Making unrepresented and indigenous voices heard

Amira El Ahl: Hello and welcome to a new episode of Die Kulturmittler:innen, the ifa podcast on foreign cultural policy. My name is Amira El-Al and I'm very happy that you're joining us again. The importance of the Indigenous voice is emphasized time and again in various discussions. However, it is also repeatedly criticized that these voices are ignored and overlooked in politics. Today's episode is about how the voices of Indigenous people can be given more weight. One organisation dedicated to giving a voice to underrepresented people is the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation, the UNPO. Conceived in the 1980s, the organisation was formed on 11 February 1991 in The Hague, in the Netherlands. And our guest today, Mercè Monje Cano, has been working for UNPO since 2019 and was appointed Secretary General in April 2023. She has a background in cultural studies and international public relations and she has worked in civil society organizations and NGOs in several countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Mali, Italy, Spain, France and Switzerland. Mercè Monje Cano, welcome to the Kulturmittler:innen.

Mercè Monje Cano: Thank you very much, Amira. It's a pleasure to be here.

Amira El Ahl: Mercè. UNPO is an international movement and organization established to empower the voices of unrepresented and marginalized people worldwide and also to protect their rights to self-determination. Can you tell us more about your work? For example, what means does UNPO use to achieve its goals?

Mercè Monje Cano: Sure.The UNPO is a very unique organization. So our primary goal was to provide a platform, solidarity among underrepresented and disenfranchised people worldwide and protect their collective and individual rights. So what we try to do is really to work towards the respect of the fundamental rights for people, including their right to freely participate and fully be represented when it comes to discussions around their political, social, cultural, environmental future. So our organizations consist first in this platform, which is the General Assembly, where members meet together and share experience among them. And we have a small Secretariat that supports the membership, mainly through training, research and advocacy.

What is important also to say is that it's very, very difficult for us to work in individual cases. To give you an idea, our membership is very large. We have more than 40 nations and peoples worldwide, representing over 300 million people lacking true representation in domestic or international forums. But we are a very small Secretariat. So what we try to do is to analyze cross-cutting issues affecting several of our membership and work together with them around common, specific challenges.

Amira El Ahl: You said that you have more than 300 million people that you are representing. Could you maybe give an example, like who you represent at UNPO, like in the marginalized groups so we could get a picture?

Mercè Monje Cano: Sure. The people we are representing very different. We have indigenous peoples, we have minorities, we have states with limited recognition and colonized territories. Their struggles and the experience are very, very different, but they are really united around this issue of being denied equal representation. We have currently a strong presence in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, having also a couple of members in the European and North America. I cannot mention all of them, but I can give you, a few examples like the Tibetan and the Uyghur people who are founding members. We have also indigenous peoples such as the Hmong in Laos, the Khmer in Vietnam, West Phu An in Indonesia. We have also minorities, we have four minorities in Iran, two minorities in Pakistan, and we work also with a state in Africa with, for example, the Aratun people or Oman and Ethiopia, several minorities in Nigeria.

We have also people living in occupied territories such as the Crimean Tatars that unfortunately as we all know are now occupied by Russia. And we have also, for example, the two more people from Guam that is a territory occupied by North America. And also we have, for example, as mentioned, states with limited recognition such as Taiwan and Somaliland.

Amira El Ahl: How does a group of marginalized people become part of UNPO? I mean, do you approach those groups or do they approach you?

Mercè Monje Cano: No, often they approach us and the way that they become members, they go through a process where we ask a lot of information. We do an in-depth analysis from the Secretariat, looking at making sure that the potential member fulfills the criteria of being a UNPO member. We do a report that we present to the presidency and the general assembly and now the other members at the end will decide whatever the potential member fulfills the criteria to become a member or not.

Amira El Ahl: And are there also nations or peoples that prefer not to be represented in an organization such as UNPO? I mean I read that you know your members are required to be non-violent so is there may be also groups that do not adhere to this and that's why they don't even want to become members?

Mercè Monje Cano: I mean, for me it's difficult to know who doesn't want to become a member of the organization, but I'm sure that definitely there are people that prefer not. As you very well mentioned, we have very strict criteria and nonviolence and the respect of fundamental human rights is one of the key ones.

