NAFTA: The Econogenics of Collusion, Colonization, and Genocide against Indigenous Peoples

According to an article published on December 1, 2017 by CBC News, the governments of Canada-US-Mexico are presently engaged in a closed-door negotiation process being framed as a “modernization” of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became instituted on January 1, 1994.  The Canadian government has submitted a text for consideration and secret negotiations among the trade representatives of the three countries which they have branded the “Indigenous Chapter”.

You can’t get to December 1, 2017 from January 1, 1994 without having to go through September 13^th, 2007, the day that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Any effort to “modernize” the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or any other international agreement affecting the lands, territories, and other resources of Indigenous Peoples must now meet the international standards established by the Declaration.  Fundamental in establishing the context in terms of International Human Rights Law for the standard setting purposes of the declaration, is the unequivocal international recognition of the right of Indigenous Peoples to Self Determination, “Equal to all other peoples…”

In April of 2017, upon the 10^th anniversary celebration of the UNDRIP during the 16^th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Oren Lyons (Faithkeeper, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee Confederacy) in his address to the United Nations General Assembly made the call for the process of standard setting to advance into the deliberations required to establish an International Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  The government of South Africa also made a statement during the 16^th Session of the UNPFII, reiterating the call for a UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples made by South Africa the year earlier:

“It is the strong view of my Government that serious thought be given to the elaboration of a Convention with legally binding norms and standards for the maximum promotion, protection and fulfilment of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

South African National Statement to the 15^th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Yet the secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples made no mention of the call for a Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in its final report on the 16^th session of the UNPFIP.  Instead the report emphasizes the System Wide Action Plan (SWAP) of the UN system now being promoted officially as the guide for implementation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples within the UN system of member states, even though the processes that led to the SWAP were in themselves blatant violations of Self Determination and the Right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent.