Cablegate: Iceland Following Nordic Lead On Indigenous Peoples

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FM AMEMBASSY REYKJAVIK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3035
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

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DEPT FOR EUR/NB, EUR/PGI, L/HRR, DRL/MLGA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL KTIA IC
SUBJECT: ICELAND FOLLOWING NORDIC LEAD ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

REF: STATE 169257

1. (SBU) Poloff presented reftel demarche to Icelandic MFA
Counselor for Human Rights Ingibjorg Davidsdottir on October 25.
Davidsdottir, who transferred from the Icelandic mission in Geneva
this summer, was familiar with the text and the joint
U.S.-Australian-New Zealand position, but apologetically noted that
the GOI had pledged its support for the declaration "out of Nordic
solidarity."

2. (SBU) Allowing that Iceland's lack of indigenous people left the
GOI with few equities on the matter, Davidsdottir (protect) said
that as a matter of human rights law she personally shared many of
the USG's concerns regarding the draft declaration. She added that
the procedural irregularities in the draft's progress through the UN
system left her uneasy. However, the GOI was firm in its desire to
stand with the other Nordic states, and would vote for the
declaration's adoption when the matter came to the floor.

KOSNETT

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