Trade, social justice and the health of indigenous peoples

There are about 257 to 350 million Indigenous Peoples in about 5000 communities in 70 countries. Because many indigenous peoples live in remaining areas where traded natural resources are abundant they often experience deleterious health and human rights effects of trade. The nature of trade conflicts with the indigenous worldview, which while varied, in general is that humans belong to the earth not vice versa, use of resources are collectively determined, rights are ancestral, and land, or place, is primary and inseparable from spirituality, health, livelihood family, community, and culture; their concept of health is holistic. The intellectual property rights of trade agreements (e.g., TRIPS), and the extractive trading industries such as oil, gas, lumber, and mining often lead to usurpation of the rights of indigenous peoples and create unhealthful living conditions. Examples of trade-related effects include food insecurity, diarrheal disease, pulmonary diseases, scabies, psychological problems, cancer, displacement, poverty, loss of language and culture, confiscation and environmental degradation of land and waterways, and theft of traditional knowledge, medicinal and food plants and human DNA through trade-related patenting. Indigenous peoples have regained some rights through mechanisms that include territorial reserves, adaptation, capacity building programs, indigenous partnerships, direct confrontation, the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and the Manila Declaration of the International Conference on Extractive Industries and Indigenous Peoples. Public health efforts to address trade must include indigenous peoples' concerns & rights.