Special Rapporteur's Annual Report to UN General Assembly

The UN General Assembly hall. (Courtesy of Wikipedia.)

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, presented his annual report to  the 67th Session of the General Assembly, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 18/8. In his report (available here), the Special Rapporteur provides a summary of his activities since his previous report to the General Assembly in 2011.

According to the report's summary, he "also provides comments on the need to harmonize the myriad activities within the United Nations system which affect Indigenous peoples. Specific United Nations processes and programmes reviewed include those relating to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the World Intellectual Property Organization; the Convention on Biological Diversity; the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development; the World Bank Group; and programmes aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. 

The Special Rapporteur notes that the United Nations system has done important work to promote the rights of Indigenous peoples. However, greater efforts are needed to maximize action throughout the United Nations system to promote the rights of Indigenous peoples and to ensure that all actions within the system which affect Indigenous peoples are in harmony with their rights, particularly their rights as affirmed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Special Rapporteur makes a series of recommendations to this end."

More information about the Special Rapporteur is available on his website.

UNGA Report on Status of Indigenous Children's Rights

Via www.unicef.org

The UN Secretary-General has submitted a report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted in 1989 and has been ratified or acceded to by 193 states, to the  UN General Assembly. The report focuses on the rights of indigenous children, and finds that indigenous children suffer extreme forms of exclusion and discrimination, stating that "children of indigenous background often suffer within schools and communities from various forms of abuse rooted in discrimination and discriminatory attitudes."

It also finds, encouragingly, that "the creation and strengthening of indigenous peoples’ organizations, and the establishment of United Nations bodies and structures such as the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and the various special procedures of the Human Rights Council and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as progressive developments in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American system of human rights, are offering unique opportunities to bring issues affecting indigenous children to the forefront of national, regional and global agendas."

The report concludes with recommendations for the way forward, including adopting measures to prevent and eliminate all forms of discrimination against indigenous children; facilitating the active participation of indigenous peoples in all stages of development planning affecting them; undertaking special measures towards the realization of the right to education of indigenous children, particularly girls; and taking special measures to promote the highest attainable standard of health and health-care services for indigenous children.

The report can be found here.