Many challenges faced in maintaining identity, traditions and customs

Aug 09, 2011 News

Int’l Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples…

– Ban Ki-moon

Under the theme “Indigenous designs: celebrating stories and cultures, crafting our own future,” Amerindians in Guyana will join their brothers and sisters worldwide in observing International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples today.
Indigenous issues are consistently mainstreamed in European Commission development cooperation strategies. In addition, the Commission gives direct support to civil society organisations working on indigenous issues, in particular through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).

An Amerindian family in the village of Siparuta

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement noted that Indigenous peoples represent remarkable diversity — 5,000 distinct groups in some 90 countries. They make up more than five per cent of the world’s population, some 370 million people.
He said indigenous peoples face many challenges in maintaining their identity, traditions and customs, and their cultural contributions are at times exploited and commercialized, with little or no recognition.
Underscoring that each country must work harder to recognize and strengthen their right to control their intellectual property, while protecting and developing their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, the UN Secretary-General said countries should also commit to ending the grave human rights abuses that indigenous peoples encounter in many parts of the world.
Noting that the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples is being held in 2014, the UN Secretary-General urged all Member States to work in full partnership with indigenous people to identify practical ideas and proposals for action at this important gathering.
The 17th commemoration of the event will also be held today at the UN Headquarters in New York. In 1994, the General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples shall be observed on 9 August every year during the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People. The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
The UN General Assembly had proclaimed 1993 the International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, and the same year, the Assembly proclaimed the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, starting on 10 December 1994. The goal of the First Decade was to strengthen international cooperation for solving problems faced by indigenous people in such areas as human rights, the environment, development, education and health.