A/HRC/4/32 page 17 71. The Special Rapporteur has talked to numerous indigenous women’s organizations, which complained of discriminatory practices against women within their own communities, such as forced marriages, the practice of giving children away to other families, frequent domestic violence, child rape, dispossession of property, limited access to land ownership and other forms of male patriarchal domination. For the most part, women are unable to take these abuses before the courts and when they do they experience a lack of sympathy and fierce pressure from the family and community. In many countries they have organized themselves to confront this situation of gender discrimination and violence, adopting a human rights-based approach. 72. The Special Rapporteur recommends that States, civil society and the multilateral organizations should implement adequately-funded special programmes for the protection, defence and support of indigenous women and children who find themselves in the situations described above. K. Indigenous children 73. The World Bank has found that indigenous children in five Latin American countries still work more than non-indigenous children, although their level of schooling has by and large risen. In Guatemala the proportion of non-indigenous working children has declined, while that of indigenous children has remained the same. In Bolivia the incidence of child labour is four times higher among indigenous children than among the non-indigenous population. In other countries, such as the Philippines and Kenya, indigenous children work in mining activities, prostitution, commercial farming and domestic service, while in other countries they are involved in armed conflicts. Generally speaking, social policies do not address indigenous child labour, which remains invisible and poorly understood. 74. The Committee on Racial Discrimination reported in 2004 the growing sexual exploitation of children and the rape of girls belonging to indigenous and tribal peoples in regions where mining and forestry operations have developed (A/59/18, para. 195). The Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its concern at the situation of Batwa children and the total failure to respect their rights at all levels (CRC/C/100, para. 162). It also expressed its concern at the situation of indigenous children in the Republic of the Congo, although it recognizes that progress had been made towards the approval of a law on indigenous peoples in that country (CRC/C/COG/CO/1, para. 88). 75. The Special Rapporteur recommends to Governments that they should take into account and promptly implement the recommendations of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Committee on the Rights of the Child concerning the protection of the rights of indigenous children in vulnerable situations, especially in situations of migration, urban environments, detention, forced eviction, and domestic and international conflict. II. FUTURE INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF INDIGENOUS RIGHTS 76. The new trends and challenges analysed above only reinforce the need for standards and mechanisms for the effective protection of indigenous peoples’ rights. The debate on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Human Rights Council

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