Speakers Say Distinct Identities, Rights of Indigenous Peoples Should Be Recognized in Post-2015 Agenda, as Permanent Forum Continues
Indigenous peoples represented 15 per cent of the world’s poor and faced huge disparities in terms of hunger, malnutrition and access to health care, even in developed countries, speakers in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues said today, stressing that their distinct identities and rights should be recognized in the post-2015 development agenda.
In day four of its fourteenth session, the Forum held two panel discussions aimed at understanding the next generation of development goals, the ongoing global process to elaborate them, and how United Nations agencies were both incorporating indigenous experiences into their contributions and addressing concerns that their unique voices would be muffled if reflected only in a general “vulnerable groups” category.
Throughout the day, speakers recalled that the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development — which had given rise to the 17 sustainable development goals — recognized the importance of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the context of global, regional, national and subnational implementation of development strategies.
With that in mind, Chris Murgatroyd, Governance Adviser at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), who made a presentation during the first panel on “the post-2015 agenda”, said the indigenous people’s major group had clustered its concerns around six areas: the need for disaggregated data; rights to lands, territories and resources; free, prior and informed consent; special measures for health and other issues; access to justice and redress mechanisms; and participation in decision-making in relevant bodies.
In a similar context, panellist Christine Brautigam, Director of the Intergovernmental Support Division at UN-Women, urged tackling the structural barriers to equality in the post-2015 agenda. UN-Women advocated a stand-alone goal on gender equality and gender-sensitive targets and indicators across all the sustainable development goals.
During the second panel on “Food, Hunger, Disease and Land Rights”, speakers highlighted that indigenous peoples represented one third of the 900 million extremely poor rural people. Their well-being was directly related to their ability to pursue traditional lifestyles and livelihoods. Yet, degradation of their ecosystems, loss of their lands, and general decline in the abundance of traditional food sources had created a high incidence of malnutrition. They often lacked access to medical care, speakers said, and were more likely to die younger than their non-indigenous counterparts.
To change that situation, panellist Adolfo Brizzi, Director, Policy and Technical Advisory Division, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), advocated improving smallholder agriculture as the best way to address rural poverty. Indigenous peoples managed most of the world’s natural resources and must be involved in the search for solutions. He urged scaling up institutions for the poor that allowed them to access markets.
Panellist Maryam Niamir, Special Adviser to the Executive Director on the Sustainable Development Goals and Post-2015 Agenda, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), focused on the security of land tenure. Fifty to 90 per cent of the income of the rural poor depended on common property resources. Managing those assets was essential.
Also today, Antti Korkeakivi, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), presented the report of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues, which held its annual meeting in December 2014. Hosted by his Office and attended by 17 United Nations agencies, the meeting addressed the follow-up to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, exploring how to foster coherence within the United Nations on work related to indigenous peoples.
He said participants discussed lessons that could be drawn from other system-wide action plans, such as those for youth and gender, and established a working group. There was a “fruitful” stocktaking on the use of indicators related to indigenous peoples, and the Support Group was considering their application in relation to the post-2015 agenda. While States had the primary responsibility to realize their commitments, the United Nations had crucial role to play and he was committed to pursuing it in cooperation with indigenous peoples.
In the afternoon, representatives of indigenous groups, Governments and United Nations agencies debated how effectively the Forum’s recommendations on the World Conference and the post-2015 development agenda had been followed. Many indigenous speakers decried that their rights were still being trampled by Governments that had not heeded the Forum’s advice.
As an example, the representative of El Pueblo Indigena Bubi de la Isla de Bioko said his peoples’ situation was characterized by high mortality, a lack of schools, young people becoming alcoholics over a lack of jobs and women desperate at the uncertain fate of their children. Any State resources had gone towards building cities like Oyala. Coco-producing Bubi farmers must be paid the right price for their products.
The representative of the Assyrian Aid Society said Assyrians struggled to be recognized as indigenous people of Iraq. Forum members should be assigned to oversee the recommendations of non-governmental organizations to better address their concerns.
Speakers also continued to air their views on the Forum’s working methods, with the representative of the American Indian Law Alliance addressing a “troubling” trend of making unannounced changes to the process for presenting interventions. Expectations had arisen from past procedure that global and regional caucus statements would be given priority. Such limits on them fed the perception that some States wanted them to be seen but not heard and perpetuated the practice of “rights ritualism”.
Administrative rules that selectively privileged some indigenous perspectives and marginalized others amounted to censorship, added the representative of the North American Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus. The Forum was obliged to treat all indigenous representatives equally and she requested a meeting with the Secretariat to explain those changes.
