7th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development: Statement on Linking National, Regional, and Global Dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

STATEMENT OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CONSTITUTUENCY ON THE SESSION;

‘Linking National, Regional, and Global Dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’

May 20, 2020

I am Guangchunliu Gangmei from Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) and here is the statement from Indigenous Peoples constituency.

Despite the strong global commitment by States to achieve the SDGs, national strategies and action plans largely do not reflect and put into action these commitments particularly in relation to balance implementation of the environmental, social and economic dimensions, the pledge of leaving no one behind, multi-stakeholders partnerships that include rights-holders among others.   

The international commitment of States to respect and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples is not integrated in national action plans and strategies. Further, the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples, including Indigenous Women, Persons with Disability etc  as one of the key stakeholder and rights-holder in development processes from the local to the national levels is still not in place and our needs and priorities are not reflected in the plans and programs of states  Likewise, the global commitment to undertake data-disaggregation by ethnicity is not implemented at the national level in most countries with Indigenous Peoples and also  in the Asia- Pacific Regional level. No remarkable progress has been achieved in data disaggregation by ethnicity and no measures have been undertaken to ensure date disaggregation by ethnicity in the region which is a fundamental step in fulfilling the commitment of leaving no one behind.

At the regional level, crossborder issues impacting Indigenous Peoples such as forced displacements, statelessness, migrant workers, division of indigenous territories, shared resources such as the Mekong river are not adequately discussed and acted upon in regional platforms.  National and regional plans and priorities focus more on economic growth without giving equal attention to environment protection and strengthening democracy and human rights in the region which is under Goal 16 and   key to achieving sustainable development.

On these note, we provide the following recommendations:

• For States to put into action their pledge of leaving no one behind by fully implementing their human rights obligations including the recognition and protection of the right to land, territories and resources of Indigenous Peoples
• For States to establish effective mechanisms for sustained engagement, participation and inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in developing and implementing laws, policies, appropriate measures and programmes to address their specific needs including indigenous women and their aspirations for sustainable development with sufficient resources; and conducting data -disaggregation by ethnicity
• For APFSD to ensure adequate actions on cross-boarder issues and ensure the protection of human rights and the environment; to facilitate more interactive and action -oriented discussions and exchanges in addressing systemic barriers including unfair trade and investment relations and mechanism, authoritarian political systems, neo-liberal policies that is widening inequality and destroying the environment among others; and to ensure the implementation of a rights-based approach to sustainable development and taking into account development justice.    

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