Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06MADRID1253
2006-05-19 09:59:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Madrid
Cable title:
SPAIN'S RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON THE UN DECLARATION
how-toVZCZCXRO0542 RR RUEHAST DE RUEHMD #1253 1390959 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 190959Z MAY 06 FM AMEMBASSY MADRID TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9743 INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS MADRID 001253
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN'S RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON THE UN DECLARATION
ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (DRIP)
REF: SECSTATE 78740
UNCLAS MADRID 001253
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN'S RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON THE UN DECLARATION
ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (DRIP)
REF: SECSTATE 78740
1. (U) POLOFF accompanied poloffs from the Australian and New
Zealand Embassies to deliver reftel demarche to Fernando
Fernandez-Arias, MFA Deputy Director General for Human
Rights. Fernandez-Arias said that Spain understood the
tripartite position and acknowledged the concerns expressed
in reftel. Nonetheless, he said, Spain had worked closely
with Finland over the past two years to improve the draft
declaration text that had been negotiated with input from all
interested parties over an extremely long negotiation
process. The passage of the Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples is therefore a priority for Spain, which
feels it will be an important first accomplishment for the
fledgling Human Rights Council. He claimed that support for
the DRIP was a common EU policy, arrived at through
(hesitant) consensus.
2. (SBU) Fernandez-Arias repeatedly pointed out that the
Declaration will not be a binding text, and said that it was
designed to be adaptable to different legal and
constitutional systems. He argued that the latest text
proposal does safeguard territorial integrity and that
individual rights are protected above collective ones. Though
he admitted that the passage of the Declaration could pave
the way for the negotiation of a binding Convention, he
thought this would not come about for many years. Passing the
Declaration now would give breathing room for political
forces to play themselves out, particularly in Latin America.
He said that Spain believed that opening the text up would
bring about calls from certain countries (he mentioned
Bolivia in particular) for the inclusion of even more rights
and entitlements for indigenous peoples, resulting in a more
hard-line text which certainly could not be supported by the
EU, US, Australia or New Zealand.
MANZANARES
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN'S RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON THE UN DECLARATION
ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (DRIP)
REF: SECSTATE 78740
1. (U) POLOFF accompanied poloffs from the Australian and New
Zealand Embassies to deliver reftel demarche to Fernando
Fernandez-Arias, MFA Deputy Director General for Human
Rights. Fernandez-Arias said that Spain understood the
tripartite position and acknowledged the concerns expressed
in reftel. Nonetheless, he said, Spain had worked closely
with Finland over the past two years to improve the draft
declaration text that had been negotiated with input from all
interested parties over an extremely long negotiation
process. The passage of the Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples is therefore a priority for Spain, which
feels it will be an important first accomplishment for the
fledgling Human Rights Council. He claimed that support for
the DRIP was a common EU policy, arrived at through
(hesitant) consensus.
2. (SBU) Fernandez-Arias repeatedly pointed out that the
Declaration will not be a binding text, and said that it was
designed to be adaptable to different legal and
constitutional systems. He argued that the latest text
proposal does safeguard territorial integrity and that
individual rights are protected above collective ones. Though
he admitted that the passage of the Declaration could pave
the way for the negotiation of a binding Convention, he
thought this would not come about for many years. Passing the
Declaration now would give breathing room for political
forces to play themselves out, particularly in Latin America.
He said that Spain believed that opening the text up would
bring about calls from certain countries (he mentioned
Bolivia in particular) for the inclusion of even more rights
and entitlements for indigenous peoples, resulting in a more
hard-line text which certainly could not be supported by the
EU, US, Australia or New Zealand.
MANZANARES