YouSaid · the spoken record

Wouriyu Valbuena

lines on the record
9
first
2023-01-11
most recent
2023-01-11
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “Our inclusion in the mandate of the Security Council, the designation of the Vice-President as the highest-ranking official for the implementation of the ethnic chapter and the willingness of the Governments of the United States and Mexico to assist the ethnic peoples of Colombia have encouraged us to invite even more countries to join us in this endeavour. To the 115 nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary indigenous peoples in Colombia, including indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, and to the ethnic and cultural variety of the country’s people of African descent, I offer a salute of resistance: after five centuries of being decimated and mistreated, the struggle for a dignified life remains ongoing. As I address the Security Council for the first time today, I hope that it will be the first time of many.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source

  2. “It is urgent that attention be paid to them, as they are facing physical and cultural extermination. I respectfully request that the Verification Mission’s follow-up efforts be carried out on the basis of an understanding of what the ethnic approach means, which includes the elements noted heretofore. This can be achieved by talking and working with us. In that way, we could better orient the institutional effort, which for centuries has been erratic. The United Nations system has a varied and long- standing presence in our country. It is very important that it coordinate with the Colombian Government and us, so that the effects of implementation can be maximized through the organizational structures we adopt.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source

  3. “In addition to strengthening our organizations and ensuring their sustainability, there is the concern about the issue of land contemplated in the agreement, which has always been a key issue for ethnic groups. The collective protection mechanisms for ethnic groups must have the material guarantees to strengthen them, including the indigenous and maroon guards, which are essential as a contribution to the efforts to achieve what is described as “total peace”. The existence of coca and cannabis crops in ethnic territories, which are sacred plants, should involve a special regulatory mechanism, which has been considered but which the previous Government completely disregarded. The peace agreement mentioned special attention for indigenous communities and territories.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source

  4. “We make up one tenth of the Colombian population, but we inhabit one third of the country’s territory, mostly made up of rivers, lakes and trees — the abundance of Mother Earth. Only a fifth of the land is used for agricultural activities. Given that situation, there must be guarantees of self-determination at a time when we need effective responses to the climate crisis. The complement to the effective exercise of governance is the existence of our own economy, which will ensure that the main tasks of the organizations are fulfilled. In that way, public policy would be oriented towards strengthening sustainability processes within Afro- descendant and indigenous community organizations in Colombia.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source

  5. “We have lived for centuries in a State that does not see us and does not think about us, and when the time comes to make decisions, we are always absent. In order to overcome that, we must start from the principle that the relationship with ethnic bodies should be determined and continued from one Government to the next. That is, we must guarantee autonomy to the ethnic communities and strengthen the organizational structures that make autonomy possible. That should be the North Star in the dialogue with the ethnic groups. We have ancestral structures of governance at the national, regional and local levels, and that is where we should move forward on agreements related to public policy with the Colombian State.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source

  6. “International monitoring entities, as well as their national counterparts such as governmental control agencies, agree that the implementation for ethnic peoples and communities is being left behind at the end of the process. Much of that is due to the fact that in the face of the entire country and the international community, the previous Government created obstacles to the vital development of the peace process, preventing us from moving forward on those strategies and strengthening them. How can we all avoid committing the same blunder again? With regard to ethnic peoples and communities in particular, in addition to the allocation of specific budget items, we must implement an institutional framework that takes the ethnic approach into account.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source

  7. “Our inclusion in the Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace is a good example of our struggle to transform a reality that has prevailed for centuries. There has been advocacy and political dialogue at the international level and with the parties, in practice making us a third actor at the table, unparalleled in this process, and which has resulted in the inclusion of an ethnic chapter in the agreement to ensure that the grievances of the Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples are heard. However, being included in the agreement is different from seeing it implemented to our benefit. That is where the difficulties lie.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source

  8. “I should begin by thanking Japan, which as President of the Security Council invited me to this meeting. I am especially grateful that the Council has agreed to extend the mandate to the ethnic chapter. I extend my thanks to Secretary-General António Guterres and the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia. Above all, it is a recognition that we consider fundamental and that is sending a valuable message to Colombian society as a whole and to the international community. Ninety per cent of our ancestral peoples were exterminated at the time of the conquest of the American continent, while at the same time, millions of our Black brothers and sisters were literally torn from their land to work as slaves in this lush new land — a bad start and one to which it seems we continue to be condemned.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source

  9. “I would like to extend my greetings to Vice-President Francia Márquez Mina. She is a symbol, unprecedented in our history, of the country that we are. I also greet our Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Álvaro Leyva, who has been a tireless fighter for peace for decades. To a large extent we are gathered at this meeting today thanks to his talent and perseverance. I am Armando Wouriyu Valbuena, an indigenous member of the Wayuu people, who live in the desert in the extreme north of Colombia. I speak on behalf of the Afro-descendant and indigenous peoples and communities of Colombia as Secretary of the High- level Forum of Ethnic Peoples, a mechanism established in the implementation framework to serve as an adviser, interlocutor and representative of the country’s ethnic groups.”

    2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source