Mililani Trask
joins indigenous-issues
forum under U.N.

The ex-OHA trustee will serve
3 years as Pacific representative

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

Mililani Trask, an expert on indigenous and human rights and a former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee, has been named to a new 16-member United Nations panel that represents the world's 300 million indigenous peoples.

The former governor of Ka Lahui Hawaii was selected to a three-year term to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Trask is one of eight international indigenous people on the panel, where she represents the Pacific Basin. The group also includes eight experts appointed by various countries.

The panel will be a new subsidiary body of the U.N. Economic and Social Council of the General Assembly, the primary decision-making body within the United Nations.

It is the first time in the 70-year history of the United Nations that it will have voting members who do not represent governments, but indigenous peoples.

Trask said the group will meet twice a year, in New York and Geneva, to make policy recommendations regarding indigenous peoples.

"Although we individually represent the indigenous regions of the world, the indigenous members of the forum have agreed that we will work collectively to advance the status of indigenous peoples globally," Trask said.

"In the Pacific there continues to be great poverty, acute health needs and the issue of decolonization. It is my hope that these and other critical issues will be addressed by the forum."

Mary Robinson, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement yesterday that the creation of the forum is widely acknowledged to be a victory for the world's indigenous peoples who have for years lobbied for a forum to address their cultural, economic, educational, health and political issues.

She said the forum will equalize the process of globalization and will include indigenous groups that have been excluded for so long in shaping their future.

"The forum is all-encompassing, covering social and economic, environment, development, education, health, human rights and all matters affecting indigenous peoples," Robinson said.

Trask has been actively involved in the U.N. system for more than 15 years. In 1998 she was among the first group of indigenous leaders to complete U.N. diplomatic training for mediation and conflict resolution.

Four Hawaiian organizations supported her selection: the Protect Our Native Ohana; the Royal Order of Kamehameha, Hilo chapter; Na Kupuna; and Na Wahine Hale o Papa.

The forum holds its inaugural meeting May 13-24 in New York.