Press Release: Testing press release with embed

UN Women proudly joins indigenous peoples around the world in celebrating the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. We particularly applaud indigenous women who are the backbone of their families and communities in their roles as leaders, producers and transmitters of indigenous knowledge and cultures. In many locations this role is played against a backdrop of continued threats to their security, ancestral lands and the environment upon which they depend.

This year’s theme, Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Education, aligns with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s commitment to educational attainment among indigenous women and girls. Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5 emphasize the importance of gender equality in ensuring equal access to all levels of education and training, including for indigenous peoples. Indigenous communities must tackle structural barriers to education, such as the preference of boys over girls in the choice over who should attend school, the expectation that girls should marry and have children before reaching adulthood, the risk of physical and sexual violence related to a school’s distant location, and discriminatory policies and teaching practices which impede girls from effectively participating in the school environment and upholding their unique cultures.

Formal, non-formal and informal education are potent means to enhance the ability of indigenous women to reach their full potential. The transmission of knowledge about the rich histories, cultures, languages and farming practices of indigenous peoples are critical life skills needed to perpetuate their unique sense of identity. Formal education must equally be promoted to ensure that indigenous girls and women are able to effectively participate in all domains of social, economic and political activity. Regrettably, however, high levels of illiteracy among indigenous women attest to the historical patterns of discrimination and exclusion, particularly against indigenous girls in the education sector.

See photos from torch event

test test test

test test test