C2. Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Survival
Specific Expectations
C2.1
describe key human rights challenges faced by Indigenous peoples around the world (e.g., loss of ancestral land, including through forcible removal and relocation; inadequate access to resources/services such as traditional food, clean water, and sanitation; use and/or degradation of natural resources on Indigenous territories; inadequate housing; vulnerability to poverty; lower levels of literacy; limited access to health services; forced assimilation; lack of self-determination; lack of government support for Indigenous laws and traditions; inadequate protection of cultural and intellectual property such as environmental knowledge; violence against community members who attempt to defend Indigenous rights; loss of language and/or culture), and explain some connections between human rights, living conditions, and way of life
- What universal rights do Indigenous peoples share with other populations?
- What are some ways in which Indigenous peoples have either faced systemic discrimination or been at a cultural, social, and/or economic disadvantage relative to other populations in the same regions?
- What connection can you make between the right to adequate housing and Indigenous rights to land?
- In what ways do articles 25 to 32 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples support the right of Indigenous peoples to own and develop their land and resources? How is this issue related to living conditions and/or way of life?
- What can be done to reduce high energy and food costs in remote communities? How is this a human rights issue?
C2.2
analyse key global developments related to social justice for Indigenous peoples to determine their connection to human rights and cultural survival (e.g., with reference to national governments’ interpretations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007; nation-to-nation protocols and measures for conflict resolution between states and Indigenous peoples; the effects of apologies, truth and reconciliation initiatives, reparations, and recognition of past injustices; efforts to ensure that Indigenous communities have clean water, medical services, and humanitarian relief; the establishment of educational systems that accommodate language rights and support the preservation of Indigenous cultures)
- Which countries can you name that have undertaken truth-seeking and reconciliation efforts regarding their Indigenous populations? What common purpose and processes do these initiatives share? What are some differences?
- In what ways can a dominant culture affect the cultural survival of an Indigenous society? Why is this a social justice issue? Why is it a human rights issue?
C2.3
analyse the role of Indigenous women and children in cultural survival, identifying various factors that necessitate the legal protection of their human rights (e.g., with reference to the transmission of social, economic, and cultural values to future generations; the struggle for Indigenous women’s rights in countries such as Guatemala; gender-based discrimination, exploitation, and violence against Indigenous women and girls; the forced displacement of women and children; loss of community membership for women who marry non-Indigenous partners; the need for women to function as heads of clans and/or the voice of their communities in times of conflict; state-coerced sterilization; missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls)
- In what ways has the displacement of Indigenous women from their traditional territories in southeast Asia affected their way of life, and with what consequences?
- What cultural impact does military conflict have on contemporary Andean Indigenous women raising children in southern Colombia?
- How can the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child help foster dialogue about the work required to support Indigenous children?
- What supports are available in Nicaragua to prevent violence against Indigenous women and girls and/or to address the factors that contribute to violence?
- What public health policy has ignored the reproductive rights of Indigenous women in Peru? How have human rights organizations attempted to seek justice for affected women?
- What role have Indigenous women played with respect to the Dakota Access Pipeline? How is this a human rights issue? How is it a cultural survival issue?