Representatives of the following indigenous organizations also spoke: Continental Network of the Indigenous Women of the Americas, International Forum of Indigenous Women: Global Indigenous Women’s Leadership School, African Indigenous Women’s Organization, Atikamekw Nation, Project Access, Indigenous Peoples Survival Foundation, Ngamiland Council of NGOs [non-governmental organizations], Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples, Universidad Federal de Sao Carlo, Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association, Fondo para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indigenas de Americas Latina y el Caribe, Tribal Link, AIM-West and Movimiento Indigena de Ecuador.
Also making interventions were representatives of the World Intellectual Property Organization, World Bank and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The representatives of Ecuador and Guatemala also spoke.
The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Friday, 24 April, to continue its session.
Panel I: Post-2015 Development Agenda
The Forum started the day with a panel discussion on the “post-2015 development agenda”. Introduced by Joan Carling, Forum Member from the Philippines, the panel included presentations by Fredrich Soltau, Division for Sustainable Development, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Chris Murgatroyd, Governance Adviser, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Christine Brautigam, Director, Intergovernmental Support Division, UN-Women.
Mr. SOLTAU said the post-2015 agenda stemmed from the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or “Rio+20”, where leaders decided to create 17 sustainable development goals. The Millennium Development Goals were mainly based on a donor-recipient relationship in which developing countries carried the lead, he said, whereas new goals gave equal responsibilities to all countries. While they would be universally applicable, they also recognized that countries had different starting points. “This is a much more ambitious agenda,” he said, which had 17 goals and 169 targets. “The idea is to set the bar high for all countries.” The first six goals covered similar issues to the Millennium Goals, but those following focused on cities, institutions and peaceful societies, which were innovations. This spring, negotiations were focused on the Political Declaration; the goals and targets; the means of implementation and partnership for sustainable development; and follow-up and review. The third International Conference on Financing for Development in July would address financing for the agenda.
Next, Mr. MURGATROYD said the new agenda would move beyond the mainly social elements of the Millennium Goals to include productive capacities, inclusive growth, and changing patterns of consumption and production. The indigenous peoples’ major group had clustered its concerns around six areas: the need for disaggregated data; rights to lands, territories and resources; free, prior and informed consent; special measures for health and other issues; access to justice and redress mechanisms; and participation in decision-making in relevant bodies. Without peaceful societies, access to justice and accountable institutions, change would not happen. Those issues were addressed in draft goal 16, which contained targets committing States to promote the rule of law and provide universal, equal access to justice, as well as to enforce non-discriminatory laws that fostered sustainable development. The UNDP “capacities dialogue” had found that economic institutions should focus on increasing the participation of women, youth and other groups in the economy. The Programme was also supporting the Inter-Agency Group, which would advise the Statistical Commission on developing an indicator framework.
Ms. BRAUTIGAM said the inequality of women and girls was a central challenge to development, stressing that indigenous women faced particular forms of such discrimination. It was critical to build on the lessons from the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals. She urged tackling the structural barriers to equality in the post-2015 agenda and, to that end, States, UN-Women and civil society had advocated for a stand-alone goal on gender equality and gender-sensitive targets and indicators across all the sustainable development goals in discussions of the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals. The full implementation of draft goal 5 on women’s empowerment held the potential to transform unequal power relations and address the structural barriers to gender equality. In addition, discriminatory laws must be abolished, and harmful practices like female genital mutilation addressed through legal reforms, policies and community mobilization. Sexual and reproductive health and rights were also critical to development, as was women’s ownership of land and other assets.
Panel II: Food, Hunger, Disease and Land Rights
The Forum then held a panel discussion on “Food, Hunger, Disease and Land Rights”. Introduced by Joseph Mutangah, Forum Member from Kenya, the panel included presentations by Adolfo Brizzi, Director, Policy and Technical Advisory Division, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); Mariann Kovacs, Senior Liaison Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), along with Yon Fernandez de Larrinoa, Advocacy Officer on Indigenous Peoples and Gender, FAO Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development; and Maryam Niamir, Special Adviser to the Executive Director on the Sustainable Development Goals and Post-2015 Agenda, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Mr. BRIZZI said the contribution of IFAD to the post-2015 agenda focused around four pillars, including rural poverty. Indigenous peoples represented 15 per cent of the rural poor. Improving smallholder agriculture was among the best ways to address rural poverty, with the scaling up of institutions for the poor. Another pillar of the International Fund’s work was around rural space. “Cities cannot be sustainable if countrysides are not,” he said, stressing that it was a fallacy to think we did not have to worry about rural communities. As for agriculture, food security and nutrition, poverty could be reduced through market-driven smallholder farming. On natural resources, indigenous peoples were managers of most of the world’s natural resources. As such, the search for solutions had to involve smallholders and indigenous peoples. The true value of agriculture products was not necessarily reflected in its market price. A product’s value was about the environment, social capital and a lifestyle it represented. If products did not reflect true value, they risked being uncompetitive or degrading the environment.
