Data and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

It is well understood that the existence of relevant information is a vital precondition for devising adequate policy responses to address inequalities and to monitor the effectiveness of measures to overcome discrimination, both within and between countries, as well as for identifying additional gender-based discrimination. Yet, on many occasions, the situation of indigenous peoples remains invisible within national statistics. This is especially true in many developing countries, which often have weak institutional capacities as well as limited financial resources to collect statistics and disaggregate among the various ethnic, linguistic, religious and other groups that may be present in the country.