THE GREEK AUSTRALIAN The oldest circulating Greek newspaper outside VEMA Greece JUNE 2009 Tel. (02) 9559 7022 Fax: (02) 9559 7033 E-mail: [email protected] OUR PRIMATE’S VIEW ERICA-IRENE A. DAES (the most heroic struggle in the heart of the United Nations) PAGESPAGES 4 /222/20 - -5 /233/21 NEW Funding boost for 21 technology start-ups Founder of Neometrics, Dr Konstantinos Anagnostakis, ACROPOLIS receives TECS award. PAGE 212/20/30 ExpertsMUSEUM call for calm as... OpensSWINE its doors FLU June 20 PAGE 14/32 UnitingExperts those call for calm betweenas swine two flu islands Presidentdeclared of Australian a pandemicPanhellenic DECLARED Federation,Swine flu isTheo now Katapodis, officially saysa global that the ideapandemic for the but federation Australian was expertsborn when returningsay it’s no Greeks indication found thethemselves virus poses with shareda greater experiences threat. and concerns. PAGE 6/24 PAGE 20/38 A PANDEMIC PAGE 20/38 ST ANDREW’S GREEKNaxos ORTHODOX THEOLOGICALThe Aegean COLLEGE explorer’s paradise TTAEE longtimeNN NN favoriteEEWW with sunseekers and steeped Experts reassess GGinRR heritage,AADDUU theAA largestTTEE SS findings at Vergina of the Cyclades Latest interpretation interpretationof of evidence evidence at at IINNhas 22a wealth000099 Macedonian king’s king’s burial burial site site suggests suggests of inland treasures tombtomb ofof PhilipPhilip II IImight might be be Philip Philip III’s. III’s. PAGE 1912/37/30 PAGE 15/33 JUNE 2009 2/20 TO BHMA The Greek Australian VEMA Our Primate’s View The readers of this column would undoubtedly juvenating friendship till today, I had the opportunity of be- have observed that, through a series of previous articles, ing informed, in somewhat broad terms, about the noble we have tried to project personalities and works of distin- aspirations undertaken by this dynamic Cretan, Mme Daes, guished women who have particularly impressed public as she cultivated relationships with personalities across all opinion as a result of their pioneering contribution to sa- the Continents. cred struggles of the 20th century. However, I must confess that, never having occu- pied myself with the specialized interest which ceaseless- We refer here to heroines of Faith and Hope ly motivated this conscientious scientist and respected who, in conjunction with the third ‘virtue’ of the Gospel friend, it would have been impossible to imagine the in- (Love), had either expressly or silently within their hearts conceivable achievement which, in the end, she would and thoughts made not just God their ‘spring-board’ and ultimately accomplish “in the heart of the U.N.”(!), as the ‘point of reference’, but also the Human Person (as an representative of a small Country such as Greece. “icon of God”), regardless of the Religion or Ideology which For this achievement, a monumental Book was they served. published in December of 2008 by the official organ IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs). In most cases, these slow to be recognized cru- The author of this Book, naturally, could not have saders (not necessarily ‘activists’!), did not have a direct been any other than this same indefatigable pioneer for relation to career Politics. the elevation and protection of the most ‘fundamentally’ Nonetheless, they indirectly, and perhaps for doubted human rights, which are the rights of Indige- this reason more essentially, influenced ‘Treaties’ and nous peoples across the globe. ‘Protocols’ (of governments or ‘international organiza- tions’) through which fundamental attention was finally also Here is the complete title of the Book which we given to hitherto disregarded ‘minorities’ of the global cite as it appears on the impressive cover: “INDIGENOUS community. PEOPLE, Keepers of our Past - Custodians of our Future” (IWGIA 2008, Copenhagen, Denmark). And when we speak here of ‘minorities’, we do not mean the numerically small Ethnic Communities which are distinguished from the overwhelming majority of ERICA-IRENE A. DAES the total population of a Nation. We mean precisely the opposite: the enormous ‘masses’ of Women, the Poor, the Elderly, the Sick, the (the most heroic Forsaken, the Unarmed in civil or broader conflicts By ARCHBISHOP whose first victims are Mothers and Children, Refu- struggle in the heart STYLIANOS gees, as well as Indigenous people in Lands of a Colo- OF AUSTRALIA nial past. of the United Nations) For all these ‘Under-privileged’ people (as reg- ularly referred to in the ‘slogan-speak’ of Politicians), it be- came necessary in more recent times, even if for reasons We shall not quote here even the titles from the of vote-catching propaganda, that certain fundamental ‘hu- Book’s ‘table of contents’, out of which alone emerge most man rights’ be recognized to maintain a humanitarian eloquently the deep concerns of the U.N. in the various ‘balance’, mainly for the sake of local or more general se- phases during which it was called to deal with the rights curity. of Indigenous people, within the broader framework of Human