Abstract:

“Education of indigenous children contributes to both individual and community development, as well as to participation in society in its broadest sense. Education enables indigenous children to exercise and enjoy economic, social and cultural rights, and strengthens their ability to exercise civil rights in order to influence political policy processes for improved protection of human rights. The implementation of indigenous peoples’ right to education is an essential means of achieving individual empowerment and self-determination. Education is also an important means for the enjoyment, maintenance and respect of indigenous cultures, languages, traditions and traditional knowledge…Education is the primary means of ensuring indigenous peoples’ individual and collective development; it is a precondition for indigenous peoples’ ability to realize their right to self-determination, including their right to pursue their own economic, social and cultural development.”1