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This spot outlines the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a UN committee made up of sixteen people that advises the UN on issues such as economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. At these meetings important issues facing Indigenous People are discussed and, if pre-registered, people outside the committee can attend and even present on specific issues.

This spot outlines the importance of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. It is a forum made up of sixteen members that meets yearly to write reports and recommendations to advise states and UN agencies on important issues facing Indigenous Peoples. The forum focuses on general issues that are common to Indigenous Peoples such as health, violence against women and food sovereignty.

This spot outlines the recommendations made by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issue in 2013 on the importance of drawing attention to Indigenous issues in the media through journalism and other modes of communication. The UNPFII is a UN body responsible for bringing international attention to specific issues related to Indigenous Peoples’ health, human rights, economic and social development, environment, education and culture by making recommendations to UN member states and agencies.

This spot talks about Victoria Tauli Corpuz, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous whose role is to investigate the situation of Indigenous Peoples around the world and promote their rights. It highlights the importance of Indigenous People getting in touch with her to bring specific issues to her awareness.

This spot talks about the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or EMRIP, which is a UN body dedicated to studying and reporting on issues affecting Indigenous Peoples around the world. The studies that the EMRIP produces go in depth on issues affecting Indigenous Peoples across the world, such as a recent study it carried out on access to justice.

This spot outlines the ways in which Indigenous Peoples can use the three main UN mechanisms that are dedicated to Indigenous Peoples rights, the Special Rapporteur, the Expert Mechanism of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, to help their causes locally. Indigenous Peoples can use official recommendations and reports from these mechanisms for support at meetings with governments officials and also to spread the word about what is happening through the media.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, discusses with IRR Producer Shaldon Ferris the high rate of imprisonment of Australian Aboriginal individuals that she observed in her official visit to Australia. Disproportionate criminalization of Aboriginal people is evidence of systemic, structural inequality in Australia.

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Song: "YAWLICHALLAY" by Luis Cisneros. Used with permission.

HIV advocate Marama Mullen (Ngatiawa Māori), Executive Director of INA, the Maori, Indigenous, and South Pacific HIV/AIDS Foundation, discusses the HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness network that her organization has fostered among Indigenous communities in the South Pacific.

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Song: "Atahualpa" by Yarina. Used with permission.
Introduction: "Burn Your Village to the Ground" by A Tribe Called Red. Used with permission.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, says she has found an inadequate process of consultation with Indigenous communities on the part of the national government during her visit to Honduras, where she was recently invited for a working visit to comment on a draft of a law regulating Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Indigenous Hondurans do not feel that they were adequately consulted on the content of the law. Further, the law does not meet widely accepted international standards of F.P.I.C.

In many Indigenous communities, dual justice systems operate in tandem: the European system, a colonial imposition characterized by hierarchical, punitive, written codicies, and the Indigenous system, which is often based in tradition and holistic in nature.

Human Rights Lawyer Michelle Cook (Dine') elaborates on the interactions between these two systems, and explains how communities can use the language of human rights to challenge the colonial legal system imposition in order to gain a seat at the table as independent nations with internationally recognized justice systems.

Indigenous Rights Radio Producer Avexnim Cojtí Ren investigates the movement to repatriate sacred objects, remains, and cultural patrimony taken without consent from Indigenous Peoples by governments, collectors, and individuals. Concepts of ownership, histories of oppression, methods of legal recourse, and recent examples of repatriation attempts all play an important role in the prospects for the return of heritage items to Indigenous Peoples.