I think that is also sometimes a lot of misunderstanding around our organization and around this particular right that is the right of self-determination. And it is a right on which there is a narrative that has been built, particularly by national states that are framing this right as a right that leads to conflict, to separate, to terrorism. When actually it is a key element for peace and sustainable development. And so it is the non-respect of this right that leads to conflict and not the other way around. And I think here that is sometimes a lot of work to be done in terms of providing a better understanding on this key right as an essential right to, for the people to determine their own destiny.And allowing them determine their political status, but also to determine its own form of economic, social, and social development.

Amira El Ahl: So that is interesting because it leads us to the fact that you also have former members such as Armenia, East Timor, Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, and Palau. I think some of them also were founding members. And these countries, as an example, have gained full independence and joined the United Nations. That means they are not anymore members of UNPO. How often does this happen? And are there UNPO members who are currently in the process of gaining full independence and then not being part of your organization anymore?

Mercè Monje Cano: So yes, that's true. There is a number of former members, including Estonia, who is a founding member of the organisation, who have achieved their goal. Sometimes their goal is full independence, and others are having a greater economy, for example. So what is very important to understand is that the right of self-determination and the outcome, the result of this, the exercise of the right, can vary in different outcomes.

Some of our members are seeking for full independence. Other members are not. What is important on the exercise of this right is the right of process, the right to participate, to express and to engage for the right and for the outcome for what the member wants to achieve. From the UNPO of perspective and UNPO of Secretariat, we don't engage in what is the outcome that the member is seeking for. But really the right of the process, the right to engage freely on the exercise of this right. Of course, during the creation of the organisation in the 90s, the situated geopolitical situation was very particular and some of the members were able to achieve full independence, things that nowadays are much more difficult to obtain.

Amira El Ahl: But I think it's interesting what you just said, because when somebody becomes a member of UNPO, do you determine in the beginning what it is that these people or this nation wants in their right to self-determination? Is it a full independent state or whatever it is? But do they have to determine this right in the beginning when they become a member of UNPO in order for you to help them achieve these goals?

Mercè Monje Cano: When a member becomes a member of an organization, they often indicate what their final goal is. Again, an organization is not here to support their final goal, it's really to support the process of them being represented and being engaged in a peaceful political process to determine what their future should look like. So we are not going to engage for independence of a member, we are going to engage for the right of people to, for example, help the referendum for the right of people all be part of the discussions about their future when it comes to their land, their right of the people to be fully represented when it comes to which is the language their children should learn, the scholars should be teached. And this is very important for us. Again, of course, we are aware of, in most cases, what is their final goal, but what is important for us is really to provide them a platform where their voices can be heard and where we support them in this process.

Amira El Ahl: One of UNPO's campaigns is on sustainable empowerment. What is your goal in this campaign, particularly?

Mercè Monje Cano: So sustainable empowerment campaign, it is a campaign that has been recently more undermined. However, the organization has been working for environmental rights since the creation of the organization, acknowledging the fact that in most of the cases, our members are being oppressed or are being silenced because there is an interest in the resources or in the geopolitical situation where these people live. However, of course, this is becoming more and more pressing in a moment where climate change and environmental degradation is achieving an alarming stage.

So what we want to provide through this campaign, which we call, it is just gonna be around environmental climate change and the intersection with the right of self-determination and the right of participation within the discussions around these issues. We aim to try to facilitate the engagement of UNPO members within international, for international discussions around what would be our common effort to combat climate change and environmental degradation. So our point of view is that this is at the interest of everyone nowadays to come together to try to creatively think and realistically think also what are the solutions that we need to implement right now, what are the changes that we need to implement in order to face all together and what is right now already being one of the big threats for the entire humanity is the climate change and environmental degradation. So it's really what we want is, the UNPO really wishes to promote this dialogue between all global stakeholders and engage, encourage the ones that are being left behind to be part of the table.

Amira El Ahl: And how does the international diplomatic community react to this? Do they accept the advocate suggestions and this effort that you are making?

