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	Amid coronavirus, let's not forget about indigenous people by Jose Francisco Cali Tzay, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples   May 2020   COVID-19 is devastating indigenous communities worldwide, and it's not only about health - UN expert warns   The new UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Jose Francisco Cali Tzay, today expressed serious concerns over the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on indigenous peoples beyond the health threat.   'I am receiving more reports every day from all corners of the globe about how indigenous communities are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it deeply worries me to see it is not always about health issues.   States of emergency are exacerbating the marginalisation of indigenous communities, and in the most extreme situations, militarisation of their territories is taking place.   Indigenous peoples are being denied their freedom of expression and association, while business interests are invading and destroying their lands, territories and resources.   In some countries, consultations with indigenous peoples and also environmental impact assessments are being abruptly suspended in order to force through megaprojects relating to agribusiness, mining, dams and infrastructure.   Indigenous peoples who lose their lands and livelihoods are pushed further into poverty, higher rates of malnutrition, lack of access to clean water and sanitation, as well as exclusion from medical services, which in turn renders them particularly vulnerable to the disease.   But in the face and in the midst of such threats, the indigenous communities that have managed to best resist the COVID-19 pandemic are those that have achieved autonomy and self-government, which allows them to manage their lands, territories and resources, ensure food security through their traditional crops and traditional medicine.   Now, more than ever, Governments worldwide should support indigenous peoples to implement their own plans to protect their communities and participate in the elaboration of nationwide initiatives to ensure these do not discriminate against them.   States must ensure that indigenous peoples have access to information about COVID-19 in their languages and urgent special measures need to be taken to ensure availability and access to culturally appropriate medical services. It is a major challenge that public health facilities are often scarce in indigenous communities.   The rights to development, self-determination and lands, territories and resources must be ensured in order for indigenous peoples to manage these times of crisis and to advance the worldwide goals of sustained development and environmental protection.   The pandemic is teaching us that we need to change: we need to value the collective over the individual and build inclusive societies that respect and protect everyone. It is not only about protecting our health'. http://bit.ly/2ylRarI   Apr. 2020   For the first time in living memory, the industrialized world understands what it is to be entirely susceptible to disease, as vulnerable as indigenous peoples once were to diseases brought by outsiders who colonized our lands. As vulnerable as many indigenous peoples still are to the COVID-19 pandemic.   Indigenous peoples and other local communities and Afro-descendants do not have the same health services or government support as those in cities, even in developed countries like Canada. The virus has ripped through Navajo communities in New Mexico and Arizona largely because of a lack of clean water. Indigenous peoples also have higher rates of chronic health conditions that make us more susceptible.   Five centuries ago, isolation was our solution. It is still our solution today. Worldwide, indigenous and local communities are shutting off roads and blocking waterways to protect our peoples. My community has declared 'ubaya' or lockdown. If COVID-19 reaches our communities, it could wipe us off the map and it already has reached the Yanomami and Kokama Peoples of the Amazon.   Yet since the outbreak began, I have heard reports from around the world that governments are failing to respond to indigenous leaders requesting health resources and refusing to support us in isolating ourselves.   In Brazil, the government has put the fate of uncontacted tribes in the hands of a Christian pastor with a mission to evangelize, threatening the tribes survival. In French Guiana, illegal miners from Brazil are pouring over the border to invade indigenous lands.   In Kenya, the Maasai face potential food shortages, and lack health services, clean water, and soap and masks to protect themselves.   Many indigenous and local communities lack secure land rights, making it harder for us to close our territories to the threat. And everywhere, the pandemic is being used as an excuse to limit civil liberties and rights.   As I near the end of my tenure as UN Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples rights, I am holding my breath, knowing that so many lives indigenous and not are in danger. Governments have not prioritized protecting us from the health threats that so often arrive from beyond our borders. And the outcome often looks like genocide or it is.   I implore governments to protect us because it is the right thing to do. But it is also increasingly clear that much is at stake for all humanity in helping indigenous peoples and local communities.   There is growing evidence that deforestation and biodiversity loss lead to the emergence of new diseases. And the world's top scientists have already recognized that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the best guardians of the world's tropical forests and biodiversity. As stewards of our forests, we play a critical role in preventing the emergence of diseases like Avian Bird Flu, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19.   In early January, as the world awoke to the danger posed by COVID-19, the World Economic Forum released a report that acknowledged the value of indigenous peoples traditional practices, which have inspired thousands of pharmaceutical products.   Many of these modern medicines come from tropical rainforests. Yet these same rainforests are targeted for economic development, like large-scale palm-oil and soybean plantations and massive hydropower projects, that decimate our lands and our livelihoods.   