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	Intersecting water crises impacting vulnerable populations by Minority Rights Group, Oxfam International   The world is experiencing an unprecedented water crisis. From drought to floods and food insecurity to conflict, our report investigates the intersecting water crises faced by minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide. (Minority Rights Group)   Foreword by Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation:   The world should reflect on the tremendous injustice that Indigenous Peoples, being the original peoples of islands and continents all over the planet, still live today marginalized and often in conditions of extreme poverty.   In addition, the environmental degradation of their lands and natural resources, derived from voracious investments and the lack of participation in decision-making processes, poses additional risks to their livelihoods and to their collective identities by destroying the biodiversity of their territories, polluting water resources, and forcing the displacement of entire communities.   In sum, aggravating their situation of vulnerability while hindering the progressive realization of their rights.   Despite suffering all sorts of injustices, Indigenous Peoples have been able to preserve their worldviews, knowledge and ancestral practices.   For Indigenous Peoples, water is the blue soul of life: part of an interconnected whole that includes lands, living beings and their own human communities, and that promotes integrated territorial management based on a deep and even reverent respect for the rivers, springs, lakes and wetlands that they care for in an exemplary manner – a role particularly developed by women, who, as life-givers and transmitters of knowledge and cultural traditions, promote virtuous uses of water for present and future generations.   In doing so, the visions of Indigenous Peoples offer a genuine expression of the principle of sustainability and the ecosystem-based approach we are trying to promote today in water planning and management worldwide: understanding water as a common good rather than a commodity, accessible to all but not appropriated by anyone.   Its consequent community management offers us an example of democratic water governance under a human rights-based approach that leaves no one behind.   These are, in fact, the two challenges that I have been addressing as the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, in order to face the paradoxical global water crisis on the Blue Planet.   Today, two billion people lack guaranteed access to drinking water; however, most of them are not thirsty people without water in their living environments, but extremely impoverished people who live next to polluted rivers and aquifers.   Indigenous Peoples suffer the additional consequences of systematic marginalization and the lack of Free, Prior, Informed Consent established in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Even in the countries that formally recognize Indigenous Peoples, their right to self-determination and control over their territories and water is not guaranteed, and their right to free, prior and informed consent is not fulfilled or is otherwise distorted.   It is essential to highlight how, through persevering with strategic work at the international level and always preserving the unity in the great diversity that characterizes them, Indigenous Peoples have achieved significant advances in recognizing their rights.   For instance, Article 25 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples determines their right to own, occupy and use the lands, resources and waters of their territories, establishing legal recognition and due respect for their customs, traditions and land tenure systems.   To conclude, allow me to close with a self-critical acknowledgement to Indigenous Peoples, asking for forgiveness, as a white man who descends from colonizing powers, for the abuses and injustices committed; and to express my recognition and gratitude for the example of dignity, perseverance and wisdom that the Indigenous Peoples of the world have given us and continue to give us every day.   http://trends.minorityrights.org/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5124-human-rights-safe-drinking-water-and-sanitation-indigenous   The cascading impacts of water insecurity in a heating world. (Oxfam International)   Climate-induced water insecurity poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, disease and displacement.   Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensive and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, more often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs.   Today, during World Water Week, Oxfam publishes the first of its series of reports, “Water Dilemmas”, about the growing water crisis, in large part driven by global heating from greenhouse gas emissions. The report describes how climate change will impact water security in different regions, leading to more hunger, disease and displacement.   Carlos Calderon, Humanitarian Advocacy and Partnerships Lead for Oxfam Aotearoa said, “This new Oxfam research is focused on the global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) situation, but it paints a picture that illustrates the complexity of elements that, combined, will continue to increasingly affect women, girls, boys and men in the decades to come. Changing weather, poverty, inequality, gender-based violence, political instability and conflicts are impacting the availability and quality of adequate water systems. All governments, particularly those from rich countries, should responsively take action at a global scale. The clock is ticking. Our children will judge us for our actions today, or for the lack of them.”   Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam Global Climate Justice Lead, said: “While global warming is being caused by oil, coal and gas, its harm is fundamentally being experienced as a global water crisis. This poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, more disease and more displacement, especially for the countries and communities least prepared for climate change.”   