Mercè Monje Cano: So unfortunately, underrepresented peoples are under threat and are being persecuted worldwide. It has been an increasingly difficult and international forum to have our members safely engaging. We can see it, for example, including at United Nations, for example, where states seek to exclude the voices of underrepresented people through bullying and intervention tactics. So across our membership, the communities and the activists are being subjected to reprisals. And this is something that we can see also not only in the United Nations, but any key international forum that is taking place, particularly environmental activists have been targeted. And this also comes when it comes to communities or peoples, there is a particularly willingness from states, national states, and also key actors like big companies, big international companies that what they seek is to silence the voices of people that are claiming their rights to land, their rights to protect the land and to protect their environment where they live.

Amira El Ahl: So what can you do in order to help them that this doesn't happen, that you know, that countries, companies, whatever is trying to silence the voices of these people, to protect their lands. What is your role? How can you help them that they have a voice and that they are not silenced?

Mercè Monje Cano: So what we try is to engage in different ways. First of all, the way we understand the secretariat of the UNPEO is really a bridge. So it's really what we try to do is see how we can support our members to directly engage. That we try also to see when there is a risk of engagement, how we can facilitate their participation or the raising of their voice in the forums without exposing or at least minimizing the consequences of their exposure. So for example, and this we can do it in different ways. So in sometimes when, for example, we bring complaints to the UN Human Rights mechanisms, for example, about the abuses of human rights. So human rights abuses that communities are suffering and we know that the communities on the ground are very exposed. Instead of exposing it through the individuals that are being victims directly, we do it on their behalf. So we participate in the meetings or we are the ones who bring the complaints on behalf of them. So we really try to be a bridge.

We also work a lot with the diaspora. Unfortunately, most of the cases for the people on the ground to engage directly, and sometimes even synonymously to be executed, tortured or repressed in multiple forms. So what we do is also to try to engage with members of the community that are already in the diaspora, who recently flee or that even our second generations living in safer countries, even if now, unfortunately, there is less safe spaces to work through them and with them so we can help the community from the ground to provide us the information that we need or that the diaspora people need and work with the diaspora, empowering these diaspora to be the voice of the people back home that unfortunately cannot directly engage.

However, this is being more and more difficult because including one of the trends that we see is that including in safer spaces or safe havens, but we can't believe that Europe is for a lot of diaspora communities. We see authoritarian states engaging against citizens that are bringing the voices of the people that are in the ground. So authoritarian states are really engaging against activists at the international forum located in Europe or in the US. And we see tactics of intimidation, executions, blocking or threatening of families, for example, that are still in the country. So we have, for example, a specific campaign around this issue, around the reprisals and acts of intimidation that silence the voices, not only the people in the ground, but also people in the diaspora. It's a campaign that is called Compromised Spaces and we are really trying to raise alarm with the European institutions and with the United Nations or other key regional and international actors to indicate that this is a trend, that this is even further silencing the people that are already in a very difficult position and are already excluded within the forums.

Amira El Ahl: So that means that you are not only a bridge, but you also act like a diplomatic representation for these either indigenous people or ethnic minorities or whatever they are, because they are denies their own representation. So you kind of act as their diplomatic representation to have to give them a platform, if I understand correctly.

Mercè Monje Cano: It is correct. However, we try as much as we can to make sure that somehow are the communities that engage themselves. So our goal is really to empower their voices. They are the experts on the issues affecting them, and they are the ones that should have this right of being represented by themselves. However, due to the increasing threats that these people suffer, we sometimes find ourselves in the position that we need to raise the voices on their behalf in order to protect them.

Amira El Ahl: And how can organizations like yours, but also cultural organizations in the global north, improve their integrative practices?

Mercè Monje Cano: I think first it is very important to be aware of it, to be aware of the diversity that those communities bring, the creativity that these communities bring. It is very important also to listen to what these communities have to say beyond the priorities that we may have. I think respecting the diversity of histories, cultures, identities should be a paramount of the work across all of organizations. I think, or it's my opinion, that this diversity of languages, traditions, and histories that shape not only the identities and experience of these communities, but also ours, and it is through this common sharing and respect and listening to different points of view and positions that we will be able to face together challenges that we cannot anymore think that we are going to be solving alone. So I think now we need to be much more open in the way we see how we are going to be engaging in the future, how we are going to be engaging with the community, with the others, with the communities, but also with the nature in order to really make sure that we have the world that we want to live in.

