INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' SEATTLE DECLARATION
on the occasion of the
Third Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization
November 30-December 3, 1999
We, the Indigenous Peoples from various regions of the world, have
come to Seattle to express our great concern over how the World
Trade Organization is destroying Mother Earth and the cultural and
biological diversity of which we are a part.
Trade liberalization and export-oriented development, which are
the overriding principles and policies pushed by the WTO, are
creating the most adverse impacts on the lives of Indigenous
Peoples. Our inherent right to self-determination, our sovereignty
as nations, and treaties and other constructive agreements which
Indigenous nations and Peoples have negotiated with other
nation-states, are undermined by most of the WTO Agreements. The
disproportionate impact of these Agreements on our communities,
whether through environmental degradation or the militarization
and violence that often accompanies development projects, is
serious and therefore should be addressed immediately.
The WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), which promotes export
competition and import liberalization, has allowed the entry of
cheap agricultural products into our communities. It is causing
the destruction of ecologically rational and sustainable
agricultural practices of Indigenous Peoples.
Food security and the production of traditional food crops have
been seriously compromised. Incidents of diabetes, cancers, and
hypertension have significantly increased among Indigenous Peoples
because of the scarcity of traditional foods and the dumping of
junk food into our communities.
Small-scale farm production is giving way to commercial cash-crop
plantations further concentrating ancestral lands into the hands
of few agri-corporations and landlords. This has led to the
dislocation of scores of people from our communities who then
migrate to nearby cities and become the urban homeless and
jobless.
The WTO Forests Products Agreement promotes free trade in forest
products. By eliminating developed country tariffs on wood
products by the year 2000, and developing country tariffs by 2003,
the Agreement will result in the deforestation of many of the
world's ecosystems in which Indigenous Peoples live.
Mining laws in many countries are being changed to allow free
entry of foreign mining corporations, to enable them to buy and
own mineral lands, and to freely displace Indigenous Peoples from
their ancestral territories. These large-scale commercial mining
and oil extraction activities continue to degrade our lands and
fragile ecosystems, and pollute the soil, water, and air in our
communities.
The appropriation of our lands and resources and the aggressive
promotion of consumerist and individualistic Western culture
continue to destroy traditional lifestyles and cultures. The
result is not only environmental degradation but also ill health,
alienation, and high levels of stress manifested in high rates of
alcoholism and suicides.
The theft and patenting of our biogenetic resources is facilitated
by the TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights) of the WTO. Some plants which Indigenous Peoples have
discovered, cultivated, and used for food, medicine, and for
sacred rituals are already patented in the United States, Japan,
and Europe. A few examples of these are ayahuasca, quinoa, and
sangre de drago in forests of South America; kava in the Pacific;
turmeric and bitter melon in Asia. Our access and control over our
biological diversity and control over our traditional knowledge
and intellectual heritage are threatened by the TRIPs Agreement.
Article 27.3b of the TRIPs Agreement allows the patenting of
life-forms and makes an artificial distinction between plants,
animals, and micro-organisms. The distinction between "essentially
biological" and "non-biological" and "microbiological" processes
is also erroneous. As far as we are concerned all these are
life-forms and life-creating processes which are sacred and which
should not become the subject of private property ownership.
Finally, the liberalization of investments and the service
sectors, which is pushed by the General Agreement of Services
(GATS), reinforces the domination and monopoly control of foreign
corporations over strategic parts of the economy. The World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund impose conditionalities of
liberalization, deregulation and privatization on countries caught
in the debt trap. These conditionalities are reinforced further by
the WTO.
In light of the adverse impacts and consequences of the WTO
Agreements identified above, we, Indigenous Peoples present the
following demands:
We urgently call for a social and environmental justice analysis
which will look into the Agreements' cumulative effects on
Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples should be equal
participants in establishing the criteria and indicators for these
analyses so that they take into consideration spiritual as well as
cultural aspects.
A review of the Agreements should be done to address all of the
inequities and imbalances which adversely affect Indigenous
Peoples. The proposals to address some of these are as follows;
* For the Agreement on Agriculture
a. It should not include in its coverage small-scale
farmers who are mainly engaged in production for
domestic use and sale in the local markets.
b. It should ensure the recognition and protection of
rights of Indigenous Peoples to their territories and
their resources, as well as their rights to continue
practicing their indigenous sustainable agriculture and
resource management practices and traditional
livelihoods.
c. It should ensure the food security and the capacity of
Indigenous Peoples to produce, consume and trade their
traditional foods.
