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Addressee: IOM, UNICEF, UNDP, WFP, UNFPA, WHO, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), IANWGE, OHCHR, and other UN entities.

Paragraph #13Session #3 (2004)

Full Text

Violent conflicts and militarization fundamentally affect the lives of indigenous women and their families and communities, causing violations of their human rights and displacement from their ancestral lands. Yet indigenous women do not see themselves as passive victims but have taken up the roles of mediators and peace builders. Recognizing the profound concerns of the impact of conflict situations on indigenous women, the Forum recommends:

(a) That IOM and other relevant United Nations entities incorporate the needs and priorities of women and girls as ex-combatants in the design and implementation of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, and ensure their full access to all resources and benefits provided in reintegration programmes, including income-generation and skill-development programmes;-

(b) That UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, WHO, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme, and other field-based agencies collect data on the situation of indigenous women living in conflict areas. Such data would be valuable for analysis and programme development;

(c) That IANWGE integrate indigenous women issues into its strategies on women, conflict, peace and security;

(d) That the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other United Nations human rights bodies ensure that statutory provisions prohibiting war crimes and crimes against humanity cover criminal acts perpetrated on a gender basis since their occurrence remains particularly acute, especially the high incidence of mass rape and mutilation during armed conflict;-

(e) That UNHCR give priority to indigenous women and their families who are displaced internally and externally by force due to armed conflict in their territories.

Responses

UNDP - (b) UNDP supported two members of its Civil Society Organizations Advisory Committee in undertaking the production of a series of case studies documenting the role of indigenous peoples in preventing and resolving conflict. The subsequent publication, Beyond the Silencing of the Guns, was launched at the Barcelona Forum in September 2004. UNDP's country office in Bolivia is also undertaking studies in demography and poverty monitoring that looks at how to collect data on indigenous peoples to monitor poverty inequalities at national, provincial and municipal levels. In Nicaragua, UNDP is working together with the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on an initiative at collecting and disaggregating data on indigenous populations.

UNICEF - Currently in Colobmia, UNICEF, together with partners including UNHCR, provided aid for 5 indigenous communities displaced from the Opogado river (1480 persons), acommpanied and provided emergency aid for 22 families repatriated from Panama, supported displaced people from 9 communities of the two municipalities of San Luis and San Francisco in eastern Antioquia, and in this last region is working for children's integral care with a locally formed team in Aquitania community.

WHO - WHO recognizes the importance of the collection and use of disaggregated data by ethnicity for the purpose of implementing the Millennium Development Goals. The WHO teams on health equity and human rights are jointly developing a process for data analysis to provide means for discerning health disparities across ethnic groups. The main objective is to analyse disparities in health on the basis of ethnic/indigenous affiliation. The research will determine whether health outcomes are unequally distributed across ethnic groups; which factors linked to ethnic groups explain the unequal distribution; and which factors play an important role explaining health problems within disadvantaged ethnic groups.

UNIFEM - c) UNIFEM has a fully implemented programme which addresses the effects of conflict on women affected by conflict in Colombia and on the Northern border. The Peace and Security programme has worked extensively to highlight the distinct effects that conflict has on women from different ethnic groups and backgrounds which necessarily assesses the impact upon indigenous women.

Final Report of UNPFII Session 3 (2004)

Area of Work

Indigenous Women