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STATEMENT FOR THEUN PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES21 MAY 2007
Mr/Madam Chairperson, Honourable delegates, Ladies and GentlemenGood morning.First and foremost, I would like to thank the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issuesfor your invitation to address this gathering and your continued collaboration withUNFPA. I am thankful to all of you for focusing in particular this year on Asia and thePacific region, home of 60% of the world’s population and 70% of the world’s indigenouspopulations
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. It is my honor to speak before all of you today on this matter.Our mission at UNFPA is to promote the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy alife of health and equal opportunity. We provide support to countries in using populationdata for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancyis wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girland woman is treated with dignity and respect.The issues of Indigenous Peoples, called by any name, ethnic peoples, tribals, areterms that have been around with us pre-dating the inception of the United Nations. Atthe heart of the challenge we all face is how to break down barriers of communicationand perceptions of injustice, rejection and reconciliation on both sides of the divide. Howto make possible opportunities of restoring human dignity, empowerment to maintainones identity and yet participate in the promise of a better political and economic life.
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SOURCE: IFAD
 
There is growing evidence that in Asia and the Pacific region, as in other parts of theworld, indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities often bear the greatest burden of poverty. This implies that indigenous populations, particularly women, are isolated not just economically but politically and culturally. For us at UNFPA and in the Asia and thePacific Region in particular, our concern is to ensure that these communities, who donot have access to reproductive health services; screening for HIV/AIDs and SexuallyTransmitted Diseases; or protection from Gender Based Violence are included in thebroader investment programmes of their respective Governments and the InternationalDonor Community.I am sure you will agree with me that it will take more than just rhetoric and statementsto reverse this neglect. In many instances, experience shows, that perspectives,motives and actions by governments are often attenuated by sheer frustration of notbeing able to reach communities. In defense of many governments, it isn’t because theydo not try! The frustration often, simply has to do with badly planned assumptions andstereotypes of indigenous and or ethnic communities, resulting in textbook mistakes inattempts to help.Allow me to elaborate: Indigenous peoples’ realities are often informed by their historicmemory of exclusion and disempowerment at many different levels. Efforts at helpplanned and designed in the heart of central ministries are often met with hostility andindifference by local communities. What is at play is the cycle of mistrust that iscontinually fed with bad plans and recurring accusations by governments of bad faith on
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part of communities, resulting ultimately in neglect and marginalization of manycommunities. Some governments have finally concluded that it requires more than justgood intentions and plans, to engage and overcome the fear and hostility of indigenouspeoples and communities. We in UNFPA welcome this development and see it as animportant break in the thinking, methodology and philosophical approach of manygovernments.Let me mention a few examples in our region where we are working with governmentsand communities to address small but important beginnings.
In Bangladesh,
where indigenous and tribal peoples number only around 1 per cent of the total population in Bangladesh; the ethnic majority, Bengalis, constitute 98 per cent.In a country already hard hit by poverty, Bangladesh’s indigenous peoples often findthemselves among the poorest of the poor. They face discrimination in education,employment and civil rights. Decades of violence between indigenous-led insurgenciesand government security forces in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladeshaggravated social tensions and led to serious human and civil rights abuses againstboth, members of indigenous communities and the population at large. The impact of these problems persists today despite the signing of a peace accord nearly ten yearsago.There is a realization that women in these communities are instrumental in brokeringand contributing in a significant manner to the development of their communities both interms of lessening tensions; but importantly opening new possibilities for participation ineconomic activities as means of further empowering themselves and their communities.
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