CONTINENTAL NETWORK OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN OF THE AMERICAS - ECMIA ENLACE CONTINENTAL DE MUJERES INDGENAS DE LAS AMRICAS - ECMIA Integrante

del Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indgenas FIMI y la Asociacin de los Derechos de la Mujer y el Desarrollo - AWID
Argentina CONAMI, Newen Mapu Belice Toledo Maya Womens Council Bolivia CIDOB, CNAMIB CNMCIOB BS Brasil CONAMI, Red GRUMIN, COIAB Canad FAQ, Pauuktuutit Chile Consejo de Todas las Tierras Aukiko Zomo, Consejo Autnomo Aymara Colombia ONIC Ecuador CONAIE El Salvador CCNIS Estados Unidos Red Xicana Indgena Guatemala CONAVIGUA Guayana Amerindian Peoples Association in Guayana Guyana Francesa FOAG Honduras CONPAH, CONAMINH Mxico CONAMI Nicaragua AMICA Panam CONAMUIP, NISPUNDOR Paraguay FAPI, OPG Per CHIRAPAQ, ONAMIAAP Surinam OIS Uruguay CONACHA Venezuela Red de Mujeres Indgenas Wayuu, CONIVE

57th Session Commission on the Status of Women

New York 4th to 15th March 2013

Declaration
Article 22 2. States shall take measures, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, to ensure that indigenous women and children enjoy the full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence and discrimination. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Violence against women and girls takes many forms and is widespread throughout the globe. It includes rape, domestic violence, harassment at work, abuse in school, female genital mutilation and sexual violence in armed conflicts. It is predominantly inflicted by men. Whether in developing or developed countries, the pervasiveness of this violence should shock us all. Violence - and in many cases the mere threat of it - is one of the most significant barriers to womens full equality. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations. violence against indigenous women and children, which is distressingly all too common across the globe, cannot be seen as separate from the history of discrimination and marginalization that has been suffered invariably by indigenous peoples. Combating violence against indigenous women and children, therefore, requires remedying the structural legacies of the history of colonialism and discrimination that indigenous peoples have faced. James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Violence against indigenous women and girls should be dealt with on a multisectorial basis. Since it is the result of historical structures, where racism and discrimination have produced, and continue to produce, stereotypes which manifest themselves in exclusion and poverty, efforts should fall into line with a new historical phase in our social processes, where the exercise of rights is the common currency of our societies. CHIRAPAQ, Centre for Peruvian Indigenous Cultures.

The Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA) is an alliance among indigenous women's organizations and organizations of indigenous people in the American continent who carry out actions in defence of the individual and collective rights of women, girls, young people and adults among indigenous peoples. CHIRAPAQ, Centre for Peruvian Indigenous Cultures, currently run as an indigenous association, has been carrying out actions for more than 25 years impacting at all levels for the recognition and exercise of the rights of indigenous peoples, particularly those of leadership for women and young people. In order better to attain their objectives, both ECMIA and Chirapaq have forged alliances with international bodies (UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNPFII) and social movements such as The Hunger Project and AWID, all committed to the eradication of violence and injustice. The framework of the 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women affords us the opportunity to make proposals on the eradication of all forms of violence, including concealed kinds,
Coordinacin General del Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indgenas de las Amricas Av. Horacio Urteaga 534 Oficina 203 Lima 11 Telefax: (511) 4232757 ayllu@chirapaq.org.pe / www.chirapaq.org.pe

CONTINENTAL NETWORK OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN OF THE AMERICAS - ECMIA ENLACE CONTINENTAL DE MUJERES INDGENAS DE LAS AMRICAS - ECMIA Integrante del Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indgenas FIMI y la Asociacin de los Derechos de la Mujer y el Desarrollo - AWID
Argentina CONAMI, Newen Mapu Belice Toledo Maya Womens Council Bolivia CIDOB, CNAMIB CNMCIOB BS Brasil CONAMI, Red GRUMIN, COIAB Canad FAQ, Pauuktuutit Chile Consejo de Todas las Tierras Aukiko Zomo, Consejo Autnomo Aymara Colombia ONIC Ecuador CONAIE El Salvador CCNIS Estados Unidos Red Xicana Indgena Guatemala CONAVIGUA Guayana Amerindian Peoples Association in Guayana Guyana Francesa FOAG Honduras CONPAH, CONAMINH Mxico CONAMI Nicaragua AMICA Panam CONAMUIP, NISPUNDOR Paraguay FAPI, OPG Per CHIRAPAQ, ONAMIAAP Surinam OIS Uruguay CONACHA Venezuela Red de Mujeres Indgenas Wayuu, CONIVE

against indigenous women, children and young people. The documents that provide the context for these proposals, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Inter-American Convention for Preventing, Punishing and Eradicating Violence against Women (Belm do Par), the Beijing Action Platform - Beijing +20, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Durban Action Plan, the Millennium Development Goals, and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio +20, all take into account the situation, problem areas, participation and possibilities of women.

