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	For some Indigenous, COVID presents possibility of cultural extinction, says Myrna Cunningham by Rhett Butler Mongabay   COVID-19 has devastated communities around the world, but for some Indigenous groups, the pandemic posed an existential threat.   Few people are better placed to speak to the impact COVID is having on Indigenous communities than Myrna Cunningham, a Miskitu physician from the Wangki river region of Nicaragua who has spent 50 years advocating for the rights of women and Indigenous peoples at local, regional, national, and international levels.   “For Indigenous peoples, the arrival of the virus, in addition to putting people at risk, presented the possibility that entire cultures could disappear,” Cunningham told Mongabay. “For Indigenous peoples with few members, the situation still endangers their existence as a collective, as a culture, as a people.”   Cunningham, who was hospitalized with COVID and is still recovering, says that COVID has compounded the myriad challenges many Indigenous communities face.   “For a lot of peoples and communities, on top of the inequality they face to access health care systems, they’ve also suffered, and still suffer, the impacts of measures adopted by states to tackle the health crisis,” she said. “We have seen cases of communities who live from selling their crops and losing everything if they can’t go out to sell.”   “The main problems we’ve seen are the limited access to health care services; the increase in the workload for women as they care for their families; the lack of food; the impact on crop production and trade; loss of jobs; impacts on children and young people due to schools closing and the technological gap that prevents them from studying remotely; and the increase of domestic violence.   In many of our communities, COVID-19 interlocked with other diseases such as malaria and dengue. A serious problem was the increase in racist actions and in pressures on Indigenous territories for extractive activities and other uses. This increased the violence against Indigenous leaders. In countries such as Colombia and Brazil, the situation has been getting worse.”   Cunningham’s approach to helping Indigenous communities confront COVID involves the same strategies that she’s taken throughout her career, whether that’s been as the first First Miskito doctor in Nicaragua or serving as the Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: strengthening the resilience, autonomy, and rights of Indigenous peoples.   Her approach is multifaceted, ranging from securing land tenure for traditional lands to promoting legal reform to helping increase representation of women and Indigenous peoples in leadership positions at institutions that govern, determine policy, and allocate resources.   While there is still much progress to be made, Cunningham says she has seen many positive changes over the course of her career when it comes to Indigenous rights.   “It’s been 40 years of a lot of work, working like ants: Opening spaces, defending them, formulating proposals, negotiating them, monitoring compliance, reporting noncompliance. But more than anything it’s been the years in which Indigenous peoples have built global, regional and national movements in many countries,” she said.   “Today we have international mechanisms and instruments in the U.N. that allow us to keep moving forward, especially the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Permanent Forum, among others. Today we are present in important global negotiations about climate change, biodiversity, food systems and climate financing.”   “The contributions of Indigenous peoples are now recognized in these processes and discussions. There’s still a lot to do to guarantee full, effective, respectful and dignified participation, but we are at the tables arguing, contributing, demanding, monitoring. And we are both women and men.”   When it comes to the conservation sector specifically, Cunningham says recognition of Indigenous peoples’ contributions toward maintaining healthy and productive ecosystems is growing, but colonial attitudes toward local peoples remain pervasive.   “There is evidence that strong land rights play a role where there are low deforestation and forest degradation rates in Indigenous territories,” she told Mongabay. “Little by little, the voices of Indigenous peoples and these studies that show evidence are placing these points in the global agenda.”   “To expand these achievements, however, we need to move from speech to action. The indispensable requirement for dismantling the colonizing approach that has been used in the conservation of biodiversity is to fully recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples. Any measure must be planned and implemented with Indigenous peoples as full partners.”   * Cunningham spoke of these issues and many more during a recent interview see:   http://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/for-some-indigenous-covid-presents-possibility-of-cultural-extinction-says-myrna-cunningham/ Visit the related web page
	When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish by UN Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples   Reports from Indigenous mechanisms to the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council: (13 September 2021 - 08 October 2021)   * Rights of the indigenous child under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Study of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.   The Expert Mechanism sees the study as an opportunity to integrate a human and children’s rights-based approach into the interpretation of the rights of indigenous children under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.   In the study, both the individual and collective rights of indigenous children and the interplay between them are examined. The study incorporates the seminal principle of the best interests of the child in the context of indigenous children.   The capacity of indigenous peoples to meet their children’s needs depends on their ability to exercise their right to self-determination and is essential when considering existing gaps in areas such as education and child welfare.   That critical link was made by Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, in which they stated “When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish.”   Ties to traditional territories are also central to the ability of indigenous children to reach their potential and exercise the full panoply of their rights, including cultural rights and the right to health.   Globally, indigenous peoples, including children, have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and accompanying containment measures.   