NEW YORK, 19 April 2010: Over 2.000 indigenous peoples from around the world are meeting for the next two weeks at the United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss how they can “freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”, as described by the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Participants gathered at the UN’s Ninth Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will discuss with government officials, indigenous representatives and several UN agencies – including UNDP – how to partner in a special type of development: one that promotes their communities’ cultural, social, ecological and economic integrity.
Following the two-week meeting, the Permanent Forum will provide recommendations on specific actions on indigenous issues to the UN’s Economic and Social Council and to UN agencies, funds and programmes.
– Cultural exclusion goes beyond poverty or lack of opportunities; it also makes invisible the contributions of the excluded groups to society at large – preventing the transference of ideas, knowledge and values, said UNDP Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan at the Forum’s session on Development with Culture and Identity.
– States need to recognize cultural differences in their laws and institutions as well as formulating policies to ensure that the interests of particular groups are not ignored or overridden. And they need to do so in ways that do not contradict other goals and strategies of human development, such as human rights, building a capable state, and ensuring equal opportunities to all citizens, she added.
There are more than 370 million indigenous peoples in some 90 countries – in all regions of the world. They comprise nearly six per cent of the world’s population, but make up 15 per cent of the world’s poor and one third of the 900 million extremely poor living in rural areas.
They tend to experience disproportionally high rates of poverty, low education levels, health problems, crime and human rights abuses. In addition, because they rely heavily on natural resources for their subsistence, they are also among the first to feel the impacts of climate change, even though their lifestyles are practically carbon neutral.
Inclusive policies – In Asia and the Pacific, through the Regional Initiative on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Development, UNDP is promoting cooperation between indigenous peoples’ organizations and several governments in the region.
The partnership is enhancing the government’s capacity to implement inclusive policies – through participatory processes, integrating indigenous peoples’ rights into national programmes and strategies.
