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Since the adoption of A/RES/70/1 Transforming our world: Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, all United Nations member states have adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets that demonstrate the magnitude of an ambitious universal agenda.
These goals and targets will stimulate action over the next 15 years in the following areas of critical importance to humanity and the planet: people, planet, prosperity, peace, partnerships. The sustainable development goals are the master plan for a sustainable future for all. They are interlinked and incorporate the global challenges we face every day, such as poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.
It also seeks to realize the human rights of all people and to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls. The goals and targets are integrated and indivisible, combining the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental.
The SDGs should have a strong impact on the lives of indigenous peoples. And it is vitally important to follow up on their implementation at the national level. Since the presentation of the first National Voluntary Reports, Indigenous Peoples have been involved in these national, regional and global processes related to the SDGs. The main objective of this involvement is to promote the recognition, protection and fulfilment of the rights, welfare and dignity of Indigenous Peoples, and to enhance and make visible their contributions to sustainable development.
The long-term perspective is to include indigenous peoples vision and initiatives and thus advance their self-determined sustainable development. The regional analysis of the situation of indigenous peoples in the eight countries that will present their National Voluntary Report during 2020, it is a map to review the progress and challenges that indigenous peoples have presented in relation to the fulfillment of the SDGs in Bolivia, Argentina, Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, and Peru.
This analysis is intended to show the challenges currently faced by the indigenous peoples of these countries, but also to highlight the contributions that these indigenous peoples can make to the fulfilment of Agenda 2030. These contributions are: ancestral knowledge, innovations and traditional practices of indigenous peoples for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, as well as the development of the different collective modalities of indigenous economies. Indigenous Peoples offer a valuable opportunity for the construction of a new development paradigm, based on a structural change towards equality and sustainability. For this reason, it is fundamental to recognize the contributions of indigenous Peoples and their integral and holistic vision, in order to respond to the challenges that the future of these countries brings.
For Indigenous Peoples, the right to participate in decision-making in matters affecting them has a direct impact on the effective enjoyment of other individual and collective human rights, such as self-determination, equality, cultural integrity, free, prior and informed consent and the right to collective property and full and effective participation. In Latin America, actions to comply with the ODS should be concerted to ensure respect for and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples, including timely access to justice.
This regional analysis from the perspective of Indigenous Peoples considers the critical issues for Indigenous Peoples, to cite one example SDG 16, it is considered that the recurrent violation of Indigenous Peoples' rights increases the inequality and discrimination suffered by Indigenous Peoples. It is observed in several countries of the region that the defense of rights has resulted in the persecution, criminalization and assassination of indigenous leaders.
One of the recurrent problems observed in the region is the lack of statistical data disaggregated by ethnic groups. This situation limits the real analysis of the situation of indigenous peoples, but at the same time it is an indicator. Having limited data on indigenous peoples and their territories leads to a lack of policies and actions focused on the real and adequate needs of indigenous peoples. A pattern of non-integrated development with a lack of social inclusion can be observed throughout the Latin American region. And the situation, instead of improving, is aggravated by the social and economic situation that the region has experienced in recent years.
In recent months, with the effects of the COVID-19, this situation of lack of protection and discrimination has highlighted the gaps in access to the health system for indigenous peoples, as well as the openness of States to include indigenous peoples in the decisions that are made about their territories. COVID-19 is claiming lives and having a great impact on the economy by testing the response capacity of nation states. Likewise, among different actors, it has raised concerns about the impact it could have on the fulfillment of Agenda 2030.
For the indigenous peoples of the region, this new threat will not only have an impact on their health. It will have a serious impact and could be a variable that increases the gap in terms of: access to health, education, access to justice, respect for collective rights, access to food, among others. What has become clear is that in many cases the health systems of the States do not take into account an intercultural perspective. Concerns about the structural vulnerabilities of indigenous peoples are even more significant among indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, indigenous people living in urban centres, and indigenous peoples already having to deal with other epidemics in the region such as dengue fever, malaria and epidemiological profiles that are complicated by contamination from COVID-19.
In addition to this, indigenous peoples continue to be affected by the impacts of climate change. And action on climate change can no longer be delayed. As expressed during the 2019 High Level Political Forum, the Major Group of Indigenous Peoples expressed the following: "We are the most affected by Climate Change. Indigenous Peoples are highly dependent on land and biodiversity for their livelihoods and development, Climate Change is also a factor in the migration crisis, Climate Change hurts the poor more than the rich. There is very little appreciation and recognition of the contribution that Indigenous Peoples make to reducing the effects of Climate Change, instead we continue - we are seriously affected by governments and the private sector in the name of Climate Change.
