Statement by the delegation of Cuba at the 20th session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, on agenda item 4 “Implementation of the six mandate areas of the Permanent Forum, with reference to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”
Mr. Chairman,
We recognize the work that the Permanent Forum has carried out in its twenty years of existence in the six areas of its mandate, to examine indigenous issues in a comprehensive manner.
However, much remains to be done. Indigenous peoples continue to face serious and daily violations of their rights. Discrimination, marginalization and exclusion, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; dispossession of their lands, expulsion or forced relocation, denial of their rights to ancestral territories and resources, among others, are an unfortunate reality for indigenous communities in many parts of the world.
It is even more alarming that many of these situations occur in highly developed countries, which paradoxically set themselves as champions of human rights.
Mr. Chairman,
The adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was a historic victory in the struggle of these peoples to claim their rights; as well as an unequivocal political message of the international community´s support for their just cause.
The Declaration is the most complete and comprehensive international instrument on indigenous peoples. We reiterate the need for its full implementation.
In this regard, we reaffirm our support for the just claims of indigenous peoples, and we urge the international community to show greater political will to promote concrete actions that allow their effective materialization, as well as the enjoyment by these communities of all their economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights.
Thank you.