A/77/514 "backward" people and discriminate against those seeking decision-making roles as civil servants and politicians in Tajikistan.152 58. Indigenous peoples have also faced discrimination, violence, and hostility for their perceived "failure" to assimilate, especially where they advocate for their rights and express their cultural and spiritual identity.153 In a 2020 study, 97% of indigenous Australian respondents encountered harmful social media content weekly, including threats and demands from white nationalists for forced assimilation.154 Respondents were also concerned that social media companies are less likely to understand—and thereby moderate—hatred based on their "way of life" and spiritual identity compared to other religions. In a Norwegian survey, approximately 33% of respondents had observed hateful speech or conduct against Sami peoples, typically questioning their indigeneity and reindeer herding—a spiritually significant practice.155 Harmful practices against indigenous peoples, including hateful rhetoric, disinformation, and derogatory tropes, may travel from offline to online worlds and vice versa. The Special Rapporteur recalls that HRC Resolution 16/18156 prohibits incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence based on one's religious or belief identity, as guided through the Rabat Plan of Action's six-step test.157 59. Interlocutors noted that systematic and widespread discrimination can pressure indigenous peoples, especially younger generations, to assimilate to survive or "to succeed"158 in broader society, thereby self-censoring, reducing, or ceasing spiritual practices—feeding fears of "traditional knowledge going extinct." In Tunisia, Amazigh perceives social pressure to conform, concealing their language and clothing to secure employment and social acceptance. Indigenous peoples from Sangha, Congo, "saw no other viable option [besides integration] for ensuring survival" once driven from their forests and forbidden from hunting. 159 Others seek Western education to "learn the white man's way," effectively using State legal systems to challenge adverse policies and practices, including those undermining their freedom of religion or belief.160 60. Underlying many indigenous peoples' current interactions with State apparatuses is an enduring distrust engendered by centuries of institutionalized discrimination, dispossession, and forced assimilation.161 Today, certain State actors are still perceived as hostile or exclusionary, deterring participation and perpetuating disadvantage. In Bolivia, Peru, and the Philippines, healthcare authorities' stigmatization and restrictions on indigenous midwives have reportedly driven many indigenous women to choose homebirths in accordance with spiritual beliefs, limiting access to emergency medical services should complications arise.162 61. While human rights are interdependent and indivisible, this is particularly relevant to indigenous peoples whose "spiritual worldview" governs every aspect of their lives. For example, indigenous peoples often conceptualize health holistically, encompassing one's physical well-being and the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional health of the whole 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/TJK/INT_CERD _NGO_TJK_28052_E.pdf,(pp.8-9). E.g. https://www.peacemakersnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Amplifying-Youth-LedPeacebuilding-in-South-Asia.pdf https://researchmanagement.mq.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/135775224/MQU_HarmfulContentonSocialMedia_repo rt_201202.pdf https://www.nhri.no/rapport/holdninger-til-samer-og-nasjonale-minoriteter-i-norge/ A/HRC/RES/16/18. A/HRC/22/17/Add.4. Consultation-Kenya. A/HRC/45/34/Add.1,(paras.31-33). Consultations-USA, Greenland, Ecuador. E.g. https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/432/SECU/Reports/RP11434998/securp06/securp0 6-e.pdf E.g. https://www.unfpa.org/news/giving-birth-upright-mat%C3%A9-%E2%80%93-peru-clinicsopen-arms-indigenous-women; https://chr.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022.-SectoralMonitoring-on-the-Situation-of-Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-During-the-Pandemic.docx 17