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Addressee: Member States , UN agencies, funds and programmes
Full Text
The Forum recommends that all relevant United Nations entities and Governments:
(a) Advise Governments to revise their national legal and administrative frameworks to ensure indigenous women’s equal rights and access to social and economic services and resources, including land ownership;
(b) Identify and give recognition to the capacities of indigenous women and their specialized knowledge in the areas of health, natural environment, traditional technologies, crafts and arts, and design appropriate employment and income-generating strategies;
(c) Provide indigenous women with the appropriate education and training resources so that they can effectively access and participate in mainstream national, regional and international economic institutions.
Responses
The Government of Finland reports the following:
(a) The rights of citizens are regulated in the Constitution of Finland. Section 6 of the Constitution contains a general equality clause and non-discrimination prohibition, among others regarding the prohibition of discrimination based on sex and a provision on equality. This latter provision stipulates that equality of the sexes is provided in more detail by an Act. The Law of the Equality between Woman and Man (609/1986) was passed in 1986. According to section 22 of the Constitution the public authorities shall guarantee the observance of basic rights and liberties and human rights.
As far as access to social and economic services is concerned, the right to use the Sami language before the authorities is laid down by an Act as regulated by section 17,3 of the Constitution. The relevant provisions are incorporated in the Sami Language Act (1086/2003). Social and health services in Sami language are promoted in the yearly budget of the State.
The efforts to advance the land rights of Sami people are further continued so that the ILO Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in independent countries could be ratified. To resolve the issue, further mutual research is conducted by the universities of Oulu and Lapland concerning housing, demography, use of land and ownership of land in northern Lapland, which is expected to be concluded by 31 May 2005. As soon as the research results are available, views of different parties will be sought and the negotiations with the Sami Parliament will be started.
The Government of Mexico reports the following:
(b) The objective of the Sectoral Strengthening Project for Indigenous craftswomen is to strengthen the capacity of organized groups of indigenous craftswomen as an economic sector, to participate in economic and managerial activities with a view to increasing opportunities for the distribution, financing, management and marketing of their products at the local, regional, national and international levels through training, promotion and organizational assessment activities.
(c) The National Commission for the development of Indigenous Populations is running two programs which also involve training and teaching activities designed to make optimal use of the resources provided by the federal Government and promote ownership of productive processes by the indigenous women targeted by the programs. The first program is the Indigenous Women's Productive Organization Program with the goal to improve the living conditions and social status of indigenous women, strengthening their involvement as the promoters of their own development through the implementation of productive organization projects. The second program is the POPMI training program for indigenous women community outreach workers with the objectives to promote the training of human resources in the community; and include in the POPMI operational structure the training of indigenous human resources.
The objective the Regional Indigenous Funds Program is to promote the economic and social development of indigenous groups and communities, with due care for natural resources and their environment, their cultures and their rights, by strengthening the funds as financing agencies of a social nature, operated and managed by indigenous community organizations based on the principle of equity. The Commission is supporting the development of 240 mixed regional indigenous funds, incorporating organizations of indigenous producers of both genders and providing loans, technical assistance and marketing support. Of particular note in this area is the existence of 30 women's regional funds.
In addition there is a training project for the regional indigenous women's funds with an objective to establish a system of training in the short, medium and long term that will help to strengthen the regional funds and promote the consolidation of organizational and empowerment processes, by developing indigenous women leaders, training management teams and establishing networks at the local, regioanl, state and national levels. Currently regional funds assisted during this period are those in the states of Puebla, Guerrero, Mexico and Morelos and the Federal District.
A meeting of indigenous women producers is also carried out with the objective to create a forum for reflection, dialogue and the exchange of indigenous women's experiences as producers in local economies with a view to promoting coordination institutional action.
Final Report of UNPFII Session 3 (2004)
Area of Work
