Minister of People’s Power for Indigenous People, Yamilet Mirabal, reaffirmed on Wednesday the commitment of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United Nations System to preserving the millenary legacy and respect for the ancestral heritage of the world’s indigenous people.
“The United Nations is called to serve as a space for encounters, reflection and action to honor our ancestral heritage and cultures, and to repay the historical debt with their legacy of wealth and diversity,” said Minister Mirabal at the 20th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Mirabal highlighted the multiethnic and pluricultural nature of Venezuela, which ensures spaces for equality, with full rights, for the more than 750,000 indigenous people in the country, as well as policies of social inclusion in health, food and culture, and stressed that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, social care is provided in the most remote areas of the Venezuelan territory.
The Venezuelan minister pointed out that despite the aggression and the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States against the Venezuelan people, “the Bolivarian Government prioritizes vulnerable sectors with the active leading role of our indigenous people.”
Finally, Mirabal reaffirmed Venezuela’s support for the world’s call for the mass production of COVID-19 vaccines without restrictions.
“We have to consider them a universal public good to favor the world’s most vulnerable sectors, including indigenous people,” she said.
The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is a high- level advisory body to the Economic and Social Council. The Forum was established on 28 July 2000 by resolution 2000/22, with the mandate to deal with indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.