State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
19/01/2010
- Opinión
Introduction
By the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
The United Nations is commonly seen as one of humankind’s most ambitious projects, striving to attain human rights, development and peace and security for all. In many ways, the ambitious, lofty nature of its goals is both the United Nations’ greatest strength and its greatest challenge. Despite unprecedented progress made during the United Nations’ first sixty years, there remains a lingering frustration that the poorest of the poor, the most marginalized and discriminated against, still do not enjoy their basic human rights, development or security. Indigenous peoples’ concerns have not always been represented at the United Nations and, for the first decades of existence of the Organization, their voices were not heard there. This has slowly changed and the United Nations system has, in recent years, taken a number of steps to atone for past oversights, increasingly building partnerships with indigenous peoples.
There has been a vigorous and dynamic interface between indigenous peoples—numbering more than 370 million in some 90 countries—and the United Nations, an interface which, difficult as it is, has produced at least three results: a) a new awareness of indigenous peoples’ concerns and human rights; b) recognition of indigenous peoples’ invaluable contribution to humanity’s cultural diversity and heritage, not least through their traditional knowledge; and c) an awareness of the need to address the issues of indigenous peoples through policies, legislation and budgets. Along with the movements for decolonization and human rights, as well as the women’s and environmental movements, the indigenous movement has been one of the most active civil society interlocutors of the United Nations since 1945.
The situation of indigenous peoples in many parts of the world continues to be critical: indigenous peoples face systemic discrimination and exclusion from political and economic power; they continue to be over-represented among the poorest, the illiterate, the destitute; they are displaced by wars and environmental disasters; the weapon of rape and sexual humiliation is also turned against indigenous women for the ethnic cleansing and demoralization of indigenous communities; indigenous peoples are dispossessed of their ancestral lands and deprived of their resources for survival, both physical and cultural; they are even robbed of their very right to life. In more modern versions of market exploitation, indigenous peoples see their traditional knowledge and cultural expressions marketed and patented without their consent or participation. Of the some 7,000 languages today, it is estimated that more than 4,000 are spoken by indigenous peoples. Language specialists predict that up to 90 per cent of the world’s languages are likely to become extinct or threatened with extinction by the end of the century.1 This statistic illustrates the grave danger faced by indigenous peoples.
- Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Division for Social Policy and Development. Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
https://www.alainet.org/es/node/138919
Del mismo autor
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- State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 19/01/2010
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