A/HRC/24/50
helping participants understand and value their Maori culture, as well as understanding how
it influences themselves, their families and their communities.
70.
The Expert Mechanism also received information on the importance of including
indigenous youth, who may experience systemic violence without understanding historical
and policy-related causes, in truth-seeking processes. Such engagement can help youth to
participate in broader processes of seeking justice. This can validate the experiences of
elders who have survived historical injustices and abuse.85
C.
Indigenous persons with disabilities
1.
Barriers
71.
Indigenous persons with disabilities experience multiple forms of discrimination
based on their indigenous status and also on disability, and often face barriers to the full
enjoyment of their rights.
72.
Indigenous persons with disabilities face considerable obstacles, such as physical
inaccessibility to domestic or traditional courts. In relation to family law, indigenous
parents with disabilities may face a heightened risk of having their children apprehended.86
73.
While data is scarce, that available suggests that indigenous persons with disabilities
also experience disproportionately high rates of incarceration.87 Concerns exist regarding
their treatment in prisons where, among other challenges, 88 there may be no access to
necessary services, including psychological and psychiatric assistance.89
74.
Disproportionate representation of indigenous persons with mental health disabilities
in detention raises concerns that indigenous persons with mental illness or intellectual or
cognitive disabilities are not receiving needed attention. This implicates other human rights,
including access to adequate health services, housing and care and support services. It also
points to the need for increased training and awareness on mental health disabilities,
including foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, by justice system officials. 90
2.
Remedies
75.
The Declaration calls for specific attention to the rights and special needs of
indigenous persons with disabilities (arts. 21 and 22). The situation of persons with
disabilities who are subject to multiple forms of discrimination is addressed by the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which establishes that States parties
are to ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with
others (art. 13).
85
86
87
88
89
90
Seminar on access to justice: International Centre for Transitional Justice.
For additional information, see Women Enabled, letter to the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women dated 1 February 2013. Available from
www.womenenabled.org/pdfs/Feb2013_CEDAW.pdf.
Submission: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, citing Edward Heffernan
et al., “Prevalence of mental illness among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in
Queensland prisons” (2012).
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Handbook on Prisoners with Special Needs, pp. 43 ff
(2009).
See, for example, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, report on its visit to Greenland (CPT/Inf (2013) 3), p. 9.
Submission: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.
17