Mon, 01/02/2010
Some general statistics

The report shows:

  • an Indigenous child in Australia can expect to die 20 years earlier than his non-native compatriot. The life expectancy gap is also 20 years in Nepal, while in Guatemala it is 13 years and in New Zealand it is 11.
  • Worldwide, more than 50 per cent of indigenous adults suffer from Type 2 diabetes – a number predicted to rise.
  • While indigenous peoples make up around 370 million of the world’s population – some 5 per cent – they constitute around one-third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people.
The state of Indigenous women

The report finds that:

Indigenous peoples and the environment

Severe impact on women. Forced evictions and the dispossession of lands have particularly severe impacts on indigenous women, who, as a result, often have an increased workload as they must walk long distances to find alternative sources of water or fuel wood, or are driven out of income-earning productive activities and into a situation of economic dependence on men.

Health

Poor levels of health, acutely felt by indigenous women. Indigenous peoples experience disproportionately high levels of maternal and infant mortality, malnutrition, cardiovascular illnesses, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Indigenous women experience these health problems with particular severity, as they are disproportionately affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts, and are often denied access to education, land, property and other economic resources. And yet they play a primary role in overseeing the health and well-being of their families and communities.

Human rights

Violence against women. An indigenous woman is more likely to be raped, with some estimates showing that more than one in three indigenous women are raped during their lifetime.

More information

The Report was produced by Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

For more information see www.un.org/indigenous