The AIPP East Asia Sub-regional meeting was held in Tokyo from 13 - 14 October 2010. The meeting was attended by four organisations from Japan and Taiwan.
H. Famark, the Chairperson of AIPP introduced and outlined the purpose of the meeting as well as the flow. He emphasized that the key objective of the meeting is for the collective strengthening of the organization which includes members and networks of AIPP by identifying the key issues and challenges and how to address them.
Following the introduction of the participants, Yupo, the Executive Council representative of the region gave the welcome address. He acknowledged the progress that has been made in addressing the issues of indigenous peoples in Asia, particularly Japan and the support extended by AIPP. The stereotype image and attitude towards the Ainu people has changed both within and outside of Japan. However, there are also new major challenges that remain to be addressed or have emerged. He asserted that we must struggle keeping in mind the historical rights of the indigenous peoples and it is critical that we are in solidarity, particularly between the Ainus and the Okinawans.
After the welcome remark, Gam A. Shimray, Assistant to the Secretary General presented the Secretarial report of AIPP on the overview of the programme implementation from January 2010. This was followed by responses and discussion by the participants.
Please click here for the full minutes, including decisions and recommendations of the meeting AIPP programmes in 2011
