August 9, 2013
Washington – On occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urges Member States to guarantee full respect for the human rights of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact in the Americas because they are in a situation of high vulnerability. The lack of protection of their human rights entails a grave risk to their life and physical, cultural and spiritual integrity.
Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact in the Americas inhabit regions of the Amazonian jungle and the Gran Chaco in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. Their territories are often zones in which legal and illegal extractive activities take place in search of natural resources, primarily wood, hydrocarbons and minerals, as well as commercial agriculture and cattle raising in some countries. These activities in general constitute a threat to the life and integrity of these peoples, since they can lead to contact and all the consequence it entails for their health and physical and cultural survival. Since peoples in voluntary isolation do not have immunological defenses against common illnesses, contact can cause not only the loss of their worldview and cultural identity, but also epidemics that may lead to the disappearance of entire peoples.
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