Virtual Seminar: «Strengthening the rights of Indigenous Peoples»

Session 1:

The seminar emphasizes the current debate on the exercise of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination. Indigenous participants will have the opportunity to exchange experiences and expose the challenges they face in consolidating their models of autonomy. At the same time, the implementation gaps that undermine the exercise of rights, a fundamental pillar for the survival of indigenous peoples, will be analyzed. Participants will identify actions to achieve a more active role in the implementation of international instruments and the adoption of measures to avoid processes of regression in international law and its national application, they will have the opportunity to generate an intercultural dialogue on their ways of exercising their rights, generate alliances and strengthen care mechanisms.

Session 2:

The session will be approached from three perspectives, the first on the struggle of indigenous peoples for the recognition of their rights, the second on the exercise of these rights in their communities, in front of governments, institutions and companies and the third on the regulatory framework from which it seeks to guarantee their collective, linguistic, cultural, economic, and political rights, their lands and territories, traditional knowledge and practices.

1. What are indigenous rights and what does guaranteeing their exercise entail?
2. What is the normative framework on indigenous rights?
3. What are the implications of violating indigenous rights?

Session 3:

Approach: Indigenous Territories, as a framework between culture, knowledge, history, nature and ways of life, their local contexts, their internal relationships and their future perspectives, are some of the central themes of this seminar, since they are framed within it the approach to cultural identity closely linked to the well-being of nature.

1. What are biocultural relationships and how are they linked to community development?
2. What are the risks we face if the balance between indigenous cultures and nature is lost?
3. What is the regulatory framework that protects the biocultural relationships, traditional knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples and their territories?

Session 4:

This session seeks to socialize the international, national and customary normative framework on the rights of indigenous women, promote the participation of indigenous women in the discussion and exercise of their rights, as well as recognize their contributions to the preservation of traditional knowledge and the development of their communities.
Questions:
1. What are the rights of indigenous women?

2. What are the difficulties indigenous women face in exercising their rights?
3. What is the institutional and community framework that makes it possible to exercise the rights of indigenous women?

Sesion 5:

During session 5 of the seminar «Strengthening Indigenous Rights» the subject of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (CPLI) in the Amazon Basin and Mexico was addressed. Speakers: Institutional Guest: Soledad Mills. International guest: Tuntiak
Katan. Community member: Sinuhé Lozano.

Session 6:

Approach: Indigenous peoples have collective rights that are essential for their existence, well-being and integral development. One of them is having collective knowledge, recognized by the national and international regulatory framework. On the matter, this issue will be addressed from a perspective of the protection of this collective knowledge and the exercise of tools that safeguard the environment in which they’re developed.

Questions:

1.What are the international and national instruments for the protection of the collective knowledge of Indigenous peoples?
2. What are the risks of not having clear processes for accessing indigenous traditional knowledge?
3.How are indigenous rights exercised through festivities and ceremonies and other cultural expressions?

Approach: Indigenous Peoples have collective rights that are essential for their existence, well-being and integral development, one of them is in having collective knowledge, recognized by the national and international regulatory framework on the matter. This topic will be addressed from the perspective of the protection of this collective knowledge and the exercise of tools that safeguard the environment in which they are developed.

Questions:

1.What are the international and national instruments for the protection of the collective knowledge of Indigenous Peoples?

2. What are the risks of not having clear processes for accessing indigenous traditional knowledge?

3.How are indigenous rights exercised through festivities and ceremonies and other cultural expressions?

Approach: The Biocultural Community Protocols are effective tools for the protection of the biocultural resources of Indigenous Peoples. The are an expression of the application of indigenous rights and the principles of autonomy and self-determination.
Questions:
1.What are the Biocultural Community Protocols and how are they developed?
2.What are or the risks of not developing processes under the principles of autonomy and self-determination?
3.What is the prospect of using this tool in the present and future of Indigenous Peoples?