Māori Ocean Protectors Call upon Norwegian Government

Māori Ocean Protectors Call upon Norwegian Government to Answer to Spy Allegations

14 AUGUST 2017 - Indigenous rights advocacy group Te Ikaroa stand with Greenpeace New Zealand in decrying the violation of campaigners' privacy by the oil industry.

We are alarmed to hear that this may also involve the New Zealand and and Norwegian governments, and ask the Norwegian government either confirm or deny their awareness that our own Te Ikaroa campaigners were also being surveilled by Norwegian state-owned oil company Statoil.

The oil industry continues to abuse the rights of Papatūānuku our Earth Mother, and Te Wainui, our great ocean and all life within it. It stands to reason that they have no moral code. They have shown complete disregard for the laws of nature, a price which we are all paying, and which our descendents will continue to pay. Now that they have broken the laws of the New Zealand government, we hope that a measure of the justice they must answer to will be brought to bear.

Further to this, we note that Statoil is state-owned by the Norwegian government. Just months ago we hand delivered our petition with the voices of 80 hapu and iwi, and supported by over 24,000 New Zealanders, stating our clear, collective objection to Statoil’s activities along our coastline. It now appears as though the Norwegian government were aware all along that their presence was not welcome. Norway has ratified and endorsed two important international documents – International Labour Organization’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (C169), and the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, both of which urge them to respect the rights of indigenous peoples, respect our territories and our subsistence traditions.

If it is true that the Norwegian government knowingly allowed their own oil company, Statoil, to violate the privacy of our campaigners while defending our indigenous rights, then that flies directly in the face of the commitments they have made to the global community.

Indigenous defenders of lands and waters have, for many years, been subjected to persecution by corporate and state interests. In West Papua, Tūhoe, Parihaka, Mauna Kea, Alberta Tar Sands, and at Standing Rock, human and indigenous rights have been contravened. If the New Zealand government has been aware of this crime then it demonstrates they have learnt nothing from their disastrous actions in relation to the Tuhoe raids. Likewise, if Norway are at all aware of the illegal surveillance of indigenous defenders through Statoil – this demonstrates they have not at all learnt their lessons from holding a role in the brutal treatment of indigenous water defenders at Standing Rock.

ENDS

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