Amira El Ahl: Nature is a very good key point. You already mentioned the common effort to combat climate change earlier on. A sustainable future includes Indigenous knowledge. I think you said that also on how to adapt to extreme climate changes. In 2021 at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26 in Glasgow, the need to include Indigenous voices was actually established. But despite this acknowledgement of the importance of Indigenous voices, many Indigenous activists criticise that their opinion is still missing on the global stage. How do you balance such conflicts as an intermediary organisation? How do you see this?

Mercè Monje Cano: So it is absolutely true that the promotion of all voices equally is a prerequisite to shift the current situation and bring an inclusive and more representative decision making when it comes to particularly climate change and environmental degradation. However, it is also true that the voices of indigenous people and local knowledge, not only indigenous, but also minorities and local knowledge, and the ability of the international community to listen to these voices, it is not there as it should be. So in my opinion, the international community continues to be led by an intention of preserving a system that has the economy and economic development as the core motor of its discussions and engagement. And while this continues to be like this, it's more in the economic interests of big powers that are put it as primary goal of discussions rather to have at the core of the discussion how we can preserve nature, how we can preserve the resources, how we can change the current challenges that the climate change is putting all of us.

So ourselves, I think what we need, as I said before, I think we need to double the efforts to support these communities, indigenous peoples, but also local communities, to also come together, to raise their voices together. I think this is something that is a kind of it's almost a duty for all of us to make sure that we change this trend, that we make sure that at some point our bases are so strong that cannot be ignored anymore. So I think if it's something that has been at the core of the organization since the beginning, I think now it is an essential, I mean, it is existential that we continue it and we try to, as many possible ways, continue engaging. In different forums and in a more creative way, but definitely it is a crucial aspect for us now.

Amira El Ahl: And since you say that it's a crucial aspect and you said we have to double the effort to support these communities and, you know, to raise their voices, UNPO is currently preparing a major campaign for climate justice. Maybe you can tell us what exactly the campaign is about and how you are like pushing this to the platforms that need to hear it?

Mercè Monje Cano: So our campaign aims to really pave the path between local environmental expertise and international community. Again, this idea of joining the common efforts to combat climate change. So our members have an extremely good knowledge of what should be done in order to preserve their environment. And this knowledge needs to be at the center of the discussions, at the center of the solutions that we need to bring. So we need also to acknowledge the fact that these communities are the ones that have been traditionally oppressed and being left behind. And this is something that is being multiplied by the effects of climate change consequences and environmental degradation. So including in the moment where there the starting of discussions around climate change and around environment, even if we're saying before, are not having the results that we all like, we need to acknowledge the fact that these populations are already in a very vulnerable situation, will be suffering much more the consequences of it. So what we are going to try is really to look at this intersection of making sure that any discussions that are taking place around climate justice, any new policies that are being discussed at national, regional or international level, take into account that these communities and just not ignore them and not only exclude them, but as a part of the solution on my point of view, they are, but they exclude them of as many general possible new legislation, for example. So the work we are going to be doing is really to double in first in trying to make sure that they are seen as a part of a solution, but also make sure that they are not further excluded and because of that they suffer more and more the consequences of the environmental degradation.

Amira El Ahl: So you say unrepresented groups belong at the negotiating table because they are particularly affected by climate change. Maybe you can give an example of a group that is affected specifically or particularly by climate change. Do you have one, maybe?

