Keite Camacho
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Indigenous peoples need dialogue. That is the opinion of ambassador Juan Leon Alvarado, president of the work group in charge of drafting the American Declaration of Indian Rights. At the opening of the seventh meeting to form a consensus on the items to be included in the declaration, he said that there are countries that avoid engaging in a dialogue with indigenous peoples, and vice-versa.

"It is a chance to talk and, most of all, it reassures us that we must proceed slowly with the declaration, because, if we work hastily, some rights may be omitted," he commented.

The deputy secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Albert Ramdin, said that a 2005 World Bank study found that Indians constitute 10% of the population of the Americas and are the most underprivileged group in Latin America.

"In Bolivia and Guatemala, for example, over half the entire population is poor, but nearly three-quarters of the indigenous population is poor. Indigenous peoples have been excluded for too long from the political and economic life of our societies. This historical error is beginning to be corrected, inasmuch as traditionally marginalized groups are beginning to participate in the political process, making themselves heard and demanding changes," he observed.

Ramdin also urged the delegates to "discover solutions to the pending issues and proceed with exactitude, bearing in mind the final draft of the declaration."

Translation: David Silberstein