural heritage and our country food. This is our bottom line. We heard yesterday about the importance of DDT in much of the developing world. Stark figures of potential deaths were used to illustrate the need for continued use of DDT to control Malaria. Death and disease are not hypothetical, nor potential. They are real. We know. We are few in number--there are only 100,000 indigenous peoples in northern Canada, 140,00 Inuit in the whole world and only 200,000 indigenous people in all of northern Russia--but we know about disease and death. That we are few in numbers must not detract from our case. The loss of any of our people has an enormous impact on our societies. For example, last year, most of the world heard that we lost nine people in one of our communities through an avalanche. In terms of scale of loss this was the equivalent of 50,000 people dying in Montreal or 400,000 in all of Canada. We must not see this solely in terms of numbers. In my stating these figures I am certainly not attempting to play the numbers game but rather to show a clear picture of our sense of loss. In the circumpolar indigenous world where we are most affected by POPs, this issue is about the survival of whole peoples. I ask you to understand this. Earlier this century Inuit in the Beaufort Sea region of Canada and Alaska were virtually annihilated by smallpox. In the last hundred years our people in some communities have had 2/3 of their community wiped out in one outbreak of disease. Very few families were spared. Some indigenous people in northern Russia stand now on the brink of physical extinction. Contaminants in our food may yet lead to our cultural extinction--a loss to the whole world. We just won't - cannot - allow that to happen. This is why we are working with you to get a comprehensive, verifiable and rigorously implemented POPs convention. We empathize with people who feel they need DDT to preserve life and health. We will not be party to any agreement that threatens others. This is just not our way. Nobody should repeat the experience of our pain or loss. I am sure that many in the room share these sentiments. Do not think of the DDT issue in "either or" terms. This road leads to inappropriate choices. I can not believe that a mother in the Arctic should worry about contaminants in the life giving milk she feeds her infant. Nor can I believe that a mother in the South has to use these very chemicals to protect their babies from disease. Surely we must commit ourselves to finding and using alternatives. While simultaneously adopting elimination, not perpetual management as an ultimate goal, the POPs convention must ensure that cost-effective alternatives, particularly for DDT, are made available in the developing world. We have heard the request by developing nations for financial and technical assistance. Your requests must be answered positively and we urge developing nations to do so. New money must be committed to implement this convention either through a reformed and refinanced Global Environment Facility or a multilateral fund. Financing is the other side of the coin to effective implementation and compliance. We look for a compliance regime that provides monitoring and inspection to help developing countries implement obligations detailed in the convention and to build confidence that all parties are implementing the agreement. Please bear in mind what I said in Montreal: one poisoned Inuk child, a poisoned Arctic, and a poisoned planet is one and the same. This shared understanding will, inevitably, lead us to an effective POPs convention, which will protect the health of peoples throughout the world. Nakomek ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