Rights. To the extent that the ‘human rights’ in mention have developed into pathways of sincere altruism we As to how many painstaking struggles needed to must recognize, in the first line of contribution, Women be organized by this watchfully foresighted wise Woman from every sphere. of Crete, armed with inexhaustible endurance, can be as- certained by the reader from the admirable comments It is not without symbolic significance that, even in about Mme Daes, from two momentous prefaces of the the predominantly ‘male controlled’ and unyielding regimes Book. of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and others, the now very eld- On the one hand, by Mr. Jens Dahl (IWGIA), and on erly King Abdullah (aged 84) recently dared to appoint the the other, by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, first woman to his government, in a portfolio of analogous Mme Louise Arbour. social sensitivity. Mr. Dahl, summarizing the contribution of Mme Daes towards such unbelievable achievements as can be Immediately following the 2nd World War (1945), guaranteed only by a deep faith in God and the Human as is known, the ‘United Nations’ (U.N.) was established as Person, hastens to state: the successor organization to the former ‘League of Na- tions’ (which proved to be ineffective). Whilst the U.N. had “This book is a personal account of the fate of similar aspirations, it definitely had a broader representa- indigenous issues within the United Nations tion and more demanding and specialized requirements from 1984 to 2007. It is much more than that, than the abolished ‘League of Nations’. however, because it is written by the one The U.N. included in its membership the official person who - above all other government ex- Representatives of most governments around the world, perts - was responsible for indigenous peo- and in its Committees and Sub-Committees we find, ples’ rise from oblivion to recognition by the amongst the elected Executive officers, the discernible international community.” presence of certain significant women from various eth- nicities as well. And after these momentous words, the official in Amongst those noteworthy and sensitized mention concludes his preface with the following deductive women (especially for human rights!) there also appears, paragraph which undoubtedly constitutes an unreserved early on, a Greek woman, a legal expert, Mme Erica- Hymn, not only to the heroic stance and activity of Mme Irene Daes, nee Papastamatakis, originating from Ha- Daes, but also to the entire Hellenic civilization, from the nia, Crete but active in Athens and internationally. cradle of Knossos up to the various phases of Byzantino- Romaic and more recent Helleno-Christian Greece. * * * * Here is the concluding paragraph in mention: This exceptional compatriot, together with her un- forgettable husband Asterios Daes, President of the “To Mme Daes, indigenous peoples are the Court of Auditors (one of three Highest Courts of custodians of humankind’s cultural heritage. Greece), I had the joy and honour of meeting at the outset Mme Daes is, however, the undoubted custo- of the 1960’s. dian of a process that has led to indigenous Precisely because of this long and continually re- JUNE 2006 The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 3/21 Cont. from previous page peoples’ legitimate consideration within the United Nations system and has allowed indigenous peoples to be treated not as foot- notes but as participants in this process. She has become the affectionate keeper of a treasure, and of a process, that will always be associated with her name.” Analogous is the accolade to Mme Daes by Mme Arbour, which we locate in the following extract of her preface: “Erica-Irene Daes, the author of this book and recipient of the United Nations Human Rights Prize in 1993, was at the heart of these developments. As Chairperson of the Working Group on Indigenous populations from 1984 until her retirement as an active member of the Sub-Commission in 2001, she was the principal drafter and driving force behind the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, authoring numerous seminal UN studies, visiting many remote indigenous communities all over the world and encouraging them to participate actively in the United Nations. Indeed, the annual ses- sion of the Working Group, held every August in Geneva, became one of the largest human rights meetings on the UN calendar. In recog- nition of her contribution, the Sub-Commis- sion adopted an unprecedented, unanimous decision - making Dr. Daes member of the Working Group for life. As a representative of her country, Greece, at numerous important forums including the General Assembly, Dr Daes was and contin- ues to be a strong and persuasive advocate of indigenous rights and for the adoption of progressive policies by States in regard to their indigenous communities.” moments’ from the truly dramatic evolution humbled and unjustly treated (to the of Indigenous peoples’ position within the point of cruel slavery) more than most.