I am writing these words in the hopes that those who should be our natural allies will listen: academics who know that new pandemics will emerge as forests come down; entrepreneurs who hope to use our traditional knowledge to create new medicines; conservationists who have a passion for nature but so often carve protected areas from our ancestral territories; and leaders charged with protecting biodiversity and slowing climate change.   I hope these words will inspire these allies to extend a hand to our peoples and our leaders. Involve us in your responses to the pandemic. Respect our fundamental rights to govern and protect our territories.   And I hope these words will inspire all to respect our isolation. It is our best hope of preventing COVID-19 from ravaging our communities as smallpox and other diseases once did. Should you fail to help us survive and fail to protect our rights, the cost to all of us will be unimaginable.   http://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2020/04/Indigenous-peoples-and-COVID_IASG_23.04.2020-EN.pdf http://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/publication/un-desa-policy-brief-70-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-indigenous-peoples/ http://www.equaltimes.org/from-canada-to-brazil-to-australia http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200503-the-indigenous-communities-that-predicted-covid-19/ http://www.dw.com/en/native-american-tribes-reject-coronavirus-checkpoint-threat/a-53393465 http://bit.ly/2yJg44N http://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/ipeoples/srindigenouspeoples/pages/sripeoplesindex.aspx Visit the related web page
	Urgent action needed to tackle poverty and inequalities facing indigenous peoples by International Labour Organization (ILO)   Feb. 2020   The International Labour Organization (ILO) says there is an urgent need to tackle the high level of poverty and inequalities facing indigenous peoples.   According to a new ILO report, released to mark the 30th anniversary of the Indigenous and Tribal People's Convention 1989 (No. 169) , indigenous peoples are nearly three times as likely to be living in extreme poverty as their non-indigenous counterparts.   They account for almost 19 per cent of the extreme poor (those living below US$1.90 per day). Even when less stringent poverty lines are used (US$3.20 or US$5.50 per day), a disproportionate number of poor are indigenous peoples. Furthermore, irrespective of the region and residence in rural or urban areas, indigenous peoples represent a sizable share of the global poor.   'Progress in improving the lives of indigenous peoples has been too slow', said Martin Oelz, an ILO specialist and co-author of the report. 'More ratifications of Convention No. 169 and action for its effective implementation would be a step in the right direction. To ensure that public policies address the needs of indigenous peoples and reflect their aspirations, it is essential to tackle the widespread absence of institutional and legal frameworks enabling their participation in decision-making'.   New figures contained in the report, Implementing the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169: Towards an inclusive, sustainable and just future, show that the number of indigenous peoples worldwide is considerably higher than previously thought, equivalent to more than 6 per cent of the global population.   This amounts to over 476 million people, significantly more than the combined populations of the United States and Canada. More than 80 per cent of indigenous peoples globally live in middle-income countries.   The Convention is the only international treaty open for ratification specifically aimed at promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples. Currently, 23 of the ILO's 187 member States have ratified Convention No. 169 , meaning that only about 15 per cent of indigenous peoples globally live in countries covered by the Convention.   Worldwide, there are believed to be more than 5,000 distinct indigenous communities, in about 90 countries.   Today, the livelihoods and economic activities of many indigenous peoples have transformed. The report found that about 45 per cent of indigenous women and men are outside of the agricultural sector.   Despite their over-representation among the poor, the report finds that, globally, indigenous peoples have a higher employment participation rate than their non-indigenous counterparts (63.3 per cent compared to 59.1 per cent).   But these employment participation figures come with substantial differences in the quality of work - indigenous peoples often experience poor working conditions and discrimination.   The report found that more than 86 per cent of indigenous peoples globally work in the informal economy - which is often associated with poor working conditions and a lack of social protection compared to about 66 per cent of non-indigenous people.   Indigenous women face particular challenges. Informality rates for them are more than 25 percentage points higher than their non-indigenous counterparts. They have the lowest chance of having completed basic education and are the most likely to be in extreme poverty.   Indigenous women also have the highest participation in contributing family work (nearly 34 per cent). At the same time, only about a quarter (24.4 per cent) of indigenous women are in wage and salaried work, a lower proportion than non-indigenous women (51.1 per cent) and indigenous men (30.1 per cent).   Even when in wage and salaried work, indigenous peoples earn on average 18 per cent less than their non-indigenous counterparts.   The report notes that the higher employment rates recorded for indigenous peoples may reflect a need, related to poverty, to undertake any form of income generation, even when it is low paid and under poor working conditions.   The report underlines that despite the progress made in public policy frameworks, there is an urgent need to tackle the inequalities confronting indigenous peoples. The report also identifies many opportunities to overcome the situation and empower indigenous women and men as development and climate actors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and realize the Paris Agreement on climate change.   Ratification and implementation of ILO Convention No. 169 is key to moving forward, particularly for building and strengthening public institutions and legal frameworks that enable consultation with and the participation of indigenous peoples. http://bit.ly/31P2ibk   * ILO: COVID-19 and the world of work. A focus on indigenous and tribal peoples: http://bit.ly/2Crqyrl http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/indigenous-tribal/lang--en/index.htm Visit the related web page
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