Taipei, Sept. 28 (CNA) Taiwan's Indigenous People's Basic Law is in line with a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples adopted by the United Nations earlier this month, and Taiwan has a great opportunity to make substantial progress in indigenous rights, an official said Friday.
A thorough examination of the U.N. declaration and the Indigenous Basic Law found that Taiwan's development of the rights of indigenous peoples is almost fully in line with the U.N. declaration, said Icyang Parod, minister of the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP).
The U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Sept. 13 with an overwhelming vote of 143 to 4. Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States were the only countries to vote against the declaration.
The declaration and the local law, which were passed in 2005, both focused on same issues such as rights of self-determination, culture, language, employment, land and resources, education, and finance, Parod said.
The CIP will, based on the spirit of the U.N. declaration, keep pushing for some necessary amendments of the basic law, he said.
The ministry will also hold seminar in the future to discuss the implementation of the basic law and compare the law and the U.N. declaration, he said.