A/HRC/36/22
the magistrates to travel along the river so they could witness, understand and experience
the dimensions of the destruction caused by large-scale gold mining activities using toxic
elements, such as mercury and heavy-duty machinery, in addition to forest destruction.
73.
In March 2016, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights in Tunisia, together with the Ministry in charge of human rights, organized two
national consultations where civil society organizations working on the rights of the
Amazigh had the opportunity to engage in a discussion with national authorities. They
addressed concerns related to cultural rights, including the right to learn and use the
Tamazight language and to give children Amazigh names, which is not allowed currently
under Tunisian law.
74.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in
Guatemala monitored the troubling case of 41 girls, including indigenous girls, who died
following a fire in the Hogar Seguro de la Virgen de Asunción, having been locked in a
room as a disciplinary measure. The girls were living in the home under the protection of
the State. The Office made recommendations regarding the need to develop culturally
appropriate and locally based responses to child protection, in coordination with indigenous
families and communities.
75.
The Human Rights Committee recommended that Ecuador take the necessary steps
to ensure that proper consultations are held with indigenous communes, communities,
peoples and nationalities with a view: (a) to obtaining their free, prior and informed consent
concerning any measure that might have a substantial impact on their way of life and their
culture; (b) to expediting the adoption of the bill on consultation with them; (c) to ensuring
that they are properly consulted during that process; and, in particular, (d) to ensuring that
no extractive or any other activities are conducted that may place the lives and livelihoods
of indigenous peoples living in isolation in a more vulnerable situation.
76.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in
Colombia contributed to making a film 4 in which the Bora and Miraña peoples of the
Amazon explained how gold mining using mercury and cyanide is affecting their lands and
territories, with debilitating effects on their health. The film also illustrated how their
ancestral culture and ways of life are threatened by these activities. Furthermore, following
an agreement reached by the mesa amazónica, a coordination space between the
government of the department of Amazonas and indigenous authorities in which OHCHR
acts as a guarantor, a group of traditional authorities is building their own health calendars
and epidemiology studies according to their traditional knowledge.
77.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in
Guatemala provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to implement an
intercultural, comprehensive and inclusive health-care model. Through its Maya
Programme, the Office also supported the recognition of the work of indigenous midwives.
The Office is also working with State institutions to implement a 2016 judgment of the
Constitutional Court ordering the Ministry of Education to implement a bilingual and
intercultural education programme in La Antigua Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, in the
department of Sololá.
78.
The Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommended that
Colombia allocate adequate resources to the health sector and redouble its efforts to ensure
accessibility, availability, affordability and quality of health care, paying particular
attention to the needs of indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples through such action as the
development and implementation of intercultural health service plans that take account of
the geographical characteristics of rural areas and provide for the active participation of
indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples. The Committee also recommended that Colombia
take the necessary steps to ensure that the policies of ethnic education and intercultural
education fulfil the objective of promoting and preserving the cultural identity of
indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples.
4
12
Available from www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1XKVDAaOCM.
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