We all know that major advances have been made in the struggle to obtain recognition for the rights of indigenous peoples during the Decade. In particular, the establishment in July 2000 of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues gave these peoples especial prominence on the international stage and drew the attention of governments to the links between freedom, development and cultural diversity.

Nonetheless, the conditions in which indigenous peoples live very often remain precarious. Their tangible and intangible cultural heritage is still vulnerable; the threats linked to globalization, migration and environmental factors are very real, and social and economic discrimination remain manifest.

UNESCO took advantage of the opportunity offered by the Decade to acknowledge and promote indigenous cultures at the highest level, in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001) and again in the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003). The establishment of international standards to protect or restore these rights was a promising first step.

One of the remarkable specific features of indigenous peoples continues to be the outstanding wealth of their traditions, knowledge and skills, together with their forceful determination to pass these assets on to future generations. Thus, indigenous peoples still hold the key to unique traditional knowledge about their natural environment. To ignore that wealth and diversity would be to impoverish our humanity while cultivating a terrible feeling of frustration relating to their sense of identity.

The urgent need to safeguard indigenous cultures on a lasting basis cannot therefore be denied. We cannot forget that between 300 and 500 million people live today in indigenous communities, in more than 70 countries, representing more than 5,000 different languages and cultures. Fighting to safeguard them, as UNESCO does, is to take a clear stand through substantive action in favour of a plural humanity that respects the identities of all.

Throughout its fields of competence, UNESCO thus intends to strengthen its partnership with all the indigenous communities, whose great dignity it recognizes. In this context, the recent nomination of N. Scott Momaday, a Kiowa writer from the United States of America, as UNESCO Artist for Peace is meant as a message of hope and willingness for contact with others.

May this international day enable indigenous communities and cultures to assert their legitimate right to sustainable and harmonious conditions of existence. Our modern society cannot do without these dynamic and distinct communities which give us each day reason to hope for a different world, aware of its present duties and attentive to the rights of future generations.