6.21. Indigenous people have a distinct and important
perspective on population and development relationships,
frequently quite different from those of the populations with
which they interrelate within national boundaries. In some
regions of the world, indigenous people, after long periods of
population loss, are experiencing steady and in some places
rapid population growth resulting from declining mortality,
although morbidity and mortality are generally still much higher
than for other sections of the national population. In other
regions, however, they are still experiencing a steady
population decline as a result of contact with external
diseases, loss of land and resources, ecological destruction,
displacement, resettlement and disruption of their families,
communities and social systems. 6.22. The situation of many
indigenous groups is often characterized by discrimination and
oppression, which are sometimes even institutionalized in
national laws and structures of governance. In many cases,
unsustain