Rights of Indigenous people: righteous or consolation?
Who are indigenous people?
Definitions of indigenous people are not identic.There are disputes among countries and academicians.Normally who are descended from the pre-colonial/pre-invasion inhabitants of their region and maintain a close tie to their land in both cultural and economic practices.
Academics defies indigenous peoples as “living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies born of forces of empire and conquest”
Legal definitions of indigenous have changed over time to reflect the changing perceptions of the people within the framework of conceptualization Indigenous.
Let’s talk with the statistics
Indigenous people are also known as first peoples, aboriginal peoples, native peoples, or tribal peoples worldwide. Today there are approximately 370 million of them are living under 5,000 different groups in over 90 countries worldwide.About 70% of them live in Asia.
Why this issue is global?
Territories claims by indigenous-es contain 80 percent of the earth’s biodiversity. Unquantified megatons of sequestered carbon as 11% of the planet’s forests are under their guardianship.
Conservation of biodiversity is an integral part of their lives and is viewed as spiritual and functional foundations for their identities and cultures.
International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples celebrates in 9 August.
2016 Theme was “Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Education”
Possible threats they face…
-State discrimination
-Eviction from native lands
-The physical removal or “stripping” of our natural assets
-Exploitation of intellectual property
-Disregarding of laws
-Benign neglect by civil society
- Loss of language.
-Loss of clan-ship.
-Loss of traditional knowledge.
Rights: what UN says?
A special set of political rights in accordance with international law have been set forth by international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Labor Organization and the World Bank.The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly in 13 September 2007, by a majority of 144 states in favor, 4 votes against (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) and 11 abstentions.In May 2016 Canada officially removed its objector status to UNDRIP.
The Declaration is structured with 23 preamble clauses and 46 articles. Articles 1–40 concern particular individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples.Articles 41 and 42 concern the role of the United Nations. Articles 43–45 indicate that the rights in the declaration apply without distinction to indigenous men and women.Article 46 discusses the Declaration’s consistency with other internationally agreed goals.
Rights: righteous or consolation?
The poverty gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations is widening.It is not only in developing countries,but also developed countries.Living conditions on Canadian Indian reserves are at the same level as those in a country with a ranking of 78 on the UN Human Development Index. Canada as a whole ranks #6.
In Guatemala 86.6% of indigenous people are poor, and in Mexico 80.6% are poor. This ratio is not good also in other countries from Latin,Africa or Indian sub-continent.
A study of Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights (BSEHR) revealed that some 61.44 percent of indigenous people still face discrimination, 41.86 percent are victims of corruption and 18.67 percent have been evicted from their ancestors´ land.
“When will we ever begin to understand the meaning of the soil underneath our feet? From a tiny grain of sand to the largest mountain, everything is sacred.”
References
Conservation Through Cultural Survival: Indigenous Peoples And Protected Areas by Stanley Stevens
UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)
www.firstpeoples.org/
www.indigenouspeople.net/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_on_the_Rights_of_Indigenous_Peoples
www.un.org/
www.culturalsurvival.org/
