DEFEND INDIGENOUS YOUTHS' RIGHT TO EDUCATION

VATICAN CITY, MAY 22, 2003 (VIS) - Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, participated yesterday in the Second Session of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues underway in New York.

The archbishop recalled that the United Nations is celebrating the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People and that the Holy See welcomes the decision to dedicate a session to "Indigenous Children and Youth". "The Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the Holy See is party," he said, "is the first international human rights treaty to recognize indigenous children as a group of rights-holders, and specifically identifies indigenous people as a group which suffers from discrimination in relations to most of the rights enshrined within the document."

"The Convention reaffirms," he continued, "that an indigenous child 'shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language. Despite various international commitments, children remain especially vulnerable to violations of the right to education, and for indigenous children and youth this challenge is compounded by racism, xenophobia and related intolerance that continue to affect them on the basis of their own cultural specificities and uniqueness."

"The right to education concerns not only matters of access, but also of ensuring content which can empower indigenous children for their future. ... In seeking to protect the right to education of indigenous children and youth, the international community can effectively provide support for the efforts of indigenous communities to defend their heritage and identity. ... The challenge facing individuals and organizations ... is to ensure that indigenous children and youth are not robbed of their present and future."

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