A/HRC/33/57 33. States should protect indigenous communities from actions by private companies and other third parties that deny indigenous peoples their sources of nutrition, medicinal plants and livelihoods through increased pressure on land, environmental degradation or displacement. Doing so necessarily includes respecting the principle of free, prior and informed consent. States should prevent the appropriation and commodification of indigenous knowledge, traditional medicines and practices by third parties. Article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples confirms that indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, and sports and traditional games. They also have the right to develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. 34. Although indigenous peoples have the right to engage in traditional health-care practices, States should take steps to work with indigenous communities towards the eradication of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation.13 More research needs to be carried out into traditional medicines, procedures and other interventions. However, such research, and any potential commercialization, must take place in partnership with indigenous peoples. 35. States should consider the wishes of indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation or initial contact, in recognition of their greater vulnerability and need of protection. States should develop preventive programmes to protect the health of those groups, in particular by protecting their lands and territories from environmental damage and by avoiding the transmission of diseases to which those groups lack immunity. States must also create plans to provide access to mainstream and traditional medicine where it is sought and develop an emergency plan to be implemented in the event of a threat of imminent widespread mortality. 14 36. Finally, States should ensure that adequate mechanisms exist for the provision of redress and remedy in cases of infringements of the right to health, through mainstream or indigenous juridical systems (A/HRC/27/65), which may have certain advantages in respect of the resolution of complaints. In the Philippines, for example, complaints of violence against women heard through the traditional justice system have reportedly been resolved quickly, with high rates of acceptance by the parties.15 Fulfil 37. States should formulate and adopt national strategies to ensure that all individuals have access, without discrimination, to the health facilities, goods and services necessary to achieve the highest attainable standard of health. The creation of a national strategy should be accompanied by implementation plans and right-to-health indicators for effective monitoring, evaluation and accountability. States that are developing national action plans for the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as called for by the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, should ensure that 13 14 15 10 Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 11. OHCHR and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, “Directrices de protección para los pueblos indígenas en aislamiento y en contacto inicial de la región amazónica, el Gran Chaco y la Región Oriental de Paraguay” (Geneva, May 2012). Available from http://www.amazonia-andina.org/sites/default/files/directrices-de-proteccion-para-los-pueblosindigenas-en-aislamiento-y-en-contacto-inicial_0.pdf. Submission by the Asia Indigenous Women’s Network.