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Paragraph Number: 47
Session: 4 (2005)
Full Text:

The Forum recognizes that:
(a) The right to education is a key instrument for achieving equitable development and respect for cultural diversity. Education is an investment in the future, a means to reduce poverty and counter discrimination; (b) Indigenous peoples have the right, including treaty rights (as relevant) to quality primary education that is sensitive to their holistic worldviews, languages, traditional knowledge and other aspects of their cultures, which contribute to human dignity, identity, and intercultural dialogue; c) Mother-tongue mediated bilingual education is indispensable for effective learning for indigenous children and for the reduction of dropout rates; (d) Any efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goal 2 are likely to fail if impartial and effective implementation of culturally sensitive educational programs, curricula and actions addressing the needs of indigenous peoples are not undertaken; (e) indigenous children experience particular difficulties relating to access to education of quality and sociocultural relevance at all levels. Obstacles are numerous and complex and include, among others, distance to schools, differences in lifestyles, for example, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities, discrimination, violence, extreme poverty and exclusion; (f) Education can be one of the most important tools for combating prejudice and discrimination. National curricula frequently ignore the cultures, treaties, histories, and spiritual values of indigenous peoples and reinforce stereotypes; (g) In many cases, current criteria to measure the achievement of Goal 2 regarding indigenous education are absent or are based on insufficient indicators which do not reflect indigenous educational specificities and are culturally inappropriate and insensitive

Area of Work: MDGs, Education
Paragraph Number: 108
Session: 2 (2003)
Full Text:

The Forum recalls its mandate to "prepare and disseminate information on indigenous issues", and invites indigenous peoples’ organizations to consider creative ways of educating and disseminating information on the Forum to indigenous peoples’ organizations and communities, including through art, workshops, radio programmes, posters, indigenous journalism and other culturally appropriate media. To that end, the Forum recommends that the programmes, funds and agencies of the United Nations system allocate appropriate resources for this purpose, assist in the production of such materials, include indigenous professionals in the production of such materials and report to the Forum at its third session on the extent to which they have been able to incorporate these actions into their programmes of work. The Forum also recommends that the United Nations Development Fund for Women allocate funding for capacity-building in connection with the Forum and for special outreach to indigenous women. The Forum furthermore recommends that the United Nations Children’s Fund allocate funding for capacity-building in connection with the Forum and for special outreach to indigenous children and youth.

Area of Work: Education
Paragraph Number: 108
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:

The Forum, recognizing the need for complementarity and coordination of indigenous training and education within the United Nations system, recommends that training and education partners within the United Nations system, in particular the ILO, the Office and other relevant agencies, hold discussions in order to develop a coordinated approach and a common electronic gateway to all education and training opportunities for indigenous peoples within the international system. As the United Nations body for coordination regarding indigenous issues, the Forum will construct the web site of the Forum available for such a gateway.

Area of Work: Education