A/HRC/48/74 toilets.38 Poor housing conditions, such as mould and damp, have been linked to increased respiratory health problems in indigenous children, including Maori children.39 53. Indigenous peoples are also affected by homelessness, including in the Arctic. There is a trend towards urbanization in many countries, including Canada, where the majority of urban indigenous peoples are children and youth and most indigenous children live in urban areas. Indigenous children leave their territories for many reasons, including lack of opportunities or adequate infrastructure, lack of acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and two-spirit persons, or, particularly for women, to escape domestic violence. 40 Some are displaced because of the extractive industries, natural disasters, militarization or the presence of organized crime in their territories. Others remain in cities after leaving State care programmes and some are born there. They often face additional challenges to exercising their rights, particularly regarding access to culturally appropriate education, services, media and their languages. 54. Many indigenous children are forced to work out of economic necessity. Urban indigenous children are often out of school and working at young ages. Indigenous girls are sent to cities as domestic workers, leaving them vulnerable to abuse. 41 Some undertake dangerous work, such as mining, as is the case with some Amazigh children in Algeria. In the Colombian Amazon, there are also reports of armed actors related to the drug trade using indigenous children as forced labour.42 I. Right to education 55. The right to education is fundamental to the exercise of many other rights. Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right to education with a view to the progressive realization of the right on the basis of equal opportunity. Article 29 of the Convention includes as an aim of education, the preparation of children “for responsible life in a free society in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin”. In its general comment No. 1 (2001), the Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that school environments must reflect this spirit of understanding and noted that the promotion of values and policies conducive to human rights was needed in both schools and the broader community (para. 6). Article 29 (c) of the Convention also highlights the importance of respect for the child’s own cultural identity, language and values. 56. Article 14 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples reiterates the right of indigenous children to education without discrimination and confirms the right of indigenous peoples to “establish and control” their own educational systems in their own languages. It also obliges States, together with indigenous peoples, to take measures to ensure access to education in their own languages and cultures when possible. Article 15 confirms the right of indigenous peoples to have their cultures appropriately reflected in education. The Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (No. 169) guarantees the right of indigenous children to learn in their own languages, as well as to learn dominant languages (article 28). It also includes the promotion of the participation of indigenous children in their communities and larger society as an educational aim (article 29). 57. Education is not only a foundational element for the individual development of indigenous children, but also of the community as a whole and is integral to their participation in society. In its 2009 study on the right to education, the Expert Mechanism reiterated that States must ensure access to high quality, culturally appropriate education for all indigenous 38 39 40 41 42 A/74/183, para. 1. Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Indigenous Child Health in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (December 2020) and Tristram Ingham and others, “Damp mouldy housing and early childhood hospital admissions for acute respiratory infection: a case control study”, Thorax, vol. 74, No. 9. Submission by the National Association of Friendship Centres. Submission to the fourteenth session of the Expert Mechanism by Red de Jovenes Indígenas de America Latina. Submission by Comisión Nacional de Mujeres Indígenas de Colombia. 11