Statement by the Cuban delegation at the 21st session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, under agenda item 4 “Implementation of the six mandated areas of the Permanent Forum with reference to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”
Mr. Chairman;
Last year we observed the 20 years of existence of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, whose work in the six mandated areas has been instrumental to comprehensively examine indigenous issues.
However, indigenous peoples continue to face serious and day-to-day violations of their rights, including in highly developed countries which paradoxically proclaim themselves as champions of human rights.
Discrimination, marginalization and exclusion, including in the complex scenario of the COVID-19, dispossession of their lands, forced expulsion or relocation, denial of their rights to ancestral territories and resources, among others, become part of the history but also of the daily life of indigenous communities in many regions of the world.
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.
However, stronger political will is required, particularly on the part of the wealthiest countries, to make all the postulates of this international instrument a reality, which is the most comprehensive and all-encompassing instrument on indigenous peoples. We reiterate the need for its full implementation.
In concluding, allow me to reaffirm Cuba's support for the just claims of indigenous peoples. We urge the international community to show greater political will in order to promote concrete actions that will allow their effective materialization, as well as the enjoyment by these communities of all their economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights.
Thank you very much.