US to support human rights education for indigenous populations

A programme to educate indigenous populations in several regions of the Republic of Congo on their basic human rights will begin in August, the Association pour les droits de l'homme et l'univers carceral (Association for human rights and prison conditions) told IRIN on Tuesday.

Funded by the US embassy, the US $24,000 project will target 120 indigenous people in the regions of Likouala, Sangha, Plateaux and Lekoumou over one year.

Among the objectives of the programme are to bring about the participation of indigenous people in economic development; the creation of conditions to enable them to express and develop their culture (language and traditions); participation in regional and national government decision-making; protection from exploitation; and civil registry of births.

"We want to encourage the education of indigenous populations both in their traditional culture and in modern ways as a means of helping them cope" with modern realities, Ruth Parent of the US embassy told IRIN.

She said although these indigenous people were commonly referred to as pygmies, they referred to themselves as belonging to a particular ethnic community, such as the Ba-Aka. Parent added that most of the indigenous populations had remained hunter-gatherers, also engaging in some trade with exterior groups.