United Nations, .- The protection of traditional knowledge is the high priority of the annual meeting of the UN Indigenous Forum, which was opened on Monday at the headquarters of the organization.
The meeting, which will continue until May 3, brings together indigenous leaders and activists from around the world and includes around a hundred events and conferences to address different issues relevant to these communities.
This year, the Forum is being held under the slogan “Traditional knowledge: generation, transmission and protection” and will analyze measures to avoid the loss of the wisdom that has passed from parents to children for centuries.
“Traditional knowledge is at the center of our identity, our culture, our languages, our heritage and our way of life and should be protected,” the new Forum president, Anne Nuorgam, said in a speech.
According to Nuorgam, it is necessary to guarantee the respect on the part of the governments and the population of the whole world to the educational practices, the language or the management of the natural resources of the indigenous communities.
The defense of the languages of these peoples is one of the keys in this Forum, which coincides with the celebration in 2019 of the International Year of Indigenous Languages.
“We have to celebrate our languages, but also take concrete measures to preserve them and save those on the brink of extinction,” Nuorgam stressed.
According to the United Nations, indigenous languages continue to disappear at an “alarming rate” and take with them popular wisdom and cultural diversity.
The president of the UN General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa, stressed that the world has “a historical debt to the indigenous peoples” and the protection of their rights.
Espinosa recalled that 15% of the world’s poorest people are indigenous, a situation that requires “concerted and urgent actions.”
“We can not leave indigenous peoples behind, their inclusion is crucial if we want to achieve the 2030 Agenda,” he said, referring to the UN’s grand strategy for development. (EFEUSA)
