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International Advocacy Program Update

MADRE and the International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI) Participate in the Fifth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

May 15-26, 2006

More than 2,500 Indigenous activists, United Nations officials, and government representatives from around the world convened for the Fifth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The Permanent Forum, an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council of the UN, was created five years ago due to pressure from Indigenous women to address the lack of Indigenous perspectives and participation in existing UN bodies and mechanisms. This year, delegates focused on redefining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—this session's theme—in order to uphold and protect Indigenous Peoples' rights and resources. Repeated calls were made by delegates in meetings and panel discussions for more disaggregated data (collecting data on Indigenous Peoples as a separate ethnic group when doing research and statistical analyses on issues of development such as health, education, and violence)—a critical first step in achieving all eight MDGs.

MADRE and FIMI's Activities at the Permanent Forum

During this year's Permanent Forum session, MADRE and our partner, the International Indigenous Women's Forum, hosted several side events, including panel discussions and a series of workshops designed to facilitate understanding of UN systems for Indigenous participants.

Panel: HIV/AIDS & Traditional Medicine

The panelists explored the reliance on traditional healers in Indigenous communities and their important, and often under-recognized, role in fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in providing psychosocial support for people living with HIV and their families. Of particular note was the integration of traditional healers into international and national public health programs in Indigenous communities, where a lack of access to western-oriented medicine persists; for example, in Africa, up to 80% of the population uses traditional medicine as their primary source of healthcare.

Panelists addressed the lack of specific efforts to monitor the epidemic among Indigenous communities, again reiterating the importance of disaggregated data collection and analysis. In the end, the panelists made a set of six recommendations to address the sixth Millennium Development Goal (combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases). The recommendations, which address data collection methodology, the production and distribution of generic drugs, and the incorporation of culturally sensitive public health systems, were all formally adopted by the Permanent Forum on the final day of the session and will be introduced as formal recommendations to the General Assembly.

Speakers:

• Dr. Mirna Cunningham (President of MADRE's sister organization in Nicaragua, the Center for Indigenous Peoples' Autonomy and Development)
  
• Felix Bando (Co-Director for National Network of African Organizations in Development)
  
• Marie Saint Cyr (MADRE Board Member and an expert on HIV/AIDS)
  
• Vivian Stromberg (MADRE Executive Director)
  
• Lucy Mulenkei (Executive Director of MADRE's sister organization in Kenya, the Indigenous Information Network)
  
• Ana Lucia Teran (a doctor of western medicine and traditional healer from Ecuador).

Sponsored by MADRE and the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Panel: Violence against Indigenous Women

Panelists discussed the historical background and context of violence against Indigenous women, strategies to combat violence at the local and international levels, and recommendations to improve UN approaches to reducing violence against women. The panelists reiterated the importance of disaggregated data as the first step to eradicating violence against Indigenous women by first accurately describing the reality of violence in Indigenous women's lives.

Speakers:

• Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, (Chief of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Executive Director of the Tebtebba Foundation, and FIMI member)
  
• Christine Brautigam (Chief of the Women's Rights Section, UN Division for the Advancement of Women)
  
• Marijke Velzeboer-Salcedo (head of the Latin America Section of UNIFEM)
  
• Ina Hume (Founder, Vanishing Rites and a consultant on minority and Indigenous rights)
  
• Beverley Jacobs (President, Native Women's Association of Canada)
  
• Victoria Neuta (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia)

Sponsor by FIMI, MADRE, Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University, UN Secretariat of the Permanent Forum, and the UN Division for the Advancement of Women.

Moving Forward

In October 2006, FIMI will release Mairin Iwanka Raya: Indigenous Women Stand against Violence, a report intended as a companion piece to the UN Study on Violence against Women, commissioned by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. Mairin Iwanka Raya seeks to contribute to the development of a human rights discourse capable of generating concrete, effective strategies to combat violence against Indigenous women. The report will address the ways in which certain groups of women are specifically targeted with violence and systematically denied access to mechanisms to redress abuse. In addition, the report tackles what FIMI—and many women's rights and Indigenous Peoples' advocates—fear will be a lack of perspective in the Secretary General's report of the ways in which factors such as ethnicity and class interact with gender to contribute to the prevalence of violence against Indigenous women. For more information, visit FIMI's website.

MADRE's International Advocacy Program

MADRE works to make international instruments and law relevant and accountable to those they are meant to serve. MADRE creates a space at the international level for community-based women's rights activists so that women's perspectives from the global South are better represented in the international decision-making arena. At the same time, MADRE provides training and capacity building to strengthen our partners' advocacy tools and their knowledge of international human rights standards to which they can hold their own governments accountable. And MADRE facilitates alliance building among women's human rights defenders working for long-term social change around the world.

Your support for MADRE's international advocacy program ensures that MADRE can continue to support our partners' human rights struggles at the community, national, and international levels. Please consider supporting MADRE's international advocacy program today.

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