“In 1923, Levi General, Cayuga Chief Deskaheh of the Iroquois nation came to Geneva and spoke these words. He wanted to address the League of Nations on the rights of indigenous people in Canada, after having witnessed their cruel treatment in his homeland. He tried for a year to be heard by the League, only to be met with what he later called "cruel indifference."
Nearly 100 years later, his great-grand daughter Karla Kawenniiostha General sat before the UN Human Rights Council in the former League of Nations building, now Palais des Nations, asking the same question, because the issue of access of indigenous peoples in their own right to the UN is still limited.
"It is remarkable that in 2017. . . authentic and representative indigenous voices are still denied access to the UN," she said. "It is the most pressing issue of our time. Without authentic indigenous voices, decisions made in international forums will not be responsible to the lived realities of indigenous peoples at home."
General’s statement was part of a discussion marking the tenth anniversary of the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and examining the role of youth in its implementation.”
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