Indigenous Peoples’ access to Health Services
Also, that States take effective measures to ensure that programmes for monitoring, maintaining and restoring the health of indigenous peoples, as developed and implemented by the peoples affected by such materials, are duly implemented. Indigenous peoples face a myriad of obstacles when accessing public health systems. These include the lack of health facilities in indigenous communities and cultural differences with the health care providers such as differences in languages, illiteracy and lack of understanding of indigenous culture and traditional health care systems. There is also an absence of adequate health insurance or lack of economic capacity to pay for services. As a result, indigenous peoples often cannot afford health services even if it is available. Marginalization also means that indigenous peoples are reluctant or have difficulties in participating in non-indigenous processes or systems at the community, municipal, state and national levels. There are also major concerns regarding the lack of data on indigenous peoples’ health and social conditions. Not only is there a lack of disaggregated data based on ethnicity but also data related to the location of indigenous peoples’ residence such as urban, rural or isolated areas. As a result, there is a lack of information, analysis and evaluation of programmes and services relating to indigenous peoples’ health situation. One of the important areas for health care for indigenous peoples lies in intercultural frameworks and models of care. Health care services need to be pluricultural in order to develop effective models of care and best practices so that such programmes and services are culturally and linguistically appropriate for indigenous peoples. Also, indigenous peoples must be able to participate in the design and implementation of comprehensive health plans, policies and programmes. It has been estimated that over 80 per cent of the world’s indigenous peoples live in Asia, Latin America and Africa,. However, there is still little information known about their health status and their levels of access to health services. Even in wealthy nations, most studies indicate an alarming health disadvantage for indigenous peoples. Historically, indigenous peoples have suffered the impact of colonization and assimilation policies as well as the imposition of foreign development models. Indigenous peoples continue to suffer discrimination in their own countries which has a major impact on their lives, in particular, their health. Indigenous peoples are not only a marginalized group with health problems, they are also highly aware of their situation, quite political and willing to work to towards improving their health and social status. Therefore, indigenous peoples have the right to determine their own policies, strategies and interventions in order to obtain the highest attainable standards of health and health services, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The concept of indigenous peoples There has been considerable debate devoted to the question of the definition or understanding of “indigenous peoples” however, no such definition has ever been adopted by any United Nations body, and the prevailing view today is that no formal universal definition is necessary for the recognition and protection of their rights. One of the most cited descriptions of the concept of “indigenous” was outlined in the José R. Martínez Cobo’s Study on the Problem of Discrimination against Indigenous Populations. After
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