Raising awareness of indigenous peoples'

The International Day of the World's Indigenous People's falls on August 9 every year. The day provides an opportunity to raise awareness of indigenous peoples' cultures and great diversity that they represent. It is also an occasion to redouble efforts to address issues of exclusion, discrimination and poverty that are still the daily reality for many of these peoples.

The day was designated by the United Nation's General Assembly in December 1994. It commemorates the first meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights Working Group on Indigenous Populations held in 1982.

The term 'Indigenous Peoples' generally means native or original inhabitants of a particular region or country often sharing a collective identity. The indigenous peoples number over 300 million and represent nearly four percent of the world's population. United by many common experiences, including histories of marginalization and struggles for cultural survival, they are nonetheless unique and distinct.

In his message to mark the day, United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the world's indigenous peoples have preserved a vast amount of humanity's cultural history as they speak a majority of the world's languages and have inherited and passed on a wealth of knowledge, artistic forms and religious and cultural traditions. Indigenous peoples live in every region in the world. For many indigenous peoples, the natural world is a valued source of food, health, spirituality and identity. Land is both a critical resource that sustains life and a major cause of struggle and even death. They live in more than 70 countries located in all regions of the world and speak over 4,000 different languages.

Among many indigenous peoples are the Indians of the Americas, the Inuit and Aleutians of the circumpolar region, the Saami of Northern Europe, the Aborigines and Torres, Strait Islanders of Australia, the Maori of New Zealand and Veddhas of Sri Lanka.

Throughout human history, indigenous peoples have suffered as a result of invasion of their land by dominant neighbours, colonial expansion, modernization and now globalization. In recent years issues affecting them have become more and more prominent on the international agenda than ever before. More governments were seen taking measures to redress their social and economic grievances.

"But we must do even more. Indigenous peoples still experience racism, poor health and disproportionate poverty. In many societies, their languages, religions and cultural traditions are stigmatized and shunned.

The first-ever UN report on the State of the World's Indigenous Peoples in January 2010 set out some alarming statistics. In some countries, indigenous peoples are 600 times more likely to contract tuberculosis than the general population. In others, an indigenous child can expect to die 20 years before his or her non-indigenous compatriots," points out the UN Secretary General.

Indigenous peoples have been working with the United Nations to name and assert their collective rights for decades. The General Assembly declares its first International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples in 1994 and the 2nd in 2005. The UN Declaration on the rights of the Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly in 2007 following its adoption by the Human Rights Council in June 2006.