Program Overview
As a member of the NGO Committee on Indigenous Peoples, UNANIMA works to ensure that the cause of indigenous peoples is considered in discussions on human rights, especially with regard to climate change mitigation and adaptation. We are also committed to protecting their rights in the ongoing negotiations related to REDD-plus (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in developing countries.
Program Resources
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Program Actions
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Indigenous People: Our Apologies
As the UN prepares for the Forum on Indigenous People this May, some of the religious NGOs are planning to ask the UN Representative for the Holy See to consider some sort of symbolic gesture that would ask forgiveness in all our names for the suffering caused by the Doctrine of Discovery (what we would call “land grabbing” now). Beginning in the 1400’s, papal approval was given for civil rulers to claim non-Christian lands in the name of their own countries. Though this mandate has been rescinded at various levels by popes and bishops, many laws around the world are still based on this doctrine, to the detriment of Indigenous Peoples.
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