The following (see attachment below in pdf) is the final French language version of the Amazigh Caucus Declaration as drafted by almost 13 Amazigh associations from around the world that took part at the 8th Session of the Permanent Forum of the Indigenous Issues at the United Nations. Tomorrow will be the last day of the session. The English version will be drafted soon. ACAA was among the Amazigh Associations that took part at this session and we will make it a tradition to attend every year.  I personally was amazed and impressed by the level of info displayed at the forum and all the great people I met from all over the world. We will sure put that to good use in the  future to serve our culture and our people. I encourage all Amazigh associations in America and elsewhere to get involved in the future. It is a great venue to expose to the world your culture and help in promoting it, interact and network with other indigenous cultures at various levels and build a better world by being a citizen of the world. 

The permanent forum was created by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) mainly to discuss Indigenous issues within the Council, including Economic  and Social Development, Culture, Environment, Educations, Health and Human Rights. The Climate Change and its impact on the Indigenous populations were one of the main topics discussed at the Forum.

The Amazigh Caucus was well represented and we will get more organized next year. We were glad to meet many leaders from the Morrocan and Touareg associations. Kamira Nat-Sid and Ferhat Mehenni were the ambassadors from Kabylia and made a great impact with their interventions by speaking up on the main issues currently happening in Algeria. This hopefully will help in expediting the resolution of the main issues and push the process of democracy forward.  

For more details, please refer to  http://www.un. org/esa/socdev/ unpfii/en/ session_eighth. html. All pertinent info are published. Cheers to all and God Bless    

Aomar   Bensilmane

ACAA   President

New York, May 28, 2009