Aizawl: The Mizoram government has urged the Centre to take steps for the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), home minister Lalchamliana informed the state assembly on Thursday.
“A letter was written to the Union Home Ministry on May 3, 2019, urging it to take necessary steps on the UNDRIP,” the home minister said in a written reply to a question by Opposition Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) member V.L. Zaithanzama.
The UNDRIP was adopted by 143 countries, including India, at the UN general assembly held on September 13, 2007.
Years later, four countries namely Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States that voted against have reversed their position and supported the UN Declaration.
The UNDRIP now is considered the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous people.
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During the past nine years, the Mizoram assembly adopted resolutions on two occasions, in October 2015 and March 2019, seeking implementation of the UN Declaration by the Centre to ensure that all the indigenous Mizo or Zo tribes in different parts of the country and the world enjoy their rights to come under one administrative unit.
The Mizos or Zo people have been already included in the UN indigenous people list due to efforts made by late R. Thangmawia, the then president of Zo-Reunification Organisation (ZoRO), the Chin-Kuki- Mizo-Zomi group organization that seeks reunification of all Zo people and to bring them under one administrative unit.
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