A/HRC/EMRIP/2019/2 issues for First Nations, including the recruitment of more indigenous border officers, and enhanced training on indigenous cultures for Border Services Agency staff. 78 66. In the Nordic countries, borders divide the ancestral lands of the Sami. Finland, Norway and Sweden and the Sami are negotiating a Nordic Sami convention. It has been described as the “most ambitious initiative to address cross-border issues and an example of how this recognition may both co-exist with and pose a challenge to preconceived notions of State sovereignty.” 79 Other bilateral treaties exist, such as that between Sweden and Norway, which allows indigenous Sami reindeer-herders from Sweden to use lands in Norway and vice versa. 67. The Inuit Circumpolar Council is another example of how indigenous peoples have successfully worked together to build connections across international boundaries for cultural exchanges and political coordination. 80 The Nenets district and the Republic of Komi in the Russian Federation signed an agreement ensuring equal treatment for nomadic reindeer herders in both neighbouring territories. 68. The Torres Strait Treaty allows for freedom of movement without passport or visa (albeit with strict permit conditions) between Australia and Papua New Guinea communities for traditional activities, to protect the traditional way of life of Torres Strait Islanders and the coastal people of Papua New Guinea. 81 69. The decision of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the International Transhumance Certificate provides for pastoral rights and obligations throughout the ECOWAS zone.82 The objective of the agreement is to allow animals free passage across the borders of all the member States; however, obstacles to its implementation remain.83 The Nouakchott Declaration is an agreement of the six countries of the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal) that affirms the importance of pastoralism as a right of pastoralist peoples. 84 F. Focus on indigenous peoples in vulnerable situations 70. Women, children, persons with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons experience migration, often disproportionally, compounded by multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, based on different facets of identity, gender, age and ethnicity. 71. The lack of data disaggregated by gender, age and other relevant factors, and of systems to collect data on the prevalence of disabilities among indigenous children and young people and on specific violations of their human rights, is a serious constraint in assessing their challenges, including in the migration context. 85 It is likely that the barriers faced by indigenous persons with disabilities, as expressed by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, increases in the context of migration. For example, the Committee expressed its concern at the law in Thailand which excludes non-Thai persons with disabilities from benefiting from services and entitlements. Also, many children and adults with disabilities are not registered, owing to the widespread stigma of being identified as a person with a disability (see CRPD/C/THA/CO/1). Access to basic services such as nutrition, health and education, is likely to become more difficult in the context of 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 16 Report on First Nation border crossing issues, 31 August 2017. Imai and Gunn, “Indigenous Belonging”. Ibid. Australia submission. ECOWAS decision A/DEC.5/10/98. The ECOWAS 15 member States have a total pastoral population numbering in the tens of millions. Danjuma D. Jise, ECOWAS draft paper, “The ECOWAS Protocol relating to the regulation on transhumance between ECOWAS member States 1998/2003: challenges of implementation”. The Nouakchott Declaration on Pastoralism: mobilizing jointly an ambitious effort to ensure pastoralism without borders. Agreement concluded on 29 October 2013. European Parliament, “The situation of indigenous children with disabilities”, 18 December 2017; CRPD/C/BRA/CO/1; CRPD/C/KEN/CO/1.