Indigenous Peoples have the ancestral wisdom to guide humanity towards a more sustainable use of the Earth’s resources, yet they are systematically discriminated against and excluded, UN rights chief Volker Türk warned on Monday.
He was speaking in Geneva at the annual meeting on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, referencing in-depth conversations he had had in recent months with Indigenous representatives during missions to Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Kenya.
He described the “unprincipled and devastating impact of extractive industries on the environment and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Their dispossession from ancestral lands, and the militarization of their territories.”
He said they had described the negative impact of the climate crisis on their communities and “the scope of systemic discrimination and exclusion.”
“It’s clear that these violations must stop”, he told the meeting.
The UN rights chief noted that Indigenous Peoples make up just over six per cent of the world’s population but account for almost a fifth of the world’s poor, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
He insisted their voices need to be heard “in every relevant national, regional and global conversation” and stressed the need to protect Indigenous human rights defenders from violence and reprisals.