A/HRC/48/74 indigenous communities, or no access at all, which has meant many indigenous children have had no schooling since the start of the pandemic. Indigenous children with disabilities have faced even greater barriers, with difficulties in obtaining accessible formats, particularly in their own languages.56 71. Indigenous students and teachers report challenges related to Internet access or not having a computer at home, as is the case for Amazigh children. Indigenous homes often include extended families, with children having to share a computer or not having a quiet place to learn during the pandemic. Some indigenous children have been doing their schoolwork by mobile phone, often travelling to get a signal. Children from Pueblo de Jemez, New Mexico, learn in the unwritten Towa language so have not been able to carry out written assignments remotely. Some indigenous students in Alaska received assignments but they were in English instead of their Yup’ik language. In New Zealand, television programmes, supported by the Ministry of Education, have offered educational programming in the Maori language during the pandemic. J. Right to health 72. The right to health is recognized in article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the right to health, including the determinants of the right to health, are reflected throughout the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Article 24 of the Declaration includes the right to traditional medicines and health practices, including the conservation of medicinal plants, animals and minerals. It also reflects the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health, as provided for in article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including the critical principles of non-discrimination and equal treatment. Health is also referred to in article 21 of the Declaration, regarding the right to improvement in economic and social conditions for indigenous peoples, and in article 23, regarding the right to be involved in developing and determining economic and social programmes, including health programmes. The rights of indigenous peoples to health are also guaranteed in article 25 of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (No. 169) and article XVII of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 73. In its general comment No. 14 (2000), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights referred to the rights of indigenous peoples to specific measures to improve access to culturally appropriate health care that takes traditional practices and medicines into account. The Committee also recognized the collective dimension of the health of indigenous peoples, noting that an individual’s health is often linked to the health of the community as a whole. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has clarified that children’s right to health includes their right to grow, develop to their full potential and live in conditions enabling them to attain the highest standard of health.57 74. Indigenous peoples, including children, often have unequal access to health care, including in Africa, Latin America and the Arctic. Poverty has an impact on health. That link has been made in New Zealand, where Maori children, who are more likely to live in poverty, also experience more health issues, are less likely to access health care and twice as likely to die from treatable conditions than non-indigenous children.58 75. Unequal access is particularly stark in remote areas, including for Inuit children in smaller settlements in Greenland, who often do not have access to a doctor or dentist. Consequently, health professionals have encountered children with symptoms of sexual abuse long after the event and evidence is lost, leaving accountability and recovery even less likely. 76. Lack of access to health care has a disproportionate impact on indigenous girls, with little access to sexual and reproductive health services, including contraception. Indigenous women often do not access prenatal care and give birth at home. In Africa, indigenous babies 56 57 58 14 Submission to the fourteenth session of the Expert Mechanism by the Global Network of Indigenous Peoples with Disabilities and International Disability Alliance. General comment No. 15 (2013), para. 2. Submission by Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law.