The strategy adopted by the Indigenous women's movement to confront the structural inequalities they face in all countries of the world has been to walk together, collectively influencing strategic spaces from the local...

With disability rates on the rise, the global Indigenous community is confronted with profound challenges. An estimated 54 million Indigenous individuals face disabilities, of whom 28 million are...

In Canada, the contemporary Indigenous rights and governance framework varies across the country. The Constitution Act of 1982, as well as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, explicitly recognize Aboriginal and Treaty rights and three groups of...

Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) has been a self-governing country since 1979 within the Kingdom of Denmark (or Danish Realm), which consists of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Kalaallit Nunaat. The country is a 2 million km² island in...

According to the preliminary results of the National Population and Housing Census conducted in 2022, the Indigenous population comprises some 140,206 people who state that they belong to one of 19 Indigenous Peoples. This represents 2.29% of...

Guatemala’s projected population was 17.6 million for 2023,^[1] of which 43.75% belong to the Mayan (Achi', Akateco, Awakateco, Chalchiteco, Ch'orti', Chuj, Itza', Ixil, Jacalteco, Kaqchikel, K'iche', Mam, Mopan, Poqomam, Poqomchi', Q'anjob'al,...

The eight Indigenous Peoples that inhabit the country make up 2.4% of the population. Seven of them are of Chibchense origin (the Huetar in Quitirrisí and Zapatón; Maleku in Guatuso; Bribri in Salitre, Cabagra, Talamanca Bribri and Këköldi; Cabécar...

According to the 2012 National Census, 41% of the Bolivian population over the age of 15 is of Indigenous origin, although 2017 projections from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicate that this percentage is likely to have now increased to...

In India, some 705 ethnic groups are listed as Scheduled Tribes. In central India, the Scheduled Tribes are usually referred to as Adivasis, which literally means original inhabitants, Indigenous Peoples.^[i] With an estimated population of 104 million,...

Gabon's total population is estimated at 2,397,368. The percentage of Indigenous Peoples in Gabon is thought to be less than 1% of the national population, or between 18,000 and 20,000 people.^[i] This estimate will become clearer when the final report of...

Among Cameroon’s more than 20 million inhabitants, some communities self-identify as Indigenous. These include the hunter/gatherers (Pygmies), the Mbororo pastoralists and the Kirdi.

The Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon uses the terms...

Amazigh – eller imazighen i flertal – er det selvnavngivne demonym for de oprindelige folk bosat i en lang række nordafrikanske lande såsom Libyen, Niger, Algeriet og Marokko.

Kan sociale bevægelser udfordre de globale magtmonopoler og skabe en mere ligeværdig verden med respekt for menneskerettigheder? Dette søgte...

Indigenous Peoples in Canada are collectively referred to as “Aboriginal Peoples”. The Constitution Act of 1982 recognizes three groups of Aboriginal Peoples: Indians, Inuit and Métis. According to the 2021 Canadian Census, there were 1.8 million...

The strategy adopted by the Indigenous women's movement to confront the structural inequalities they face in all countries of the world has been to walk together, influencing strategic spaces from the local to the...

“Now we are at the table neither as Indigenous Peoples, nor as disabled, but as Indigenous persons with disabilities. That changes everything” — Setareki Macanawai^[1]

“Empowering Indigenous women...

The Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples is one of the 59 “special procedures” of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The special procedures are independent human rights experts...

In India, 705 ethnic groups are recognised as Scheduled Tribes. In central India, the Scheduled Tribes are usually referred to as Adivasis, which literally means Indigenous Peoples.^[1] With an estimated population of 104 million, they comprise 8.6 % of...

Bangladesh is a country of cultural and ethnic diversity, with over 54 Indigenous Peoples speaking at least 35 languages, along with the majority Bengali population. According to the 2022 census, the country’s Indigenous population numbers...

Guatemala has a population of 14.9 million inhabitants, of which 6.5 million (43.75%) belong to the Mayan peoples (Achi', Akateco, Awakateco, Chalchiteco, Ch'orti', Chuj, Itza', Ixil, Jacalteco, Kaqchikel, K'iche', Mam, Mopan, Poqomam, Poqomchi',...

