A/HRC/36/57 44. Participants highlighted a number of positive initiatives currently being undertaken in relation to the right to health. They included the creation of health units for indigenous peoples based on intercultural models of health, university support for the use of traditional practices and medicines in indigenous communities and awareness-raising about indigenous health care among medical students. The use by indigenous youth of the Expert Mechanism’s study on the right to health to develop a national plan on health for indigenous peoples with a focus on youth in Latin America and the Caribbean, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization and the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean, was also emphasized. Participants highlighted a number of challenges that continued to affect indigenous peoples, including: high rates of alcoholism in indigenous communities; high rates of suicide, particularly among indigenous youth; violence against indigenous human rights defenders; the need to travel long distances to access health-care services; the use of harmful chemicals in indigenous territories by agribusinesses; and the difficulty of providing health-care services for indigenous peoples whose territories were divided by State borders. Participants also reminded States of the need to be aware of the significant negative health effects of intergenerational trauma caused by the removal of indigenous children from their families and communities and the sexual, physical and psychological abuse that often took place in residential schools and other facilities. 45. Regarding the study on the right to cultural heritage, participants noted that items of indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage continued to be removed from indigenous territories or destroyed by infrastructure projects, such as the construction of roads. As with the right to health, State borders often created difficulties in the search for common solutions for the preservation of the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples. Participants echoed the comments of the Chair in calling for UNESCO to include a section on repatriation of indigenous cultural heritage in its new policy on indigenous peoples. Participants gave a number of positive updates, highlighting a number of programmes that facilitated the protection of cultural heritage, including consultation frameworks and indigenous ranger programmes that carried out land and sea management activities. In closing, Mr. Tsykarev welcomed the initiatives of the two Finnish academic institutions, namely the University of Helsinki and the University of Lapland, in organizing expert seminars as a follow-up to the Expert Mechanism’s study on cultural heritage in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The Expert Mechanism also had the opportunity to meet informally with UNESCO representatives during the session to discuss the follow-up to the recommendation of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on the repatriation of cultural objects of indigenous peoples. 46. In a side event on the issue of the International Year of Indigenous Languages (see section XI below), co-organized by UNESCO and the Expert Mechanism, participants considered the proposed elements of an action plan for the Year, to be prepared by UNESCO and presented at the seventeenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2018. XI. Side events during the tenth session 47. Twenty-four side events were held during the session, 5 on the following diverse themes: effective and meaningful participation in the Expert Mechanism; monitoring, reporting and advocacy for human rights and the prevention of genocide; defending the rights and identity of the peoples of Crimea; Mapuche ancestral medicine; participation of indigenous peoples in the processes of the World Intellectual Property Organization; the impact of extractive industries in the Americas and Africa; the European Commission and a rights-based approach for indigenous peoples; 2019 — Year of Indigenous Languages; a new United Nations mechanism for international repatriation of indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage, ceremonial objects and human remains; securing indigenous peoples’ land rights through strategic litigation; indigenous participation process in Chile; employment and entrepreneurship among indigenous communities; progress in the implementation of 5 See http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/IPeoples/EMRIP/Session10/SideEventsTimetable.pdf. 11