Mme. Erica Daes, Chairperson 
United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations
Mme. Erica Daes, UN Expert (Greece), is a Special Rapporteur of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, and Chairperson of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, which is presently engaged in drafting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Populations. She submitted a UN-commissioned Study on the Protection of the Culture and Intellectual Property of Indigenous Peoples in 1993.

Karen Parker, Chief Delegate, International Educational Developmental/Humanitarian Law Project at the United Nations
Karen Parker is an attorney specializing in human rights and humanitarian (armed conflict) law.  Her numerous legal articles are published in law journals and books in many countries. Her annual “Armed Conflict Around the World:  A Country by Country Review” is published by the Parliamentary Human Rights Group (UK) (now on Internet).  Her extensive work on self-determination includes studies, Congressional testimony and Court appearances on application of self-determination to the armed struggles in Burma (especially the Karenni peoples), Kashmir, Acheh, the Moluccas, East Timor, Tibet, Cyprus, Turkey, Western Sahara and Sri Lanka.  She has also presented many written and oral statements on these situations at United Nations sessions.

INTERVENTIONS/Questions

Daniel Turp, Member of Parliament, Canada
Bloc Quebeçois Critic for Intergovernmental Affairs
Daniel Turp was Bloc Quebeçois spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, 1997-1999.  He served as a designated expert on the Belanger-Campeau Commission on the political and constitutional future of Quebec (1991), and on the Commission Studying Quesions Related to the Accession of Quebec to Sovereignty, 1992.   Topic:  “Self-Determination and Democracy:  the Collision of Canada’s Bill C-20 and Quebec’s Bill 99.”

Margaret Curran
Member of Scottish Parliament, United Kingdom
Margaret Curran is Convener, Social Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector Committee, and  Deputy Member Scottish Parliamentary Bureau of the Scottish Parliament. 

Suzette Bronkhorst
Co-founder, Magenta Foundation
Suzette Bronkhorst is a former chief editor of a Dutch Green Party publication, and initiator and general manager of the Internet Centre Anti-Racism (I-CARE).
 

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The Right Honourable Gerald Kaufman
Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
The Right Honourable Gerald Kaufman was Minister of State for Industry and a Privy Counsellor of the Labour Government of 1974.  He was a member of the Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet from 1980 to 1992 and presently is Member of Parliament for the Manchester constituency of Gorton. Topic:  TBA

Ovide Mercredi
Former Chief,  Assembly of First Nations, Canada
Ovide Mercredi, a Cree lawyer, negotiator, author, and professor of Native Studies, has served two terms (1991-1997) as the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Canada. He las spoken at hundreds of venues, from local to international, and is recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Law from St. Mary’s University, Bishop’s University and University of Lethbridge, and is three-time Canadian Nominee by the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation for World Peace, for the Gandhi Prize, an annual award by the Government of India.   Topic:  “Indigenous Self-Determination:  Believe It, Do It, or Forget It.”

Marquetta L. Goodwine, Director
Gullah-Geechee Sea Island Coalition, USA
A petition campaign led to the enstoolement of Marquetta L. Goodwine as Queen of the Gullah-Geechee people in July, 2000. The Gullah are  descendants of involuntary African immigrants to North America, many of whom fled enslavement.  Today they number some 500,000 persons, speaking a creole language, Gullah, and maintaining what may be the purest continuatin of the African culture in North America,  despite nearly overwhelming pressure to assimilate.

INTERVENTIONS/Questions

Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, 
Member, UN Working Group on Minorities
Attorney-General, India
Mr. Sorabjee is serving a second term as Attorney-General in India. He is a well-known legal luminary, and human rights activist.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell
Member of Parliament from Nunavut, Canada
Ms. Karetak-Lindell is the first Member of Parliament for the new riding of Nunavut,  Nunavut, "our land" in Inuktitut, is the realization of more than 20 years of negotiations and planning by the Inuit of the Eastern and Central Arctic. Under the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, Inuit received from the federal government a settlement of $1.1 billion to be paid in annual installments until 2007. Inuit also gained control of about 356,000 square kilometers of land (about 18 per cent of Nunavut), of which nearly 38,000 square kilometers include title to subsurface (mineral) rights. 

Ms. Ragnhild Nystad
Vice-President, The Saami Parliament, Norway
The constitutional-legal institutionalization of politico-legal rights for the Saami people, including establishment of The Saami Parliament is of particular interest insofar as it concerns a minority population which is dispersed throughout state territory.  The Saami Act establishes, inter alia, that the business of the Saami Parliament is any matter which affects the Saami, as determined by the Saami themselves, and that public bodies must consult with the Parliament prior to making decisions on matters coming within its scope.  Affirmative Action is part of official government policy, and is implemented by legal, financial and organizational measures.

Dr. Robert Brock, Director
African American Self-Determination Committee, USA
The Self-Determination Committee seeks to have the US government establish consociated democratic institutions permitting  the African American minority  to meet their special needs and culture resulting from their special historical relationship with the majority.

INTERVENTIONS/Questions

Ms. Francoise Jane Hampson, Expert
United Nations Sub-Commission  on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities
Françoise Jane Hampson is Professor of Law in the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, where she teaches international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflicts.

Dr. Mehdi Imberesh
Professor, Al-Fateh University, Tripoli
Dr. Imberesh bears two PhDs, one in the Philosophy of History from Leipzig University and a second in the Philosophy of Civilisation.  He is a Professor in the Social Sciences Faculty of Al-Fateh University, Tripoli. He started his political activities in the People's Committee of the Jamahiriyan People's Bureau in Washington, DC during the years 1979-81. He was appointed in the capacity of Ameen of the Jamahiriyan People's Bureau, i.e. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Germany from 1981 to 1986.  Since then, he has served as Ameen of the Libyan Arab People's Bureau to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and has been appointed as the Libyan accredited ameen to Turkmenistan. 

Dr. Hans Koechler,  Chair, Philosophy Dept., University of Innsbruck, Austria and President, International Progress Organization, Vienna
Since 1998, Professor Koechler has served as member of the Council of Europe's Expert Group on Democratic Citizenship.  Since 1999, he has served as member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Balanced Development (CBD)(USA).  He also acts as Board Member and co-coordinator of the NGO Committee on Development (United Nations Office at Vienna).   With Irish Nobel Laureate Sean MacBride, he initiated the Appeal by Lawyers against Nuclear War.  As President of IPO, he dealt with the humanitarian issues of the exchange of prisoners of war between Iran and Iraq, and with the issue of Kuwaiti POWs and missing people in Iraq. Since 1972, UN Secretaries-General  have acknowledged Professor Koechler's contribution to international peace in their statements. In April 2000, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Professor Koechler as international observer at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands (Lockerbie Trial).  Through his research and international activities, Professor Koechler has made major contributions to the debate on United Nations reform, in particular reform of the Security Council. His publication list contains over 200 books and scholarly articles.

INTERVENTIONS/Questions