Implementing indigenous peoples’ rights is a priority for Latin America and the Caribbean / @aliciabarcena @SRE_mx >>>

#SRE.- The Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, and the Director General of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), Adelfo Regino Montes, inaugurated the Latin American Seminar: Progress and Challenges in the Implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the Declaration.

During three days of activities, experts from governments and representatives of indigenous peoples from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, will address the progress and pending challenges in the implementation of the Declaration, in four thematic roundtables which are: Indigenous Peoples as subjects of collective rights, self-determination and Indigenous normative systems, lands, territories and natural resources, and cultural heritage.

Before national authorities, representatives of indigenous peoples and the diplomatic corps accredited in Mexico from Latin American countries and United Nations agencies, Foreign Minister Bárcena Ibarra pointed out the need to redouble efforts to implement the Declaration in all the countries of the region to guarantee, protect and promote the rights of this sector of society.

«In Latin America today there are around 45 million people who constitute indigenous peoples. We are talking about 826 indigenous peoples throughout the region, with their diversity, with their history, and I believe that, in Mexico at least, our roots are profoundly indigenous as is a large part of our identity, and our foreign policy has to act accordingly,» he said. In this regard, he highlighted Mexico’s support for initiatives such as the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) and the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.

He recalled the reforms proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to Article 2 of the Constitution to recognize indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples, in which intellectual property, autonomy, self-determination, consultation and consent stand out. «That is why we celebrate, in this opportunity of this seminar, that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has incorporated and proposed concrete reforms, such as reforming Article 2 of the Constitution to recognize indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples as subjects of law,» he said.

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