For the year 2024, the United Nations General Assembly has assigned the motto: “Protecting the rights of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact.”
Around 200 groups of indigenous peoples currently live in voluntary isolation and initial contact. They choose to live apart from the rest of the world and their model of mobility allows them to dedicate themselves to hunting and gathering, thus preserving their cultures and languages. They are the main guardians of forests throughout the world and thanks to their ancestral practices they have ensured the conservation of 80% of the biodiversity of flora and fauna as a solution to climate change.
These groups are not immune to diseases arising from external contact, one of the most serious threats to their survival. Due to their isolation from non-indigenous societies, they have no immune defences against relatively common diseases. As such, forced contact with the outside world can have devastating consequences and destroy entire populations.
The indigenous populations of our Panama, despite poverty, cultural differences and difficulties in accessing health and education services, show strong population growth, representing 17.2% of the population in the entire country. These social determinants are factors that motivate us to develop actions aimed at prevention and health promotion.
Promoting healthy lifestyles in indigenous territories represents the continuity of our traditional cultures, as well as promoting an intercultural approach to advance the elimination of diseases in the regions of our country.
We urge you to continue fighting for the preservation of traditional knowledge, poverty reduction, access to the right to land and the conservation of natural resources for your people, for a Panama with health and well-being.
