A/HRC/33/27
62.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights highlighted the
disproportionate rates of discrimination, unemployment, poverty and inequality faced by
indigenous peoples in its concluding observations on the reports of Burundi, Canada, Chile,
Guyana, Kenya, Namibia, Thailand, Uganda and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (fiftyfifth to fifty-seventh sessions). The Committee recommended that a number of States
parties consider ratifying the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989
(No. 169), and that they commit to the full implementation of the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Committee also made
recommendations on language, education and the preservation of culture; access to health
care, education, safe drinking water and sanitation and legal aid; and the disproportionate
effect that climate change has on indigenous peoples. In other concluding observations, the
Committee focused on free, prior and informed consent; land tenure and resource
ownership; and the impact of resource exploitation on indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the
Committee raised concerns related to the involvement of indigenous peoples in forced
labour, the corruption of village captains in indigenous communities, gender-based violence
and the allocation of funds to programmes that support indigenous peoples. The Committee
implemented the simplified reporting procedure at its fifty-seventh session, and requested
information from New Zealand on the Maori and Pasifika people. In addition, the
Committee adopted its general comments No. 22 (2016) on the right to sexual and
reproductive health and No. 23 (2016) on the right to just and favourable conditions of
work. In both general comments, the Committee made reference to indigenous peoples,
identifying them as a category of persons to which the right of non-discrimination within
each context was particularly relevant.
63.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child considered the reports of Bangladesh,
Brazil, Chile, Ethiopia, Honduras, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands and Peru (sixty-ninth to
seventy-first sessions). The Committee highlighted the inadequate allocation of resources
for indigenous children, the structural discrimination faced by indigenous children and the
high rates of poverty among indigenous children. The Committee recommended that States
parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child address the adverse impacts of resource
development projects on indigenous children’s health; increase indigenous children’s
access to health care and sanitation, quality education and other basic social services; and
protect indigenous children from harmful cultural practices. Other issues brought up by the
Committee include the negative impact of forced evictions on indigenous children, the high
rates of suicide among indigenous youth and the increased vulnerability that indigenous
children face with respect to violence and human trafficking. The Committee urged States
parties to take steps to ensure indigenous children enjoy their right to identity, and to collect
disaggregated data. The Committee adopted general comment No. 20 (2016) on the
implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence, in which it noted that special
measures are required to combat the widespread discrimination, poverty and denial of
language and traditions that indigenous adolescents face and in order to ensure that the
rights of indigenous adolescents are fully realized.
64.
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities made recommendations
on indigenous peoples with disabilities in its concluding observations on the reports of
Brazil, Gabon and Kenya (fourteenth session) and of Chile, Thailand and Uganda (fifteenth
session). The Committee highlighted the multiple forms of discrimination, extreme
exclusion and extreme poverty faced by many indigenous peoples with disabilities. The
Committee urged States parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
to collect disaggregated data and allocate sufficient resources for indigenous peoples living
with disabilities. Moreover, the Committee recommended that States parties make
information available in formats that are accessible to persons living with disabilities,
including in indigenous languages.
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