Cultural Rights Facts:
v It is estimated that 80% of refugees worldwide are women and children
v In the 90’s, Iran produced the most refugees in the world, totaling almost 2 million
v Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world; it is illegal or restricted in over 51 countries
v In Latin America, 500 years after the conquest, the indigenous still face serious discrimination and exclusion.
In Guatemala, 87% of the indigenous population is below the poverty line. In Peru, 79% of the indigenous population is below the poverty line, and more than half are considered extremely poor. In Mexico, 80% of the indigenous population is below the poverty line, while only 18% of the non- indigenous population is below the poverty line. In Bolivia, the average indigenous child attends school for 3 years less than the average citizen. 43% of the Mexican indigenous can neither read nor write, compared to 91% of the population in general.
v Things don’t fare so much better for indigenous in developed countries.
In some Canadian indigenous communities, the unemployment rate has reached close to 100%. In Australia, 38% of the Aboriginal population is unemployed, compared to the national average of 9%. In the United States, Native Americans experience 3 times the unemployment of whites.
v About 6,000 girls are exposed to genital mutilation every day
v More than 1 million girls, mostly in Asia, are forced into prostitution each year
v In the United States, a woman is physically abused by her intimate partner every 9 seconds
v According to Nicolas Kristof and others, as many as 60 million women have disappeared from the planet, victims of infanticide, sex-selective abortion, medical and nutritional neglect, honor killings, dowry murders, and domestic violence, skewing the human sex ratio and creating a silent genocide of horrific proportions