Violence and indigenous women We indigenous women are the principal target of different types of violence, including physical kinds directed against our bodies and lives as well as other kinds such as the deprivation of rights to land use, educational fulfilment and economic development. Furthermore, our economic contributions to family and country are denied and concealed, while at the same time the role we play as the mainstays of culture and the transmission of values in equity and reciprocity is not recognized. All this is the result of the racism and historical, structural and systematic discrimination that have led to the tolerance of exclusion in state policies, denying the exercise of full individual and collective rights, mainly regarding access to justice, good education, decent employment, good health, participation in decision-making processes and economic opportunities. During the past few decades, we have seen advances all over the continent regarding the recognition of cultural diversity, and some states in our region have been implementing policies that include these advances in some measure. However, we cannot yet celebrate significant achievements owing to historical structures of exclusion such as racism, whose eradication is one of the most important and fundamental objectives of our battle; it impedes our societies' considering us as viable participants in the construction of our countries and, consequently, in the design of policies that make it possible to live a decent life, as is fitting for any human being.

The nature of violence We consider as violence the impossibility of living a decent life and the absence of freedom to direct our own lives and to choose our own destinies. Violence is expressed as physical acts leading to death and, above all, to material and spiritual conditions that impede the full enjoyment of life with the freedom of decision. This is reinforced by the invisibility to which we indigenous peoples, women, girls and young people are relegated, owing to the lack of statistics and differentiated data that enable the magnitude and context of our situation to be determined. Data separated by age group, region and gender - among others - are fundamental and urgently required in any serious effort to rectify our situation. The constant practice of violence against indigenous women and girls sets up a systematic activity that is reinforced in the situation of vulnerability by exclusion and economic poverty. This demands that an effort be made to create new paradigms in order to become fair and democratic societies.

Coordinacin General del Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indgenas de las Amricas Av. Horacio Urteaga 534 Oficina 203 Lima 11 Telefax: (511) 4232757 ayllu@chirapaq.org.pe / www.chirapaq.org.pe

CONTINENTAL NETWORK OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN OF THE AMERICAS - ECMIA ENLACE CONTINENTAL DE MUJERES INDGENAS DE LAS AMRICAS - ECMIA Integrante del Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indgenas FIMI y la Asociacin de los Derechos de la Mujer y el Desarrollo - AWID
Argentina CONAMI, Newen Mapu Belice Toledo Maya Womens Council Bolivia CIDOB, CNAMIB CNMCIOB BS Brasil CONAMI, Red GRUMIN, COIAB Canad FAQ, Pauuktuutit Chile Consejo de Todas las Tierras Aukiko Zomo, Consejo Autnomo Aymara Colombia ONIC Ecuador CONAIE El Salvador CCNIS Estados Unidos Red Xicana Indgena Guatemala CONAVIGUA Guayana Amerindian Peoples Association in Guayana Guyana Francesa FOAG Honduras CONPAH, CONAMINH Mxico CONAMI Nicaragua AMICA Panam CONAMUIP, NISPUNDOR Paraguay FAPI, OPG Per CHIRAPAQ, ONAMIAAP Surinam OIS Uruguay CONACHA Venezuela Red de Mujeres Indgenas Wayuu, CONIVE

Recommendations 1. We recommend states to institutionalize, within the respective mechanisms for women in each country, specific areas or dependencies responsible for the design of policies and programmes where the multisectorial aspects of the situation of indigenous women, girls and young people are taken into account. They should, moreover, be orientated principally towards providing information, tools and budgets, with trained professionals in the sectors responsible for justice, education, health and employment. This process should embrace the full and effective participation of indigenous women and young people to guarantee that the appropriate policies are made. 2. We urge states and their education systems at all levels to review and include education based on the recognition of cultural and other differences as a basis for respect among different and complex societies, and the acknowledgement of the equality of rights. The content of educational material should contribute to reaffirming interculturality, self-esteem, dignity and respect for differences as values fundamental to the eradication of racism and violence. 3. Funds and government agencies should be established for the purpose of qualified investigation, making available instruments and culturally appropriate methodology to deal with the forms and consequences of violence against indigenous women, girls and young people. 4. The ethnic and cultural-identity variable should be included in all systems for the collection of quantitative and qualitative data, from censuses to surveys of all types, with the object of remedying the lack of specific, broken-down information regarding indigenous women, girls and young people in order to establish the required, well-focused policies. Lastly, we support the proposals of the International Forum of Indigenous Women, the proposals of the women's movement at world level, and the efforts that may be made by state representatives, since only united shall we be able to contribute to the elimination of violence. Thank you very much.

Coordinacin General del Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indgenas de las Amricas Av. Horacio Urteaga 534 Oficina 203 Lima 11 Telefax: (511) 4232757 ayllu@chirapaq.org.pe / www.chirapaq.org.pe