PHNOM PENH (09 August 2016) – This year's International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, 9 August, will be celebrated with special events around the world, including at United Nations Headquarters and here in Cambodia. The Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to celebrate the day with Soui indigenous communities. Her Excellency Mat Mara, Secretary of State, Ministry of Rural Development, will be chairing the event in Kampong Speu Province, in which various state institutions, civil society representatives, indigenous communities' representatives and OHCHR will participate.
Other indigenous communities all over the country will organize celebrations: the Por in Battambang province, the Bunong and Prov in Stung Treng, Bunong and Stieng in Kratie, the Koui in Preah Vihear, the Jorng in Koh Kong, the Koui in Kampong Thom and Krueng, the Jarai, Kajok, Prov and Kavet in Ratanakiri province, etc. OHCHR will directly support the festivities of 8 indigenous communities.
This year's theme - "Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Education" - aims at raising awareness about the fact that today, improving indigenous peoples’ right to education, in particular in their own language, remains a critical challenge. Article 14 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) states that: “1. Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning. 2. Indigenous individuals, particularly children, have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State without discrimination. 3. States shall, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, take effective measures, in order for indigenous individuals, particularly children, including those living outside their communities, to have access, when possible, to an education in their own culture and provided in their own language.”
For more information on the rights of indigenous peoples, please visit OHCHR Cambodia's dedicated webpage: http://cambodia.ohchr.org/en/economic-social-rights/rights-indigenous-peoples