Paris, August 6 (No.2001-85) - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura has issued the following message on the occasion of the International Day of Indigenous People:

“The world has some 300 million indigenous people living in more than 70 countries, on all continents, and representing more than 5,000 languages and cultures.

“By proclaiming, in 1994, the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People and by deciding that an International Day would be dedicated to them on 9 August of every year, the United Nations General Assembly wished to remind us that we have a duty of vigilance and solidarity towards these people - a duty whose accomplishment will certainly affect our common future. Indeed, indigenous people symbolize the cultural diversity which is humanity’s greatest treasure.

“Now in 2001, the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, during which the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will be held, I call upon all governments to celebrate this International Day at national level and would like to recall, on this occasion, the spirit in which UNESCO is contributing to the Decade as part of its mission.

“Any development strategy must preserve the values inherent in each culture, while upholding the indivisible rights of the individual. In addition, people’s aspirations must be taken into consideration at the institutional level with a view to achieving genuine pluralism, the aim of all democratic systems.

“The challenge is to devise frameworks within which development can foster integration and institutions can ensure a place for all. In this context, the value systems and the institutions of indigenous people must be safeguarded, together with the wealth of the traditional knowledge they have amassed about their environment, in particular through appropriate education systems.

“UNESCO intends to pursue its action in support of indigenous people, founding it on an overall conception of sustainable development and the strengthening of the ties between tradition and modernity. The new information and communication technologies must help to promote and give greater visibility to living indigenous cultures. Traditional knowledge, the tangible heritage and, especially, the intangible heritage - which are a legacy of the past and remain the essential repositories of identity and memory - also carry within them development solutions for the future.

“The year 2001 must therefore be an occasion for the redoubling of efforts to ensure that the globalization process under way shows greater respect for the concerns, interests and actual circumstances of indigenous people. For they have an invaluable contribution to make to the society of the future.”

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