Indigenous Peoples Nationhood and the International Borders of the States

January 18, 2015

Professor Megan Davis

Expert Member, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Dear Professor Davis,

Good greetings.  Relevant to the call for a study into cross-border issues by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues during its 13th session (2014) which you are conducting, may we submit the following for your consideration.

Indigenous Peoples Nationhood and the International Borders of the States

It is fundamental to extract intellectually and independently assess the parameters of evaluation under which the UNPFII shall realize the study into cross-border issues with full acknowledgement of the dual mandates under which the UNPFII has been called to recognize as consequence of the principle "Equal to all other peoples" established by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples since 2007.

• UNDRIP: Human Rights of the Future Generations 

This principle and clarification is necessary and called for by the new paradigm in international relations mandated by the UNDRIP, and the redefinition for standards of international diplomacy in relation to Indigenous Peoples that the Permanent Forum must exemplify and implement as lead programme for the UN system.

In terms of cross-border issues impacting the Human Rights and Territorial Rights of Indigenous Peoples affected by the international border between the US and Mexico established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and subsequent political and commercial agreements, we reference our submission to the UNPFII Tenth Session (2011)

• International Borders: The Rights of Mother Earth and Indigenous Peoples

We call on the UNPFII to engage in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and the International Labor Organization (ILO) to conduct a study and submit a report to the UNPFII at its 11th session in 2012 on the implications and relevancy of the Preliminary Study on the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery as relates to the international obligations and processes codified in ILO Convention C169 with respect for the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples. In terms of processes of accountability for violations of these rights, perpetrated systematically by the imposition of international borders of government states on the territories of our Indigenous Nations, we recommend that specific focus for the study should be evaluation of the impact from local to regional, regional to continental, continental to global scales of ecology of the Natural World and our shared responsibilities as defenders of the Human Rights of the Future Generations and the Rights of Mother Earth.

and

• The Law of Exceptions: NAFTA and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Open Letter to the Ministers of State and the Public Societies of Canada-US-Mexico

Finally, may we also now submit for your consideration our original submission in 1987 as Tlahtokan Izkalotl Aztlan Traditional Nation to the UN Human Rights Commission regarding these issues.

• Tlahtokan Aztlan

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh

Tlahtokan Nahuacalli

TONATIERRA

Abya Yala and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Scars of Colonization: Perspectives on Citizenship, Nationality, Kinship and Territory from the Continental Indigenous Movement of Liberation of Abya Yala

Tupac Enrique Acosta