Mr. DE LARRINOA said that about 800 million people worldwide were food insecure, with indigenous peoples representing an estimated 390-430 million of them. FAO had been contributing to draft goals 1 (ending poverty for all), 2 (end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition), 5 (gender equality and women’s empowerment for all), 6 (ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all), 12 (ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns), 14 (conserve oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development) and 15 (protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems). Goal 2 included three 2030 targets to end hunger, end malnutrition and double agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers. FAO wanted to work on indicators for land, territories and resources that were relevant for indigenous peoples. It had proposed the development of a “food insecurity experience scale” to measure food-related behaviours and experiences, so that national services could incorporate that evidence into their indicators.
Ms. NIAMIR said “security of tenure, with one touch, will achieve benefits in the social, economic and environmental agendas.” At least 50 to 90 per cent of the income of the rural poor depended on common property resources. Women, in particular, depended on common property and lands. Managing those common assets was essential, yet it was a new issue for Governments and the private sector. There were bundles of rights around them. Managing common lands with tools for private lands would destroy them. “We need to acknowledge that the post-2015 must recognize ‘the commons’,” she said, noting that UNEP had created multipurpose indicators for doing so. Going forward, an international legal standard for common lands and natural resources must be established, and tools developed for registering, certifying and protecting them. Indicators were needed to monitor the security of tenure of all types of lands, including those held in common, and awareness must be raised among all stakeholders.
When the floor was opened for discussion, indigenous speakers stressed that their distinct status and rights should be explicitly referenced in the sustainable development goals. The new agenda should reflect their concerns and promote their participation in the management of natural resources through their exercise of free, prior and informed consent. Indeed, they had a right to determine their own priorities and exercise their own rights to development. Many indigenous people had been seriously impacted by mining, dam building and other extractive projects that had been carried out on traditional lands.
In that connection, TIA OROS of the Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus pressed the Forum to work with the Expert Mechanism on development-related conflict, using indigenous-led documentation to better inform the post-2015 process. The sustainable development goals should be centred on all international human rights instruments, including the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In addition, there was a need for capacity-building related to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Along similar lines, SATAREKI MACANAWAI of the Disability Indigenous Caucus said that national plans for implementing the post-2015 agenda should support the reporting requirements of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
“We, the new generations, are taking responsibility to preserve and transmit the traditional knowledge from our ancestors,” declared CLAUDINA CRUZ PINTO of the Youth Caucus, stressing that the new agenda should contain culturally specific indicators on indigenous youth.
Government representatives taking the floor agreed that federal policies had a fundamental role to play in determining indigenous peoples’ well-being. Some said national legislation must be changed to better reflect the international consensus reached around indigenous peoples’ rights.
Towards that end, MARIA FERNANDA VILLEGAS, Minister for Social Development of Chile, said her Government was gathering information on indigenous communities in order to develop public policies with an intercultural angle, a process that involved indigenous peoples themselves. Congress would soon receive a bill to create an indigenous ministry, and another to create indigenous peoples’ councils, which would represent indigenous issues before the State.
GLORIA LAYNEZ, Advocate for Indigenous Women of Guatemala, said there were 5,754,099 indigenous peoples in her country, about half of whom were women. Those numbers underpinned inter-institutional work to tackle hunger and other issues. She urged the United Nations to encourage Governments to include ethnic and linguistic diversity into their plans, programmes and policies.
Representatives of specialized agencies also described how they were helping Governments better address indigenous needs. JOHN SCOTT, Senior Programme Officer at the Convention on Biological Diversity, said the Convention had adopted four indicators for indigenous knowledge, recommended by indigenous peoples: indigenous languages; traditional occupations; security of land tenure and changing land use; and the participation of indigenous peoples in the revision of national biodiversity action plans and the preparation of national reports.
Also speaking today was an indigenous representative of the Saami Council and Arctic Caucus, and Edward John.
Representatives of Sweden (on behalf of the Nordic countries), Denmark (also on behalf of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Greenland), Botswana and Bolivia also spoke.
A representative of the International Development Law Organization also delivered remarks.
Forum members from Bolivia and the United States also contributed to the discussion.