A/HRC/33/57
8.
States should ensure that indigenous peoples are given full access to publicly run
health-care facilities, goods and services, as well as to facilities, goods and services relating
to underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable water and adequate food and
sanitation. The introduction and implementation of comprehensive anti-discrimination laws
and the collection and use of disaggregated data are vital for achieving this objective.
9.
Laws and policies that permit or sanction violence against indigenous peoples, even
if only implicitly, should be repealed by States, and steps should be taken to address
violence perpetrated by State representatives (such as armed forces) and third parties.
Violence in health-care settings, such as forced sterilization and female genital mutilation,
as well as discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender indigenous persons,
should be explicitly prohibited.
10.
States should not endanger the environmental health of indigenous peoples,
including through air pollution or water and soil contamination by State-owned facilities or
other activities. States should take steps to protect indigenous peoples from environmental
damage caused by third parties (such as private companies) by minimizing, through
legislative and practical measures, the impact that extractive industries in particular have on
the physical and mental health of indigenous peoples.
11.
Indigenous peoples should be permitted to identify as distinct groups within States
and States should take positive measures to ensure the collection of disaggregated data on
indigenous peoples. States should facilitate access to health-care services through improved
birth registration processes and by removing birth registration as a precondition for
accessing health-care services.
12.
States should take steps to support the preservation of indigenous cultures and
protect indigenous peoples from the appropriation and commodification of their knowledge,
their traditional medicines and other traditional practices by third parties. Indigenous
peoples should be allowed to practice traditional medicine and enjoy its benefits but
harmful practices that infringe on other rights, such as female genital mutilation, should be
eradicated, in partnership with indigenous peoples.
13.
States should provide sufficient resources to indigenous peoples to facilitate the
creation and operation of their own health-care initiatives or, in the absence of indigenouscontrolled services, provide programmes and interventions directly to indigenous peoples,
including through the implementation of special measures necessary for indigenous peoples
to fully realize their health rights.
14.
States should secure access to quality health-care services, including preventive
care, for nomadic and remote indigenous peoples, indigenous peoples in conflict-affected
areas and indigenous persons in detention, including through mobile clinics, telemedicine
and information and communications technologies.
15.
States should ensure that interpretation services are available to indigenous patients,
to ensure adequate communication in health-care settings. Recognizing the role of
languages in the healing process, States should also promote the use of indigenous
languages in health-care settings.
16.
States should take steps to train indigenous health-care workers and accredit
indigenous health practitioners and integrate them into health-care systems. States should
also improve health-care training curricula to train health-care workers to deliver culturally
appropriate services, and create programmes and services to raise the awareness of
practitioners regarding the treatment and management of indigenous persons.
17.
Culturally appropriate health promotion tools and information should be devised and
disseminated by indigenous peoples in partnership with States, to prevent both
communicable and non-communicable diseases. Sufficient resources should be allocated
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