Nikoletta Pikramenou, ICO Research Fellow, participated as a speaker and represented the ICO at the Ninth Multidisciplinary Meeting on Indigenous Peoples at the University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, Netherlands (30 May-1 June 2018).
The conference aimed to contribute with a space for an intercultural encounter within and beyond the academic for participation, education, and inclusivity. Indigenous leaders, civil society members, academics and students discussed and searched redefinitions that are of concern such as rights of Nature, Indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage, climate change, Indigenous feminism, Indigenous languages, educational pluralism and Indigenous art-design, cinema and cultural property.
University College Roosevelt campus, Middleburg
Nikoletta presented an ICO research project that she is currently working on together with co-authors Grazia Redolfi and Rosario Grimá Algora on Indigenous women and self-determination titled “Raising voices for self-determination: Indigenous women in decision-making”. During her presentation, she explained how current Indigenous laws and practices on Indigenous women’s participation in decision-making are considered as “unfair to women” and often lead to their marginalisation and exclusion from negotiating tables. However, lessons from the past prove that engaging more Indigenous women in decision-making can safeguard Indigenous peoples’ and women’s rights including their right to self-determination. To address the intersectional issues that Indigenous peoples and women are subjected to and achieve historical justice, Indigenous female voices need to be heard at every level. When Indigenous women are made equal partners, Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination will be eventually recognised and respected. Towards the end of the presentation, she mentioned that in 2017 she participated at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). During the forum, she noticed that even though Indigenous peoples have transformed from victims of international law to active participants in the international scene, there is a lack of disaggregated data. In relation to Indigenous women’s participation in decision-making, in particular, it is extremely hard to collect data. Therefore, she suggested that one of the main tasks of human rights academics and practitioners who work for the promotion of Indigenous rights is to focus more on the collection of disaggregated data.
Organised by Universitá degli Studi di Milano, University College Roosevelt, Ghent University, Universidad de Deusto, Max Plank Institute for Social Anthropology, EUR.AC research
