CARICOM calls for greater protection and inclusion of indigenous peoples

The Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) is call­ing for stronger poli­cies to pro­tect the rights of In­dige­nous Peo­ples and ex­pand op­por­tu­ni­ties for their so­cial and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment across the re­gion.

In a mes­sage mark­ing Sun­day’s In­ter­na­tion­al Day of the World’s In­dige­nous Peo­ples, CARI­COM Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett said In­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties have played an in­te­gral role in shap­ing the Caribbean’s his­to­ry, cul­ture and iden­ti­ty.

“The wis­dom, tra­di­tions and con­tri­bu­tions of the Caribbean’s In­dige­nous Peo­ples are an in­te­gral part of our shared his­to­ry, and their voic­es, lead­er­ship and pros­per­i­ty are es­sen­tial to an eq­ui­table and sus­tain­able Com­mu­ni­ty,” she said.

This year’s ob­ser­vance is be­ing held un­der the Unit­ed Na­tions theme, “Ho­n­our­ing In­dige­nous Mid­wives: Safe­guard­ing Life and Well-be­ing.”

CARI­COM said the theme rec­og­nizes the im­por­tant role In­dige­nous mid­wives play as cus­to­di­ans of an­ces­tral knowl­edge, care­givers and guardians of cul­tur­al tra­di­tions passed down through gen­er­a­tions.

It said tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge al­so re­mains im­por­tant in ar­eas in­clud­ing agri­cul­ture, med­i­cine, en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, lan­guage and com­mu­ni­ty gov­er­nance.

The re­gion­al group­ing not­ed that In­dige­nous Peo­ples were the first guardians of the Caribbean’s lands and nat­ur­al re­sources and said their knowl­edge of en­vi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment has be­come in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant as the re­gion con­fronts cli­mate change and bio­di­ver­si­ty loss.

CARI­COM said In­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly af­fect­ed by those chal­lenges.

The Com­mu­ni­ty al­so point­ed to its re­cent­ly re­launched Ten-Point Plan for Repara­to­ry Jus­tice: A Man­i­festo for the Com­ing En­light­en­ment, which in­cludes a call for an In­dige­nous Peo­ples De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme.

CARI­COM said such a pro­gramme is in­tend­ed to help In­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties thrive by ex­pand­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for so­cial and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment.

It said achiev­ing that ob­jec­tive will re­quire mean­ing­ful di­a­logue and poli­cies that re­spect the rights, dig­ni­ty and as­pi­ra­tions of In­dige­nous Peo­ples.

The Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al urged Mem­ber States to rec­og­nize the con­tri­bu­tions of In­dige­nous mid­wives and oth­er tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge hold­ers while en­sur­ing In­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties are able to par­tic­i­pate ful­ly in Caribbean so­ci­ety.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Day of the World’s In­dige­nous Peo­ples is ob­served an­nu­al­ly on Au­gust 9. —GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana (CMC)