WUNRN
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES –
AUGUST 9 – INDIGENOUS WOMEN
Photo: UN Women/ Ryan Brown
It is estimated that there are more than 370 million indigenous
people across 70 countries worldwide. Indigenous women face many forms of
discrimination and violence, both as women and as indigenous peoples, and face
different obstacles in overcoming these issues daily.
The focus of this year's International Day of the
World’s Indigenous Peoples [9 August] is “Post 2015 Agenda:
Ensuring indigenous peoples health and well-being”. Indigenous women experience
disproportionate difficulties in access to health care, as well as higher rates of maternal and infant mortality,
malnutrition and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. Though
indigenous women are counted upon to support the health and well-being of their
families, they often face hurdles to access the resources to build the
foundation of a better life, such as education and land.
UN Women actively supports indigenous women around the world to
ensure that their rights are respected and their concerns heard through
our Fund for Gender Equality programmes to increase economic empowerment
and political participation, UN Trust Fund grants to end violence against indigenous
women and girls, or other targeted UN Women research or programmes.
Spotlight on Asia and the Pacific: An estimated 70 per cent of
the world’s indigenous peoples live in Asia and the Pacific, and UN Women
programmes and funds have been making a change in indigenous women’s lives
through strengthening advocacy and information delivery about women’s rights.
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Authors/editor(s): Asia
Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP)/Luchie Maranan
Direct Link to Full 9-Page 2015 Publication:
Indigenous women in Cambodia, Indonesia and India were targeted
for this project because massive land alienation and land concession projects
are taking place in the name of development, which are adversely affecting many
indigenous communities. Among the destructive projects that are being
implemented in these countries are large-scale rubber and palm oil plantations
and mining. These projects have led to systematic violations against the
individual and collective rights of the affected communities such as forced
relocation, threats and harassments against protesting indigenous peoples and
loss of livelihood among others. Indigenous women have been working alongside
their communities to defend their land and livelihood from destructive projects
but have not been spared as they are also subjected to harassments, rape and
sexual abuse.
There are opportunities in the said countries though for the protection and promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples in general and indigenous women in particular. Through the project activities, capacity of indigenous women in the project areas has been enhanced. They have gained knowledge and skills, and confidence to document the situation of indigenous women to assert their rights. Moreover being in collaboration with the UN Women has opened up space for indigenous women to engage with the governments, intergovernmental bodies and processes, and other actors for the promotion and protection of their individual and collective rights.