RIGHTS AIPP
AIPP Regional Capacity Building Program - Training Manual on the UNDRIP
192 3. Challenges of national laws
• National laws and policies still carry discriminatory provisions on indigenous women, chil- dren, youth and elders.
• Overlaps and conflicts among laws and policies lead to double standards and inconsisten- cies in recognizing the rights of indigenous women, children, youth and elders, such as in con-
flicting interpretations among government agencies at the national, regional and local levels. • Many countries in Asia have existing national bodies on the rights of women and chil-
dren such as the national commissions for women in India and Indonesia. Such bodies should make special provisions to address the needs their respective indigenous constituencies, and
to include representatives of indigenous women, children, youth and elders in the appropriate national commissions.
• The modern judicial system has many incompatibilities with indigenous systems of law. In many cases, the police and courts show negative biases in delivering judicial remedies to indig-
enous women, children, youth and elders. • There exist national laws and policies that dwell on the rights of indigenous women, chil-
dren, youth and elders in almost all the Asian countries. But there is a big gap between the writ- ten law and their practical implementation. Many people in government and private companies
are not aware or sensitive enough to the situation and concerns of the said special sectors.
4. Strategies for national law
• Provide indicators on badgood laws dealing with human rights and militarization as well as indigenous women, children, youth and elders.
• Identify badgood laws regarding the said issues. • Repeal bad laws and exercise good laws.
• Identify the overlaps and conflicts among laws and policies on general human rights and the rights of indigenous women, children, youth and elders.
• Set up various legal, extra-legal and meta-legal strategies to harmonize conflicting laws and policies, or repeal specific laws and provisions as needed.
• Lobby for the adoption of special mechanisms and measures to meet the needs of indig- enous women, children, youth and elders.
• Lobby for the allocation of special budgets for indigenous peoples in order to implement good national laws to support the implementation of UNDRIP.
• Establish judicial remedies and other forms of redress to address grievances and com- plaints of indigenous peoples, including its special sectors, regarding rights violations.
• Conduct special trainings and awareness campaigns, to raise the awareness level of indig- enous women, children, youth and elders on their rights, and of indigenous communities as a
whole. • It is important that indigenous peoples’ organizations take this up as a priority, and to ad-
vocate for the rights of special sectors at all levels. • Capacity building to document and report cases of violations of the rights of special sec-
tors. • Provide specialized training on documentation for indigenous activists to document and
report cases of violations of the rights of special sectors. • Indigenous peoples’ organizations, national human rights bodies, and NGOs supportive to
indigenous peoples’ issues, can help provide these needs. • Public campaign by working together with press, publishing various publications, develop-
ing greater networking to sensitize the people in the government, public and private companies to respect the rights of IWCYE and deliver the required services to these special sectors under
the provisions.
Module-9
RIGHTS AIPP
AIPP Regional Capacity Building Program - Training Manual on the UNDRIP
Ask the participants to give any examples they know about good practices, experi-
ences, and lessons learned in the asser- tion or exercise of the various rights of
indigenous women, children, youth, el- ders and disabled.
Suggested Method
193
IV. EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS IN ASSERTING RIGHTS
A. Women
1. Tining of Kalinga province, in the Cordillera region of the Philippines, fought
against the World-Bank funded Chico river dams, helped organize the women in her
community, and helped set up the women’s federation, Innabuyog, a member-organiza-
tion of the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance. Ti- ning represented her organization in the
Beijing 4th World Conference on Women in 1995, where she spoke of her experiences
and took part in drafting the Beijing Indig- enous Women’s Declaration.
2.Self-organized Naga women like the Naga Women’s Union and the Naga Mothers Associa- tion have been able to mobilize the women for their active participation in political discourses in
the community. They also do a lot of work in conflict resolution to maintain peace and harmony within the community and among different ethnic groups of the Naga people.
3. As a result of women’s advocacy and lobby work, there are now existing national commis- sions for the rights of women and children in many countries such as in Indonesia, India and the
Philippines. However, these bodies only address general women and children’s concerns. Thus, further awareness-raising, advocacy and lobby work are necessary so that particular issues and
concerns of indigenous women and children are likewise addressed.
4. Indigenous women have distin- guished themselves through their partici-
pation in national political processes like in Papua and Nepal. In Nepal, the National
Indigenous Women’s Federation NIWF is composed of indigenous women activists
and indigenous women organizations, pro- fessionals and educators. It has regional-
level networks in five regions of Nepal and district-level alliances and members. It
makes efforts to raise the issues and con- cerns of indigenous women in Nepal and
abroad, and strengthen the movement of indigenous women in particular, and indig-
enous peoples in general, for securing their collective rights.
5. In Ngata Toro, a village in Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, the com-
munity has been carrying out initiatives that, in their own words, are aimed at “strengthening our traditions, customary laws, culture and local institutions for sustainable use of our forest,
land and water for the benefit of all our community members and our environment”. The objec-
Module-9
Young women soldiers of the Naional Socialist Council of Nagalim NSCN, Isaac-Muivah facion, the strongest armed resistance group
of the Nagas. Since 1997 they have a cease-ire with the Indian gov- ernment and have been negoiaing on the future status of the Naga
territories. Photo by Chris Erni