* With regard to the liberalization of services and investments
we recommend the following:
a. It must stop unsustainable mining, commercial planting
of monocrops, dam construction, oil exploration, land
conversion to golf clubs, logging, and other activities
which destroy Indigenous Peoples' lands and violate the
rights of indigenous peoples' to their territories and
resources.
b. The right of Indigenous Peoples to their traditional
lifestyles, cultural norms and values should likewise be
recognized and protected.
c. The liberalization of services, especially in the areas
of health, should not be allowed if it will prevent
Indigenous Peoples from having access to free,
culturally appropriate as well as quality health
services.
d. The liberalization of finance services which makes the
world a global casino should be regulated.
* On the TRIPs Agreement, the proposals are as follows:
a. Article 27.3b should be amended to categorically
disallow the patenting of life-forms. It should clearly
prohibit the patenting of micro-organisms, plants,
animals, including all their parts, whether they are
genes, gene sequences, cells, cell lines, proteins, or
seeds.
b. It should also prohibit the patenting of natural
processes, whether these are biological or
microbiological, involving the use of plants, animals
and micro-organisms and their parts in producing
variations of plants, animals and micro-organisms.
c. It should ensure the exploration and development of
alternative forms of protection outside of the dominant
western intellectual property rights regime. Such
alternatives must protect the knowledge and innovations
and practices in agriculture, health care, and
conservation of biodiversity, and should build upon
indigenous methods and customary laws protecting
knowledge, heritage and biological resources.
d. It should ensure that the protection offered to
indigenous and traditional knowledge, innovation and
practices is consistent with the Convention on
Biological Diversity (i.e., Articles 8j, 10c, 17.2, and
18.4) and the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic
Resources.
e. It should allow for the right of Indigenous Peoples and
farmers to continue their traditional practices of
saving, sharing and exchanging seeds, and cultivating,
harvesting and using medicinal plants.
f. It should prohibit scientific researchers and
corporations from appropriating and patenting indigenous
seeds, medicinal plants, and related knowledge about
these life-forms. The principles of prior informed
consent and right of veto by Indigenous Peoples should
be respected.
If the earlier proposals cannot be ensured, we call for the
removal of the Agreement on Agriculture, the Forest Products
Agreements and the TRIPs Agreement from the WTO.
We call on the member-states of the WTO not to allow for another
round whilst the review and rectification of the implementation of
existing agreements has not been done. We reject the proposals for
an investment treaty, competition, accelerated industrial tariffs,
government procurement, and the creation of a working group on
biotechnology.
We urge the WTO to reform itself to become democratic, transparent
and accountable. If it fails to do this we call for the abolition
of the WTO.
We urge the member nation-states of the WTO to endorse the
adoption by the UN General Assembly of the current text of the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the
ratification of ILO Convention l69.
We call on the peoples' organizations and NGOs to support this
"Indigenous Peoples' Seattle Declaration" and to promote it among
their members.
We believe that the whole philosophy underpinning the WTO
Agreements and the principles and policies it promotes contradict
our core values, spirituality and worldviews, as well as our
concepts and practices of development, trade and environmental
protection. Therefore, we challenge the WTO to redefine its
principles and practices toward a "sustainable communities"
paradigm, and to recognize and allow for the continuation of other
worldviews and models of development.
Indigenous peoples, undoubtedly, are the ones most adversely
affected by globalization and by the WTO Agreements. However, we
believe that it is also us who can offer viable alternatives to
the dominant economic growth, export-oriented development model.
Our sustainable lifestyles and cultures, traditional knowledge,
cosmologies, spirituality, values of collectivity, reciprocity,
respect and reverence for Mother Earth, are crucial in the search
for a transformed society where justice, equity, and
sustainability will prevail.
Statement by the Indigenous Peoples' Caucus convened and sponsored
by the Indigenous Environmental Network USA/CANADA, Seventh
Generation Fund USA, International Indian Treaty Council,
Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, the Abya Yala Fund,
and TEBTEBBA (Indigenous Peoples' Network for Policy Research and
Education), 1 December 1999, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Other indigenous peoples' organizations, NGOs and individuals who
wish to sign on to this statement, send email to ien@igc.org or
tebtebba@skyinet.net.