BRASILIA: A UN special rapporteur on indigenous rights on Tuesday urged Brazil to do more to overturn critical health and educational deficiencies and combat economic woes suffered by its native population.

While culturally rich, indigenous peoples remain impoverished economically, without sufficient power or opportunities to develop on a sustainable basis and are continually suffocated by discrimination, James Anaya, a US legal scholar descended from Apache indians, told reporters in Brasilia.

The health and educational situation is critical for many indigenous peoples, he said after wrapping up a nearly two-week stay visiting indigenous areas in Brazil.

He said that while Brazil had made recent legislative advances in addressing the problems faced by many of the 460,000 indigenous people in its population of 190 million, more changes were badly needed.

He questioned whether many social programmes implemented, in fact, reached the South American nation’s aboriginal population, and noted that a government scheme to boost infrastructure projects appeared to run roughshod over opposition from affected indigenous communities.

It has become evident to me that indigenous peoples frequently do not control the decisions that affect their everyday lives and their lands, he said.

Anaya, who earlier this year was made the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, added: I’ve heard alarming accounts on violence against indigenous individuals, specially the most vocal leaders.