Aboriginal Rights: The Wide Gulf between Theory and Practice

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This year marks the eighth anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Although huge advances have been made in this area, some serious inequalities still exist. . This is not only due to living conditions, but also insufficient governmental support in improving how well these rights are fulfilled.

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We live in an era of information and communication. However, in developing countries, where the highest concentration of aboriginal or isolated populations exist, data collection and information about living conditions and access to fundamental rights is almost, if not completely, non-existent.

Any efforts undertaken that have used reliable and up-to-date demographic indicators have produced significant results. However, there are numerous obstacles to obtaining this precise data for these groups. In the majority of cases, the only indicator that it is possible to rely upon is an overall population figure that is at least five years old, and which is somehow incorporated into the context of rest of the country—it has a general role in the economic and political map of the country. Thus, it cannot specifically measure the demographic significance of aboriginal populations. Each group has a unique situation. This can depend on the country in question, the number of people within the community, and the group’s political representation. The situation especially depends on whether or not the territory inhabited by the aboriginals is open in some way to the outside. The majority of these peoples live as they always have: in withdrawn, impoverished areas that have very little communication with the outside world. All of these factors complicate governmental work, both in fulfilling positive obligations and in determining new actions and policies that will allow for the integration of these populations. The policies are costly, however, and especially so as there is no strategy to resolve the problem. Consequently, the necessary investments are not made.

girl-891452_640Fundamental rights within these communities are constantly ignored: from birth onward, children suffer from a lack of basic health services. The basic right to an identity is not respected either, as a child who is absent from the registers does not exist in the eyes of the law. This type of situation is also found in the measures of a country’s development. For example, in 40% of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, there hasn’t been a population census in seven years, and 6% of these countries have no civil register. In Vietnam, 60% of children are born without prenatal care, while aboriginal people in Australia are 26% more likely to develop diabetes than the rest of the population. And, for access to education in Bolivia, an indigenous child must travel an average of 10 km to reach school.

Indigenous peoples represent approximately 5% of the global population, and they include more than 18 million children. In the Americas alone, there are already 671 separate known indigenous groups, comprising more than 30 million individuals. These numbers do not take into consideration any groups who have remained isolated, given that no one knows exactly how many individuals they include. The American continent has knowledge about the presence of aboriginal groups in Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. There are also indications of their presence in French Guyana and Surinam, along their borders with Brazil. Some calculations estimate 200 other groups that live in the most remote areas of South America, in the Amazon forest and the Gran Chaco region.

The ICHR (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) recently published a document on indigenous groups in voluntary isolation. The document reports on their living situations, which includes several disappeared groups and others in uniquely vulnerable situations, as they cannot access or demand the fulfillment of their rights.
The report concluded that the biggest obstacle to the complete fulfillment of their fundamental rights is the isolation in which these groups live. It leaves a significant amount of work for the countries to do in order to take immediate action that will turn the situation around and protect these groups. This action is vitally important if individual quality of life is to be improved within these groups to prevent their disappearance.
namibia-344892_640The traditional methods of data collection, like censes, do not include people without a roof or who live as nomads, as is the case with these indigenous peoples. This horizontal inequality—differences in living conditions for two populations placed in the same situation—between different social groups causes unparalleled consequences. They are extremely harmful, despite certain advances such as founding institutions to establish preventative measures. All of these communities share a common reality: discrimination due to their marginal living conditions. . This leads notably to conditions of extreme poverty, exclusion, and alteration of their fundamental rights.

If we cannot succeed in guaranteeing the protection of aboriginal peoples and improving their quality of life, then not only will we not be able to reduce the horizontal inequality gap, but we will also not face up to the very real possibility of the disappearance of isolated indigenous groups in the Americas.

Written by : María Elena Ramírez
Translated into English by: Allison M. Charette
Proofread by: Amanda Fearnley

Comisión Interamericana De Derechos Humanos / Informe “ Pueblos Indígenas En Aislamiento Voluntario Y Contacto Inicial En Las Américas: Recomendaciones Para El Pleno Respeto A Sus Derechos Humanos”

Revista Humanum – Desigualdad Horizontal En México, Chile, Colombia Y Perú – Mayo 2015   

Grupo Internacional De Trabajo Sobre Los Asuntos Indígenas – El Mundo Indígena 2015- Abril 2015

Organización Mundial De La Salud – La Salud De Los Pueblos Indígenas – Nota Descriptiva Nro 326