Annual half-day panel discussion on the rights of Indigenous peoples

Theme: Participation and inclusion of indigenous peoples in the development and implementation of strategies and projects in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Speakers highlighted that the Sustainable Development Goals were a recognition that people needed to be at the centre of development. However, in some cases development projects were implemented under the disguise of poverty reduction without the informed consent of the affected Indigenous peoples. This led to violations of their rights and the destruction of traditional culture, language, land and human heritage. Indigenous peoples are one of the world’s most disadvantaged, and most left behind people. There were around 1,000 Universal Periodic Review recommendations on the rights of Indigenous peoples linked to their rights in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals. One of the main issues of the recommendations was participation in decision making, specially of women, access to justice, birth registration, and lack of attention to the intersections between discrimination and sexuality and gender.