Rights of World's Indigenous People Continue to Be Violated | Voice of America - English
This year's International Day of the World's Indigenous People, is the first to take place following the landmark adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the General Assembly in September 2007. To mark this event, the U.N.
There are about 370 million indigenous or nativepeoples around the world, many of whom continue to live on the marginsof society and suffer abuse and discrimination. UN Human Rights Spokesman, Rupert Colville, calls the Declaration on Indigenous Rights a very important document. "Itlays down minimum standards essentially for the survival and well-beingof the world's indigenous people," he said. "It attempts also to tacklesome of the historical injustices they faced, particularly in areaslike land rights, which is very often a big issue for indigenouspeople. They get their land taken away from them and have troublegetting it back." It took more than two decades for theDeclaration to be drafted and adopted. While the document recognizesthe problems faced by indigenous peoples, the United Nations says manyStates continue to systematically violate their human rights. TheUN refugee agency highlights the tragic situation of native peoples inColombia. The country harbors around one million indigenous people,belonging to more than 80 different Indian-American groups with over 60separate languages. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond says nearlyall of these groups have been victims of forced displacement or arethreatened by it as a result of the internal armed conflict in Colombia. "Accordingto the country's national indigenous association, ONIC, 18 of thesmaller indigenous groups are at risk of disappearing altogether," hesaid. "Every year, an average of 10,000 to 20,000 indigenous people areregistered by national authorities after being forced to flee theirlands." "ONIC estimates the numbers could be far greater,since many indigenous people do not have access to registration eitherbecause of the remoteness of their ancestral lands or because they donot speak Spanish and are not familiar with the national registrationsystem," he continued. Redmond says the figures give only apartial glimpse of the devastating impact forced displacement is havingon Colombia's indigenous communities. He says their economic, socialand cultural survival depends on their very strong links with theirancestral lands. In many cases, he says the very survival ofindigenous peoples is threatened when they lose their land and areforced to move into urban areas.