Ensuring Indigenous Women's Voices Are Heard: The Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women

This brief article addresses the process of the NGO Forum on Women in 1995, the purpose of which was to lobby the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women to define agendas for the future of women internationally. The author discusses particular issues affecting Inuit peoples in Canada and the methods by which she and others communicated their concerns regarding these issues at the Forum. The author outlines major issues of concern for Indigenous peoples around the world determined by the Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women: self-determination, land and territories, health, education, human rights violations, violence against women, intellectual property rights, biodiversity, the Human Genome Biodiversity project, and political participation.