A/HRC/48/54 animals and minerals. Indigenous individuals also have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services.” B. Revitalization of indigenous knowledge, reconnection with traditional lands and recovery of traditional food resources 63. In their recovery efforts, indigenous communities are mindful of the relationship between health and nature and are depending on or reviving traditional practices, such as food gathering. By relying on historical wisdom regarding food and forest sustainability, indigenous peoples have found strength in traditional teachings and their connection to the land. Physical distancing guidance has encouraged indigenous peoples to connect more strongly with their land, creating a resurgence of traditional practices and a transmission of indigenous customary law and cultural knowledge. 64. Pre-existing food insecurity in indigenous communities has been exacerbated by climate change and pandemic lockdowns. Communities have responded by relying on food sovereignty networks and traditional food systems to guarantee their food and nutritional security. According to one report: “The strengthening of the traditional diet has been recorded during the pandemic, whether because of the lack of access to processed food or because of a critical reflection on the habit of consuming these products and the harm they cause to people’s health.” 70 65. The native seed and food sovereignty project for COVID relief launched by indigenous communities in the United States “supports indigenous peoples’ food sovereignty and restoration of traditional seed, food and medicinal plant use. The project facilitates and supports the establishment of family and community gardens for reservation households to supply and supplement their food needs and provides access to fresh grown foods...in response to the pandemic and for long term health and resiliency.”71 66. In Latin America, young people have played a fundamental role in designing solutions for COVID-19, revitalizing indigenous knowledge and languages, promoting food security and protecting ancestral territory. Indigenous youth have planted gardens for indigenous medical plants and traditional foods, created cultural and intergenerational information materials on COVID-19, distributed masks with cultural patterns, used street art to promote indigenous languages and knowledge, documented elders’ knowledge and created cultural maps to protect their ancestral territory. In Colombia, indigenous peoples have strengthened ancestral practices to promote food sovereignty and customs to help in recovery from COVID-19 and prevention. In Paraguay, indigenous organizations coordinated with governmental institutions to train indigenous communities to monitor forests in protected areas. In Bolivia (Plurinational State of) and Ecuador, indigenous organizations have promoted the Numi project experience restoring territories of life that rely on traditional practices to restore the Amazonian ecosystem and protect against deforestation.72 C. Exercising and expanding self-determination, self-governance, sovereignty and nation-building 67. In many instances, indigenous communities are devising their own measures to respond to the pandemic in ways that exercise their right to self-determination and expand their sovereignty, especially where States have been slow to act. They are exerting their own jurisdiction and control over territories and resources by proactively distributing food and goods, restricting or closing borders, suspending tourism to prevent virus transmission and taking legal action to protect their communities. 70 71 72 14 See submission by Insituto de Pesquisa e Formação Indígena, p. 10. See International Indian Treaty Council, “Covid-19 and indigenous peoples in North America”, p. 4. See submissions by Cxhab Wala Kiwe-Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca; Federación por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos Indígenas; Organización Indígena de Antioquia; Almáciga; and Colectivo de Geografía Crítica del Ecuador and Land is Life.