Indigenous peoples, researchers, managers, CSOs and institutions with interest for North-South development cooperation
Invitation for the Forum Conference 2013
at the University of Tromsø, Norway, 30-31 October 2013:
“Land and Sea Rights – Protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples to Land and Sea”
The Forum for development cooperation with indigenous peoples is a meeting place for indigenous peoples, indigenous people’s organisations, researchers, development workers and managers engaged in North-South cooperation on development. The Forum works to strengthen the attention to indigenous people’s issues in aspects of Norwegian development assistance. It was established by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000 and has through the annual conferences focused on a variety of issue, with a cross-cutting theme on how national, bilateral and multilateral policies, actions and practices contribute to the capacity and capability of indigenous peoples to exercise their right to development. More information at web link: www.uit.no/sesam/forum
Title of the Forum-conference 2013, set for the dates 30-31. October 2013 is: “Land and Sea Rights – Protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples to Land and Sea”
The previous conference in 2010 addressed “Indigenous Participation in Policy-making: Ideals, Realities and Possibilities”, and revealed a significant implementation gap between the ideals and practice on the ground. The Forum conference in 2011 “Stakes Replacing Rights – New Pathways for Indigenous Peoples in Development Cooperation?” addressed how the approaches outlined in the Paris Declaration on Aid Efficiency and new large scale money-flows in development cooperation. Last year the Forum conference discussed how indigenous people could be made visible and important in the bigger picture.
This year, the focus at the Forum conference 2013 will be that a substantial part of development cooperation work is directly or indirectly affects indigenous peoples in the form of major government-supported programs. Important among these are REDD programs, bio-fuel programs, national parks, etc. While implementation of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been a theme at an earlier Forum conference, The Forum Conference 2013 will have the opposite approach and turn things around to focus on mechanisms, institutions and organizations available for indigenous peoples in their local and national settings to make use of international and legal achievements. The Forum Conference 2013 will be a physical meeting place for people working with development cooperation from the fields of research, management and development work; will present and reflect upon the foundations of the forum within Sápmi and the northern regions, and facilitate reflection concerning the current role and future work of the Forum. Geographically, the Forum Conference 2013 will take in examples from East Africa and northern Norway. The Forum Conference 2013 wishes to give knowledge, share experiences and raise questions. Among the main speakers you will find:
- Advocate of the High Court of Kenya Abraham Korir Sing’Oei, International human rights law expert and advocate and Member of Parliament, Kenya: The Enderoi case as a best practice.
- Associate Professor Kelly Askew, Director, African Studies Center, University of Michigan: The Maasai of Tanzania as worst practice.
We welcome you all to Tromsø in October.
Yours sincerely
Torjer Olsen
Associate Professor, Chair of Advisory Board
Forum for Development Cooperation with Terje Lilleeng
Indigenous peoples Advisor
Contact
Postal: Forum-conference, Centre for Sami studies, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway.
E-mail: terje.lilleeng@uit.no
More information, program and registration: www.uit.no/sesam/forum
Language
English and Sami (No translation to Spanish or Norwegian)
Registration deadlines
The registration deadline is set to 23 October 2013 if you need accommodation.
The registration deadline without accommodation is set to 27 October 2013.