The Special Rapporteur also welcomes written responses to the following questions by March 17, 2021. Submissions can be made to indigenous@ohchr.org in English, French or Spanish. Kindly indicate in the subject of your email “Submission to 76th General Assembly report.” All submissions will be published on the mandate webpage on the OHCHR website, unless otherwise indicated in your submission. Please limit inputs to 10 pages.
- What are the key factors driving the urbanization of indigenous peoples? How has this impacted the social, economic and cultural cohesion of indigenous communities throughout the world? 2. Please provide examples of indigenous peoples occupying traditional territories that have developed into metropolitan areas over time and the impact of urbanization on their collective rights.
- What are the effects of racism and racial discrimination on urban indigenous peoples? Consider access to essential services, employment, healthcare, education, child welfare, domestic violence services and law enforcement.
- In what ways have indigenous peoples’ collective culture and identity changed by adapting to living in urban areas? How can indigenous peoples maintain their traditional knowledge, language and connection to their ancestral lands when living in urban environments?
- Some groups are at even greater risk of human rights violations due to intersecting forms of discrimination including but not limited to women and girls, persons with disabilities, LGBTI persons and children. Please explain the specific situations and views of these groups and the requirements needed to ensure that their rights are recognized and protected.
- Please provide examples of resilience, best practices and strategies employed by indigenous movements or organizations to improve the living conditions of urban indigenous peoples including access to healthcare, employment opportunities, culturally appropriate education, language instruction, adequate housing, safe drinking water, sanitation and other critical infrastructure.
- What are States currently doing to address the needs of urban indigenous peoples in both law and practice? Examples may include protocols to guarantee political representation, participation of urban indigenous peoples in decision making, social programs, urban planning, land use regulations, or support for indigenous-owned businesses and service providers. Please explain how the impact of these measures has improved the situation.
- What measures or policies can be adopted to remove existing obstacles facing urban indigenous peoples? For example, what is being done (by states or indigenous organizations) to ensure that urban indigenous peoples have access to: adequate healthcare; employment opportunities; culturally appropriate education and language instruction; housing, drinking water, sanitation and other critical infrastructure? Please specify if such measures exist but are not being implemented.
The Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples will hold a virtual consultation to inform his annual report to the General Assembly on the Situation of Indigenous Peoples living in Urban Areas to be presented at the 76th session in October 2021. The report will review the reasons for urbanization, its impacts and initiatives by States, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders to ensure that the rights and specific needs of urban indigenous peoples are addressed.
The discussion will seek to understand the specific causes and consequences of urbanization. Voluntary migration may occur when indigenous peoples move to urban areas in search of employment and education opportunities, while others experience forced migration from evictions, land dispossession, natural disasters caused by climate change, and militarization. Regardless of the reasons for migration, urban indigenous peoples continue to experience the legacy of colonization and inter-generational trauma and face a unique set of challenges to their sense of identity, culture and connection to lands and resources. The study will also examine the impacts on indigenous peoples who occupy traditional territories that have transformed into metropolitan areas over time.
The need to address issues of poverty, racism, racial discrimination, marginalization and strengthen support for indigenous peoples now living in urban areas is evident. In the mandate’s view, it is essential to secure greater accountability of State and non-State actors for violations of the rights of urban indigenous peoples and to put in place measures to remove existing obstacles. States and other stakeholders have a responsibility to adopt legislation, policies and programs to provide collective protection mechanisms for urban indigenous peoples. These positive special measures and obligations must consider individual and collective rights and be developed in consultation with the affected communities. The needs of urban indigenous peoples must be understood and addressed from the particular framework of the UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and international and regional human rights instruments. These international legal sources recognize indigenous peoples’ rights to their traditional lands, territories, natural resources, self-government, self-determination, and way of life which form the basis of their collective identity and their physical, economic and cultural survival. The above understanding of the nature of indigenous peoples’ rights is necessary in the discussion of the measures necessary to provide access to essential services and other human rights guarantees for indigenous peoples living in urban areas. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IPeoples/SRIndigenousPeoples/pages/sripeoplesindex.aspx
Dear colleagues, The University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights invite you to participate in a virtual consultation with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Francisco Calí Tzay, on Wednesday March 17, 2021, 9-10:30am MST/ 11-12:30pm EST/17-18:30pm CET. The consultation will inform the Special Rapporteur’s annual report to the General Assembly on the Situation of Indigenous Peoples living in Urban Areas to be presented at the 76th session in October 2021. Participants are invited to share information, updates, views and opinions on the issue in the form of 3-minute interventions to the Special Rapporteur. We will do our best to hear from all participants. In the event that some participants are unable to speak, they will be invited to submit written interventions.
The discussion will be organized around the following themes: specific causes and consequences of urbanization, the effects of racism and racial discrimination on indigenous peoples living in urban areas, and the development of resilience, best practices, and strategies employed by indigenous movements or organizations to improve the living conditions of urban indigenous peoples. The Special Rapporteur welcomes information on intersectionality, including in relation to gender, children and disability, as this pertains to the above areas.
Please register here for the consultation by March 12, 2021. If you have questions for the rapporteur or expert guest participants, please send in advance to showard@email.arizona.edu.
We encourage you to disseminate this invitation to your networks.
Kind regards,
Seánna Howard Pronouns: she, her, hers, ella Professor of Practice, Director International Human Rights Advocacy Workshop James E. Rogers College of Law, Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program Affiliated Faculty and Executive Committee Member, Program in Human Rights Practice College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona 520-626-8223 showard@arizona.edu Located on Tohono O’odham Nation homelands
