UNICEF: Indigenous children left behind in their countries’ progress
UNICEF: Indigenous children left behind in their countries’ progress
Theme of the Day: ‘Bridging the gap: implementing the rights of indigenous peoples’
NEW YORK – WEBWIRE – Saturday, August 09, 2014
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In April 2014 at her school in Ucayali Region, Peru, Isa Rate, from the
indigenous Shipibo group, shows UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake
how she spells her name in her native language.[/font]
Indigenous children continue to miss out on their rights and face discrimination on a daily basis, UNICEF said to mark the 2014 International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
The organization said despite significant gains for children since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, the world has not delivered upon its commitments to indigenous children. Whether they live in low-, middle- or high-income countries, indigenous children continue to face glaring disparities across all human development indicators.
“It is unacceptable that a quarter of a century after affirming the rights of all children everywhere, the nations of the world continue to leave behind significant numbers of their populations,” said Susana Sottoli, Associate Director of Programmes for UNICEF, with responsibility for child rights. “It is more than time to close the gap for all indigenous children, so that the Convention becomes a reality for them too.”
Indigenous children are much less likely to be able to attend and do well in school due to a complex mix of factors, including poverty, gender, lack of bilingual education, distance from school, and the school calendar, among others.
In Peru in 2011, for example, Spanish speakers were more than seven times as likely as indigenous language speakers to reach a satisfactory standard in reading. In Namibia, only 7 per cent of San-speaking children enrolled in junior secondary school and less than 1 per cent enrolled in senior secondary school, against overall secondary attendance rates in the country of approximately 55 per cent. Studies have also shown that indigenous girls are less likely to participate in education than indigenous boys or non-indigenous girls.
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