UNICEF Proposes New
Policies to Help Indigenous

The VI Latin American Conference of Child Welfare Ministers was inaugurated yesterday in San José with a proposal from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on new ways to create policies in favor of the region's indigenous youth.

The two-day conference continues today in preparation for the XII Summit of Latin American Presidents, to be held in November in Costa Rica. Strengthening and creating policies to support children and adolescents will be the focus of the summit.

“The highest infant-mortality rates in the Latin American region are found in indigenous communities. This makes evident the imperious necessity of tending to the human rights of these communities,” said Nils Kastberg, UNICEF regional manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, during the conference.

Kastberg presented the publication “Equality with Dignity: New Ways of Taking Action with Indigenous Children in Latin America,” which contains a UNICEF study made in collaboration with 12 leaders from different regional ethnic groups including Quechua, Kuna, Coconuco, Nahualt, Wayuu and Kaqchikel.

Governments, indigenous organizations and civilian society can use the publication to develop programs that improve the rights of indigenous communities, not only on a national level, but also in a community sense, Kastberg explained.

The publication offers a panorama of the situation of Latin American indigenous populations, particularly regarding inaccessibility to sanitation services, protection and basic education.

In Panama, 95% of indigenous people live in poverty, while 37% of non-indigenous people share this condition; in Mexico, 80% of the indigenous population faces poverty, compared to 18% of the non-indigenous population. This pattern of inequality repeats itself throughout the region.

Three of the five countries with the greatest indigenous presence in the region (Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru) register the highest mortality rates in children younger than five years old, according to data from 2002.

The indigenous population's exclusion from education systems is reflected in failure rates. In Guatemala, 90% of elementary students who are forced to repeat a school year are indigenous. In Bolivia, indigenous children are twice as likely to have to repeat a year.

UNICEF data also reveals a growing number of Latin American and Caribbean boys, girls and adolescents are directly affected by physical, psychological, and sexual violence in their homes, schools, communities or institutions such as orphanages and prisons.

Each year at least six million people under age 18 are victims of severe physical aggression, and 85,000 die as a consequence of family violence, according to the organization.

-- AFP