Mercè Monje Cano: We have multiple members that are particularly affected. For example, we have African members who are being affected because of the lack of water. Somaliland, for example, which is a state with limited recognition, suffers from difficulties in terms of water and scarcity. However, because it's not a recognized state, any development port is going through Somalia and doesn't necessarily arrive to the peoples that are living in Somaliland, which means that then geopolitics and the dynamics of the geopolitical game have dire consequences on the ground and the resources that these people on the ground can receive to face issues like water scarcity. We have also, for example, Khmer Krom in Vietnam who are seeing, who live in the delta of the Mekong River that see, for example, a salinization of the water on the delta that of course deeply affects their agriculture and because they cannot control the resources of their line. The possible solutions that they would implement are not being supported by the government. We have also cases of, for example, the Awazian Arabs in Iran where they are being obliged to plant a specific plant called conocapus. It is not an indigenous plant. And now what the communities have been trying to indicate that this was not a positive solution for the environment on the region. And now we can see that this plant is continuously producing its own dust and its entry in the pollen into the lungs, causing allergies, causing vascular disease and even lung cancer. So we have a multiple across the membership. We have different examples where we can see the effects of the climate change on environmental degradation. Other cases, for example, like in one, for example, the Iceland has been traditionally a place where there is a nuclear test and a lot of the toxic waste is affecting the environmental degradation in the area. So this is also one of the reasons why we are trying to particularly look at this issue. We see that even if the situation of our members are extremely different in different parts of the world, all are suffering because of the exploitation of the resources in their land or because of the environmental degradation that is not created by them, but is often created by multinationals or national policies that doesn't take into account the knowledge of the local knowledge of the communities or indigenous people.

Amira El Ahl: That's a good point. So it's the knowledge what makes indigenous voices so indispensable for the fight for climate justice because they know the land much better than anybody else?

Mercè Monje Cano: The environmental knowledge of indigenous people cannot be overlooked. Especially in the context of climate change, those communities who live in close symbiosis with the environment have to have the nonsense and can utilize this unique knowledge to extreme climatic variation. They know how to preserve the environment and they know what can damage this environment. So I think their contribution is particularly key because they are part of this natural ecosystem.

Amira El Ahl: Do women play a special role in climate politics?

Mercè Monje Cano: I think women play a special role in all politics. And I think yes, they do. I think women play a special role in climate politics and general politics and are often the ones who suffer the first also of the consequences. For example, in this case of food insecurity that is caused by environmental degradation and climate change. So women are the forefront of environmental activism. In a lot of the countries are the ones who are working on the fields, who take care of the water, of the farming, who are securing the food. And we see examples of how feminist grassroots movements around the world have managed to make real and tangible change in different kinds of campaigns to be able to make their life and the life of the whole community much better. The other day, one of my colleagues was, for example, mentioning a case of one organization called Woman on Farms Project, which is a South African feminist grassroots movement. And one of their campaigns is focusing on combating the use of pesticides that are exported from Europe, but that ironically are banned in Europe. And farmers, women, instead of accepting it, they choose to fight back and really try to make a change. I think because also the intersection of gender in most of the exclusion and the human rights abuses. So in any human rights abuse, a woman are double affected by that.

And it is also the case of political participation, their exclusion of women in the process of political persuasion. It is double often because they are members of excluded communities because they are women. However, I think the resilience of a lot of women within different communities, it's really, really inspiring and it's really bringing a change and should be, they should have more space in order to engage in this very needed solutions that actually we need so much currently.

Amira El Ahl: Yes, absolutely. And women are not just at the forefront of the environmental activism, as you said, but also at UNPO. I saw that the current presidency board of UNPO is made up of mainly women. So there are strong female voices who lead your organization, including you. Thank you, Mercé, for taking the time to be with us today.

Mercè Monje Cano: Thank you very much, Amira. It has been a pleasure.

Amira El Ahl: That leads us to the end of this episode. If you enjoyed it please feel free to recommend die Kulturmittler:innen to others. You can listen to over 60 episodes on topics such as Myanmar, pressfreedom and feminist foreign policy. You can do this wherever you are listen to your podcasts and you can also subscribe to our podcast there. That way you won’t miss any of the upcoming episodes. Also, I would like to draw your attention to the Kulturaustausch magazine. The next issue will be published in April with a focus on indigeneity. You can find out more about the magazine and order it in the shop at www.kulturaustausch.de. You can also find the link in the show notes where you can also find the link to the ifa profiles on Instagram and LinkedIn. And if you would like to find out more about the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, visit our website ifa.de. If you have any questions or comments about die Kulturmittler:innen, please send us an email to podcast(at)ifa.de. With that, I say goodbye. My name is Amira El Ahl. Thank you for listening.