Submission to the Human Rights Council 3rd Intersessional meeting

Human Rights Council HRC 3rd intersessional meeting on Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda

The Indigenous Navigator, together with the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) would like to start by congratulating the Human Rights Council for it’s organisation of these three intersessional dialogues and it’s cooperation on Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The theme of this third session is ‘Building back better: Integrating human rights in sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic’.

The COVID-19 pandemic is undermining progress across the globe in implementing the 17 SDGs, reversing socio-economic gains and magnifying pre-existing forms of discrimination and inequalities. Indigenous Peoples today, in all parts of the world, are still fighting discrimination and targeted violence, struggling against a shrinking civic space, lacking recognition of their rights as peoples, and suffering from land dispossession, evictions and the negative consequences of climate change and conservation efforts. Indigenous Peoples are also disproportionately suffering the effects of COVID-19 and its consequences, including increased repression by states that are using the pandemic as a way to enact laws that further encroach on their rights.

For Indigenous Peoples, the long-term consequences of the pandemic may be devastating. These issues are central to the event held on January 14th, 2021 and promise to not only block the achievement of the SDGs, but also to push Indigenous Peoples further behind. Therefore, In the context of the Human Rights Council’s 3rd intersessional session on this theme, we would like to submit a statement on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indigenous Peoples and best practices in achieving the SDGs.