Despite steadily increasing since the 1990s, the size of Chile’s Indigenous population has shown no major changes since the 2017 census. A total of 2,185,792 people self-identify as Indigenous, equivalent to 12.8% of the country's total population...

While the Government of Zimbabwe does not recognise any specific groups as Indigenous to the country, two peoples self-identify as such: the Tshwa (Tjwa, Cua) San found in western Zimbabwe, and the Doma (Vadema, Tembomvura) of Mbire District in...

The Indigenous Peoples of Namibia include the San, the Ovatue and Ovatjimba, and potentially a number of other peoples including the Damara, Nama, and Topnaars. Taken together, the Indigenous Peoples of Namibia represent some 8% of the total...

The term “Twa” is used to describe minority populations historically marginalised both politically and socially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

Botswana is a country of 2,359,659 inhabitants,^[1] having celebrated its 56^th year of independence in 2022. Its government does not recognize any specific ethnic groups as Indigenous, maintaining instead that all citizens of the country are Indigenous.

Commission on the Status of Women

Sixty-seventh session

Priority theme; Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

The room is filled with singing voices, and I am annoyed with myself because I missed the opportunity to press record on my phone. It is moving to hear these voices because they followed a series of tough stories...

At its 82^nd session on 26 October, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted general recommendation No. 39 on the rights of Indigenous women and girls. This is...

This written statement is respectfully submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women in response to the priority theme; Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving...

BY NIKITA BULANIN FOR DEBATES INDÍGENAS

Lesle Jansen, an environmental lawyer and Indigenous Peoples rights activist from South Africa is a member of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in...

BY DELMY TANIA CRUZ HERNÁNDEZ FOR DEBATES INDÍGENAS

The Zapatista journey has marked the lives of Indigenous peoples and peasant communities with its teachings of autonomy and dreams of other possible worlds. However, the southeast...

BY ONAMIAP FOR DEBATES INDÍGENAS

Under the pretext of fighting against terrorism and drug trafficking, Congress approved, by insistence, Law 31.494, which promotes the arming of civil society groups as a form of...

BY SIGNE LETH FOR DEBATES INDÍGENAS

Indigenous Women around the world face disproportional levels of violence and harassment due to past and present colonialisation of their territories, and because they are Indigenous and women....

In the past two decades, the United Nations has increasingly focused attention on the human rights of Indigenous Peoples. A growing set of UN treaty bodies (TB’s) and mechanisms continually...

The Indigenous World is the unique result of a collaborative effort between Indigenous and non-indigenous activists and scholars who voluntarily document and report on the situation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. For 36 consecutive years IWGIA has published The...

The consequences of climate change are often felt most acutely by Indigenous Peoples and have gendered impacts....

The consequences of climate change are often felt most acutely by Indigenous Peoples and have gendered impacts....

With their wisdom, energy and empowerment, Indigenous women are agents of change both in their own lives, as Indigenous women, and in the lives of their peoples, as members of their communities. They plant the seeds...

Indigenous Peoples all over the world face systemic discrimination rooted in persistent racism as well as past...

There are numerous challenges for Indigenous Women in relation to climate change. Indigenous Women are more severely affected by the challenges to produce or collect sufficient food, or challenges of...

Drafting of the General Recommendation on the Rights of Indigenous Women and Girls

With this written submission, the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) seeks to bring forward the voices,...

With this written submission, the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) seeks to bring forward the voices, perspectives and experiences of indigenous women and girls, particularly from Africa, Asia,...

For decades, organized Indigenous women have wondered why some deaths in Mexico are more visible than others. Who decides which bodies matter? It’s time to start...

Official statistics obscure the fact that the number of criminalized individuals and communities belonging to Indigenous Peoples far exceeds the number of prisoners who actually self-identify as Indigenous,...

Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), Network of Indigenous Women in Asia (NIWA) and Asia Indigenous Youth...

Racism and patriarchy present profound challenges within the Guatemalan prison system. The penal system is a reflection of the discrimination experienced by Indigenous women all over: for being women, Indigenous and poor. In the...

The criminal procedure confronted by Reina Meraz, a Bolivian immigrant woman, exposes a double issue of the Argentinian judicial system: the need to train judicial officers in both gender perspective and interculturalism....

