VZCZCXRO0542
RR RUEHAST
DE RUEHMD #1253 1390959
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190959Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9743
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS MADRID 001253 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN'S RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE ON THE UN DECLARATION 
ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (DRIP) 
 
REF: SECSTATE 78740 
 
¶1. (U) Poloff accompanied poloffs from the Australian and New 
Zealand Embassies to deliver reftel demarche to Fernando 
Fernandez-Arias, MFA Deputy Director General for Human 
Rights. Fernandez-Arias said that Spain understood the 
tripartite position and acknowledged the concerns expressed 
in reftel. Nonetheless, he said, Spain had worked closely 
with Finland over the past two years to improve the draft 
declaration text that had been negotiated with input from all 
interested parties over an extremely long negotiation 
process. The passage of the Declaration on the Rights of 
Indigenous Peoples is therefore a priority for Spain, which 
feels it will be an important first accomplishment for the 
fledgling Human Rights Council. He claimed that support for 
the DRIP was a common EU policy, arrived at through 
(hesitant) consensus. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Fernandez-Arias repeatedly pointed out that the 
Declaration will not be a binding text, and said that it was 
designed to be adaptable to different legal and 
constitutional systems. He argued that the latest text 
proposal does safeguard territorial integrity and that 
individual rights are protected above collective ones. Though 
he admitted that the passage of the Declaration could pave 
the way for the negotiation of a binding Convention, he 
thought this would not come about for many years. Passing the 
Declaration now would give breathing room for political 
forces to play themselves out, particularly in Latin America. 
He said that Spain believed that opening the text up would 
bring about calls from certain countries (he mentioned 
Bolivia in particular) for the inclusion of even more rights 
and entitlements for indigenous peoples, resulting in a more 
hard-line text which certainly could not be supported by the 
EU, US, Australia or New Zealand. 
MANZANARES