Why should uncontacted peoples be left alone?
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Uncontacted peoples should be left alone for two reasons. Contact can kill them, because they have no immunity to common illnesses such as influenza and measles. And it is their choice: international standards recognise their right to decide for themselves whether and when to make contact.
Disease is the greatest danger. Peoples who have lived apart have not built up immunity to illnesses that are mild elsewhere, such as colds, influenza and measles. After first contact, epidemics have repeatedly killed a large part of a group within a few years.
Contact has also brought violence and loss of land. Loggers, miners, ranchers and drug traffickers enter isolated peoples' territories, and clashes follow. Without their forest, a people cannot feed themselves, so protecting the land is the same thing as protecting the people.
There is a rights argument as well. The United Nations and the Inter-American human rights system hold that isolation is an expression of self-determination. Many isolated groups have made their wishes clear by moving away, leaving warning signs or driving off intruders.
For these reasons Brazil has followed a no-contact policy since the late 1980s: the state protects the territory and does not seek contact. The practical lesson for everyone else is simple: do not try to visit, and support the protection of their land.
Words used here
Sources
- Survival International: Uncontacted tribessurvivalinternational.org
- UN Human Rights Office: Indigenous peoplesohchr.org