That has been particularly acute for those with intersecting vulnerabilities, including girls and children with disabilities, and there is a real risk that in the recovery phase indigenous children will be left even further behind: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/48/74   # Uluru Statement from the Heart: http://ulurustatement.org/the-statement   * Efforts to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: indigenous peoples and the right to self-determination   In this report, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples examines good practices and lessons learned regarding efforts to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, focusing on self-determination initiatives undertaken by indigenous peoples and States since the adoption of the Declaration in 2007.   The present report builds upon other United Nations studies and reports on self-determination and should be read in conjunction with other reports of the Expert Mechanism, in particular its reports on the right to participate in decision-making, recognition, reparation and reconciliation, land rights and free, prior and informed consent, in which it expounded on the right to self-determination as the fundamental norm upon which indigenous rights are grounded.   As expressed by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the right of self-determination is a foundational right, without which indigenous peoples’ human rights, both collective and individual, cannot be fully enjoyed..   Self-determination is an ongoing process in which institutions of decision-making are devised that enable indigenous peoples to make decisions related to their internal and local affairs and to participate collectively in external decision-making processes. The exercise of self-determination varies by region and by the peoples involved and may, in some cases, be determined by the relationship and level of their recognition within the State.   All efforts in moving towards self-determination have been and continue to be a struggle for indigenous peoples. As one indigenous leader expressed: “the progress towards realization of self-determination is not a straight road, but one marked by setbacks and obstacles”: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/48/75   http://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/ipeoples/emrip/pages/emripindex.aspx   * Indigenous peoples and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) recovery - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Jose Francisco Cali Tzay.   In this report, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, focuses on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) recovery phase and related plans, and the impact that the pandemic has had on the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples.   He concludes with recommending greater inclusion and participation of indigenous peoples in the recovery process, in order to address their rights and unique needs, and calls for increased support for indigenous-led initiatives to sustain their cultures and economies in the COVID-19 recovery period.   The present report supplements and follows up on the report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples to the UN General Assembly in 2020. The findings from that report regarding the initial impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis on indigenous peoples are still, a year on, very valid.   In that report, concerns were raised in the following areas: disproportionate health impacts; an increase in discrimination and marginalization; the exacerbation of economic and social inequalities; the lack of access to COVID-19 information, personal protective equipment, testing and treatment; the impact of restrictions imposed on indigenous human rights defenders; and the continued operation of business activities encroaching on indigenous lands during the pandemic.   Just as the impact of and responses to COVID-19 have disproportionately and negatively affected indigenous peoples, so have State recovery efforts.   An equitable and comprehensive COVID-19 recovery requires building back better than pre-pandemic times, when indigenous peoples experienced multiple forms of social and economic discrimination.   In many cases, COVID-19 recovery laws have been solely geared at managing the economic crisis generated by the pandemic. Reports around the world further indicate that State measures for economic recovery have prioritized and supported the expansion of business operations at the expense of indigenous peoples, their lands and the environment.   Instead, States must focus on a transformative recovery that maximizes opportunities for well-being in the post-COVID-19 era and respects human rights as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other relevant international human rights standards: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/48/54   * The UN Human Rights Committee in a landmark ruling finds Paraguay’s failure to prevent the toxic contamination of indigenous people’s traditional lands by commercial farming violates their rights and their sense of “home”.   The decision on Paraguay marked the first time it has affirmed that for indigenous people, “home” should be understood in the context of their special relationship with their territories, including their livestock, crops and way of life.   “For indigenous peoples, their lands represent their home, culture and community. Serious environmental damages have severe impacts on indigenous people’s family life, tradition, identity and even lead to the disappearance of their community. It dramatically harms the existence of the culture of the group as a whole,” said Committee member Helene Tigroudja.   The decision stems from a complaint filed more than a decade ago on behalf of some 201 Ava Guarani people of the Campo Agua’e indigenous community, located in Curuguaty district in eastern Paraguay.   The area where they live is surrounded by large commercial farms which produce genetically modified soybeans through fumigation, a process which involves the use of banned pesticides.   Fumigation occurred continuously for more than 10 years and affected the indigenous community’s whole way of life, including killing livestock, contaminating waterways and harming people’s health. The damage also had severe intangible repercussions, according to the UN committee. The disappearance of natural resources needed for hunting, fishing and foraging resulted in the loss of traditional knowledge. For example, ceremonial baptisms no longer take place as necessary materials no longer exist.   “By halting such ceremonies, children are denied a rite crucial to strengthening their cultural identity,” the Committee said. “Most alarmingly, the indigenous community structure is being eroded and disintegrated as families are forced to leave their land.”   The indigenous community brought the case to the Human Rights Committee after a lengthy and unsatisfactory administrative and judicial process in Paraguay’s courts.   “More than 12 years after the victims filed their criminal complaint regarding the fumigation with toxic agrochemicals, to which they have continued to be exposed throughout this period, the investigations have not progressed in any meaningful way and the State party has not justified the delay,” the Committee said in its decision.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1102922 Visit the related web page
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