By delving into the lives and premature deaths of four members of the Hermanas en la Sombra Editorial Collective, the author shares her insights on her 12 years long-work with Indigenous...

The international agenda for defending the human rights of Indigenous women seemed promising in 2020 given the Beijing +25 anniversary. We in the International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI) were organising to design a...

This book contains a series of essays predominantly written by Indigenous women from Myanmar. The essays show Indigenous women to be at the crux of climate change...

The result of a collective and community-led data-gathering exercise relying on the Indigenous Navigator framework and tools, this report identifies and discusses the experiences, needs, concerns and aspirations of...

In Kenya, the peoples who identify with the Indigenous movement are mainly pastoralists and hunter-gatherers, as well as some fisher peoples and small farming communities. Pastoralists are estimated to comprise 25% of the national population, while the...

The Indigenous Peoples of Namibia include the San, the Ovatue and Ovatjimba, and potentially a number of other peoples including the Damara and Nama. Taken together, the Indigenous Peoples of Namibia represent some 8% of the total population of the country...

In India, 705 ethnic groups are recognised as Scheduled Tribes. In central India, the Scheduled Tribes are usually referred to as Adivasis, which literally means Indigenous Peoples.¹ With an estimated population of 104 million, they comprise 8.6% of the...

According to the 2011 Census, the Indigenous nationalities (Adivasi Janajati) of Nepal make up 36% of the total population of 29.8 million,¹ although Indigenous Peoples’ organisations claim a larger figure of more than 50%. The 2011 Census listed the...

Argentina comprises 23 provinces with a total population of approximately 40 million. The most recent national census (2010) gave a total of 955,032 people who self-identify as descended from or belonging to an Indigenous people. There are 35 different...

Since the 2017 census,¹ and despite constant increases in numbers since the 1990s, the Indigenous population has not shown any great changes. When considering their demographic for public policy and regulatory purposes, they are still given as 12.8%  of the...

There are 68 different Indigenous Peoples that inhabit Mexican territory, each of which speaks a native language of their own. These languages form 11 linguistic families, comprised by 364 dialectal variants. According to the National Institute of...

The 2010 national census concluded that 438,559 or 12.8% of the country’s 3.4 million inhabitants self-identified as Indigenous. The Gunadule, Emberá, Wounaan, Ngäbe, Buglé, Naso Tjer Di and Bri Bri peoples have all obtained recognition and had their...

The number of Indigenous people in the United States of America is estimated at between 2.5 and 6 million,¹ of which around 20% live in American Indian areas or Alaska Native villages. Indigenous Peoples in the United States are more...

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. It is a functional...

The Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People’s (EMRIP)[1] is a subsidiary body of the Human Rights Council composed of seven independent members, one from each of the seven indigenous...

The Central African Republic (CAR) lies at the heart of the African continent, far from any coastline. It straddles the equator and thus enjoys a tropical climate. Its ecosystem comprises savanna woodland and steppe in the north, gallery...

Agnes Karao Mgema, from the Parakuyo patoralists group in Tanzania, took the floor. She is the chair of Nalepo, a community based organisation that has mobilised their community to support girls from...

The situation for Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh in many ways echoes the situation of other Indigenous Peoples in Asia: they face heavy militarization; they are stigmatized as anti-national for wanting to be...

In Myanmar, women manage forests and depend on them for their livelihoods, but their tenure over these forests is insecure. Women often have distinct roles in managing forests as compared to men, and therefore also have expert...

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the main international intergovernmental body devoted exclusively to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. It plays a crucial role in...

Myanmar is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, with the threat of flooding, drought, cyclones, and changing rainfall patters threatening...

Naga society is a casteless and classless society where, traditionally, women have enjoyed a high social positioning and a fair spirit of independence, playing very central roles in family and community affairs; however, it is also a patriarchal,...

Standing tall, head held high, her dignity on full display. That’s the image of an empowered indigenous woman confronting discrimination and violence, saying “enough is enough” to the tragic impact of extractive industries and other development projects in her ancestral...

The Samburu are a Nilotic community who reside in Northern Kenya. One cultural practice among the Samburu community is Girl-Child Beading. This practice sanctions a non-marital sexual relationship between Samburu men in the ‘warrior’ age group and...