On Thursday, March 24th concludes the sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women CSW 60. Indigenous women delegations from six cultural regions worldwide attended the session to highlight the importance of indigenous women's empowerment. The International Indigenous Women's Forum facilitated the participation of eight indigenous women during the first week of the Commission in different advocacy arenas to make visible the urgent need of "empowerment of indigenous women" in various spheres and to demonstrate that indigenous women are agents of change and actives actors in transformative processes.

UN Women through the generous donation of the Yvonne M.T. Hebert' Scholarship supported the attendance of four young indigenous women, who participated for the first time at CSW60 and expressed their interest and commitment to continue strengthening themselves to contribute to improve the policies regarding indigenous women in their countries. Louis Wellington, representative of the Ingkerreke Commercial from Australia; Sharon Rose Sabato y Valerie Kasaiyian, representatives of the Indigenous Information Network from Kenya; Maria Judite da Silva Ballerio Guajajara, from the Indigenous Youth Network - Rede de Juventude Indígena- REJUIND, ECMIA from Brazil; and Paninnguaq Steenholdt from the Greenlandic National Academic Students Organization, ILI ILI; made substantial contributions in each intervention and dialogue.

Beside empowerment, other issue that was approached was the gender violence. Indigenous women from Norway and Guatemala hold a side event where they shared the multiple expressions of violence including domestic, sexual, institutional and spiritual that face indigenous women in those countries. The speakers concluded expressing that is important to include men in the design of strategies to eradicate this problematic. By the other hand, the Permanent Mission of Canada together with the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, US and the Group of Friends of Indigenous Peoples did a Panel on "Indigenous Women and Girls: Pathways to Equality"where it was highlighted approaches and experiences of indigenous women from Canada, Nicaragua and Bangladesh. The shared experiences converged in the fact that indigenous women are vital change agents to eradicate all the expressions of violence from their own Cosmo vision.

Multiple opportunities occurred to position the indigenous women voices in different spaces and to be considered as key actors in decision-making spaces at international level. FIMI in cooperation with The Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru (CHIRAPAQ) participated in a High Level interactive dialogue among Ministers with the objective to build alliances for gender responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Teresa Zapeta, FIMI's Program Coordinator, took the floor on behalf Tarcila Rivera Zea, President of FIMI and CHIRAPAQ, demanding an "effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development where no one is left behind; it is crucial that we, indigenous women, be recognized for our own specificities and we are not only rural women". At the same time, Mirna Cunningham Kain, President of the Centro para la autonomía y desarrollo de los pueblos indígenas (CADPI) expressed that "for indigenous women, the empowerment is part of our historic responsibility, sacred and permanent protection of the Mother Earth, which are enshrined in the rights of our peoples, in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and in others international instruments of human rights, also the commitments assumed by the States in the Outcome Document of the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples".

A spiritual invocation guided by Teresa Zapeta preceded the Panel Discussion on Empowerment of Indigenous Women the last Wednesday March 16th, organized by the Group of Friends of Indigenous Peoples, UN Women, the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and FIMI. The event was aimed to recognize the leadership of indigenous women as key actors in the political participation processes, their struggle for the violence against indigenous women, the eradication of poverty and to enhance their empowerment at all levels. Around 125 people including representatives of the Group of Friends of Indigenous Peoples, Ambassadors, Ministers and representatives of the Permanent Missions to the United Nations, indigenous women worldwide, representatives from United Nations agencies and activists of Civil Society attended the panel.

One of the most touching interventions during this Panel Discussion, was held by Berta Zuniga, daughter of the Lenca activist Berta Cáceres, who demands justice for the recent murdered of the Lenca leader and for other indigenous brothers of the Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras COPINH who have been killed just recently. Berta emphasized that "the implementation of the Agenda 2030 will never be a reality if human rights defenders continue to be threatened, murdered and criminalized, and if there is a systematic violations of indigenous peoples for their right to free, prior and informed consent in the construction of infrastructure and extractive projects in their land and territories". On the other hand, the Minister of Canada, Ms. Carolyn Bennett expressed that is necessary "the reparation of historical debts, and this is going to be possible only if indigenous women are heard".

The CSW60 session was undoubtedly an enriching experience to position the demands of indigenous women worldwide. In this sense, the four young indigenous women from the regional networks were interviewed with UN Women and UN Radio. Additionally, the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in coordination with FIMI organized a press conference where Tarcila Rivera Zea, Louise Wellington and Valerie Kasaiyian participated emphasizing the importance of empowerment of indigenous women as key actors to the inclusive and effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

FIMI is deeply thankful with the young indigenous women from the regional networks who with their enthusiasm, experience and passion for the human rights of indigenous women, achieved to advocate and to take full advantage of each space. We would also like to express our gratitude to Chandra Roy-Henriksen, Mirian Masaquiza and Julia Ravaad from the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum, sisters and allies, for their ongoing support and for their professionalism and commitment which make an important work to favor indigenous peoples and particularly, indigenous women.

You can download the FIMI intervention here.

Source: International Indigenous Women's Forum (IIWF)/Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indigenas