In Moscow, in the UN Information Centre the report was presented by Rodion Sulyandziga, director of the Centee for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North.
In his presentation Rodion Sulyandziga reviewed the state of indigenous peoples in the world. First he told the history of formation of the world’s indigenous peoples’ movement, and then proceeded to the report itself.
This document was prepared by seven independent experts and consists of seven parts: Poverty and Well-being; Culture; Environment; Contemporary Education; Health; Human Rights; Emerging Issues.
According to Rodion Sulyandziga the report notes that indigenous peoples around the world continue to suffer disproportionately, often exponentially, higher rates of poverty, health and environment problems, crime and human rights abuses. There are over 370 million indigenous people in some 90 countries, living in all regions of the world. While they constitute 5 per cent of the world's population, they are 15 per cent of the world's poor. Every day indigenous communities around the world face violence and maltreatment, continuing assimilation policy, lands expropriation, marginalization, forced eviction or resettlement, refusal to recognize their rights to land, consequences of intensive resources development, cruel treatment from armed forces and many other human rights violation.
The state of the indigenous peoples’ health is also disturbing. The statistics given in the report illustrate the gravity of the situation both in the developed and developing countries. Malnutrition, limited access to medical services, deficit of the resources important for maintaining good health and well-being, environment pollution — all this factors aggravate the world’s indigenous peoples’ terrible health condition. According to the report he indigenous population have an average life expectancy that is shorter by 20 years, compared to the wider population in the same countries.
The experts who prepared the report see the reasons of such condition in absence of rights to land and territories, impossibility of indigenous peoples’ participation in political processes, access to decision-making and self-government. A great gap between the international norms applied by the UN, national legislations and law enforcement practice, especially on a local level, is underlined in it. Also the principle of preliminary deliberate agreement of indigenous peoples described in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is very important. It means indigenous peoples can’t be resettled involuntarily. No relocation can be performed without free, preliminary deliberate agreement of indigenous peoples and can be carried out only after concluding such an agreement that would provide fair compensation and (if there’s such possibility) return to homelands.
On January, 14 Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and Myrna Cunningham, one of the report’s authors, held a press-conference in the UN Headquarters to present this report.
As one can remember, the first conference of the experts dedicated to the preparation of the report on the state of the indigenous peoples took place in Salekhard in December 2006. It was held on the RAIPON’s initiative and invitation. Experts of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (representatives of Kenya, the USA, Great Britain, Nicaragua, Iceland, Greece, South Africa, Denmark), representatives of Russian ministries and offices, the Public Chamber of Russia took part in the event. During those two days the structure of the report was drawn up and primary topics of the report - human rights, education, health, economic and social development, culture and environment - were discussed.
The edition will be available in electronic format on the portal of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: www.un.org/indigenous
The RAIPON Information Centre