Oxfam in Africa Water and Sanitation Lead, Betty Ojeny, who is working on the frontline of the drought response in East Africa, said: “One in five boreholes we dig now in the region I work, ends up dry or with water that is unfit for humans to drink. We have to dig deeper wells, through baked soils, which means more expensive breakages. This is happening at a time when donor funding for water is declining.”   “We’re having to use expensive desalination technologies that are sometimes glitchy, especially in the more hostile terrains where we have to work. We’re seeing climate change biting now and these problems are only going to get worse,” Ojeny said.   Ojeny works in Oxfam’s biggest current humanitarian response in East Africa where over 32 million people are facing acute hunger and starvation because of a five-season drought, made worse by conflict and poverty. Areas elsewhere in the same region are being hit by destructive flash floods and unpredictable rains, devastating people’s crops and livelihoods.   “Global warming is increasing the frequency and severity of disasters, including floods and droughts, which will be hitting countries harder and more often in years to come. The huge lack of investment in strengthening water systems is leaving countries open to catastrophe,” Dabi said.   The report found that by 2040, East Africa could be hit by an 8 percent rise in precipitation, with a cycle of floods and droughts leading to a potentially catastrophic 30 percent rise in surface runoff. This washes away nutrients from exhausted soils, and destroys infrastructure. It says 50-60 million more people could be at risk of malaria by 2030.   It says the West Africa region will suffer similar problems as a result of this water crisis. Both regions are facing 8-15% more intense heatwaves and falls in labour productivity by 11-15%, amid mass migration, rising poverty and hunger, crop changes and livestock loss, and more water-driven conflicts.   “Already today, because of droughts, many of Oxfam’s installed water systems are rendered obsolete as pastoralist communities are forced to migrate to look for new pasturelands. This is undermining the communal management of water, which is key for sustainability and enhancing people’s resilience,” Ojeny said.   “In South Sudan we already see flooding washing away sanitation facilities and submerging boreholes, rendering them useless. More water-borne diseases like cholera are putting immense pressure not only on our water and sanitation work, and also stretching our public health operations too,” she said.   By contrast, the report says across the Middle East region by 2040, rainfall will decrease markedly instead, as will water levels and river runoff, sparking worsening food security. Heatwaves will rise by 16% leading to a drop in labour productivity of 7%, with water prices rising with the demand.   Countries across Asia meanwhile will be affected more by sea-level rise, potentially over half a meter by 2100. Along with surface run-off and glacier melt, this will affect fresh groundwater aquifers, especially in coastal areas where hundreds of millions of people live.   The report also signals more heatwaves in Asia (8%) and a decline in labour productivity, by 7%, leading to more poverty and migration. It says diseases like malaria and dengue could rise by a staggering 183%.   All this will have knock-on effects on people’s food sources and productivity, fuelling hunger. Oxfam calculates that in 10 of the world’s worst climate hotspots, chronic hunger is projected to rise by a third in 2050 as a result of climate change.   The reports says that decades of underinvestment in water systems, poor water management, and erosion, pollution and overuse of subterranean aquifers are worsening this water crisis. Millions of already disadvantaged people are now left ill-equipped to face the harmful consequences of the climate crisis.   Only 32% of the $3.8 billion global UN humanitarian appeals for water and sanitation was funded last year and countries most at risk of water insecurity are failing to invest in water infrastructure.   “The worst scenarios that the world needed to avoid have already begun. Under today’s emissions trajectories, billions of people face no safe future in the worsening water crisis, happening under such political nonchalance. Rich polluting nations must immediately and drastically cut their emissions, and fund water infrastructure in poor communities.”   “We are still able to alter course toward safety if we choose, but we must act fast. Governments need to fundamentally refocus their attention and investment into our water systems as an absolute policy priority".   http://www.oxfam.org.nz/news-media/media-releases/water-dilemmas-report/
	Indigenous determinants of health: a unified call for progress by The Lancet Medical Journal, agencies   June 2023   The United Nations General Assembly formally declared 1993 as the International Year of the World's Indigenous People, with a “view to strengthening international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by Indigenous communities in areas such as human rights, the environment, development, education, and health”.   In 2000, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) was formally established with health as one of its six mandated areas of focus.   The Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) supported the work to ensure the 2007 adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The Declaration is a human rights instrument specifying the rights of Indigenous Peoples worldwide, including the right to health and social security.   Yet, globally, substantial challenges remain for Indigenous Peoples.   More than 476 million Indigenous Peoples reside in over 90 countries and they represent at least 5000 unique cultures. Despite comprising some 6% of the world's population, Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately affected by povety.   Many Indigenous Peoples continue to report experiencing barriers to and being prevented from accessing basic rights and freedoms, including the prerequisites of health: peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice, and equity.   In some countries Indigenous Peoples are denied the fundamental right to identify as Indigenous Peoples. This lack of identification amplifies human rights violations and perpetuates data erasure, as there is no systematic collection of data available to support strategy and development for Indigenous Peoples' rights and needs.   Several publications have reported on the health status of Indigenous Peoples in different nation states, but few have focused on the health and wellbeing indicators from an Indigenous worldview.   In 2022, Indigenous Peoples identified a crucial need to establish a framework on the Indigenous determinants of health derived from Indigenous Peoples' communities to guide the UN and “member states in the strategy, policy-setting and actions taken” under the Sustainable Development Goals.   Almost 30 years from the International Year of the World's Indigenous People, and 16 years since Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, for the first time a study by members of UNPFII and the Indigenous Determinants of Health Working Group (IDHWG) on the determinants of Indigenous health was formally considered and adopted at the 22nd session of the UNPFII in April, 2023—the first global Indigenous-led organisational effort to specifically increase visibility and awareness of the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples to UN member states and entities.   This Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) study makes a number of key recommendations on the important connections between territories, cultures, and health for Indigenous Peoples' community wellbeing.   The “Health of Mother Earth” is highlighted with specific calls for ensuring sustainable Indigenous food systems and land and water protections, which includes the protection of Indigenous traditional medicines.   The member study emphasises the need to move towards implementation of key priorities to ensure intergenerational healing and the decolonisation of the determinants of health landscape for Indigenous Peoples.   Key priority areas for addressing the determinants of Indigenous health:   The World Health Organization (WHO) and other local, national, and international health agencies to explicitly recognise “Indigeneity” and “colonialism” as overarching determinants of health   Direct implementation support from all nation states with regard to operationalising the 76th World Health Assembly resolution passed on The Health of Indigenous Peoples (A76/A/CONF./1) in May, 2023   The development of a Global Action Plan on the Health of Indigenous Peoples to be led and informed by Indigenous Peoples and communities with outcome benchmarks and progress timelines delineated   Local, national, and international policy recognition and implementation that connects Indigenous Peoples health and land and water rights as intrinsically connected to the planet's wellbeing   Direct support from individual nation states to ensure the design and development of national implementation plans led by Indigenous Peoples and communities   Substantial barriers exist in advancing these UNPFII and IDHWG recommendations.   Specific implementation targets and accountability mechanisms for Indigenous health and well-being will be difficult to operationalise.   In addition to Indigenous Peoples not being recognised in a number of nation states, there have been decades of human rights violations, such as forced assimilation and relocation agendas; broken treaties; racism and political marginalisation; and a lack of overarching free, prior, and informed consent.   Indigenous Peoples are additionally too often viewed through a deficit-based lens that minimises community strengths and abilities at local, national, and international levels of influence.   For example, despite an increasing presence of Indigenous Peoples with the expertise to lead large policy and implementation initiatives, local, national, and international agencies typically appoint non-Indigenous “experts” to design, implement, and oversee Indigenous-specific initiatives, perpetuating colonial and patriarchal approaches antithetical to the recommendations in the UNFPII report.   Indigenous Peoples' communities, including Indigenous scholars and health professionals, have long advocated for strengths-based approaches within public health and wellness research, within interventions and funding mechanisms, and with regard to health policy implementation.   Ensuring respect for and elevation of Indigenous Peoples' brilliance and strengths-based approaches in advancing culturally grounded solutions for all areas of health will therefore be crucial for addressing the Indigenous determinants of health across all practice areas, levels of health-care service delivery, research, and health policy.   Additionally, Indigenous Peoples are recognised through varied national and international mechanisms as self-determined peoples, and therefore specific and delineated actions to address the key priority areas should be mobilised on the ground from within Indigenous Peoples' communities and be specific to unique and diverse geopolitical and cultural contexts.   We are living in a pivotal time in human history. Our planet, Mother Earth, is in crisis. Indigenous Peoples steward 80% of the world's remaining biodiversity and, therefore, the well-being of Indigenous Peoples is an explicit determinant of planetary health.   The Indigenous determinants of health are not only for Indigenous Peoples, but also have a benefit that is intimately connected to the future survival of all humanity and the planet. The strengths and wisdom inherent to Indigenous Peoples are “intrinsically connected to everything that exists on the planet”.   This reality demands nation states, the UN, WHO, and other entities act now on the Indigenous determinants of health.   * Authors: Nicole Redvers, Papaarangi Reid, Danya Carroll, Myrna Cunningham Kain, Daniel Kobei, Kelly Menzel, Donald Warne, Allison Kelliher, Geoffrey Roth for The Lancet.   http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01183-2/fulltext http://gi-escr.org/en/resources/publications/ensuring-public-services-for-indigenous-peoples Visit the related web page
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