Indigenous Rights

What can Development Banks do to Protect Human Rights?

By Phillip Kaeding
In a petition signed by 150 NGOs, the Coalition for Human Rights in Development have called for development banks to make sure that human rights are respected by their beneficiaries.

Indigenous Villages in Honduras Overcome Hunger at Schools

By Thelma Mejía
Barely 11 years old and in the sixth grade of primary school, this student dreams of becoming a farmer in order to produce food so that the children in his community never have to go hungry. Josué Orlando Torres of the indigenous Lenca people lives in a remote corner of the west of Honduras.

Post-War Truth and Justice Still Elusive in Bougainville

By Catherine Wilson
Almost every family in the islands of Bougainville, an autonomous region of about 300,000 people in the Pacific Island state of Papua New Guinea, has a story to tell of death and suffering during the decade long civil war (1989-1998), known as ‘the Crisis.’

Civil Society Under Serious Attack

By Lyndal Rowlands
Despite their contribution to social justice, civil society organisations came under “serious attack” in 109 countries in 2015, according to a new report published by CIVICUS Monday.

The Environment: Latin America’s Battleground for Human Rights

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
2015 was the deadliest year on record for the killings of environmental activists around the world, according to a new Global Witness report.

Bougainville Women Turn Around Lives of ‘Lost Generation’

By Catherine Wilson
Finding a sense of identity and purpose, as well as employment are some of the challenges facing youths in post-conflict Bougainville, an autonomous region in eastern Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific Islands.

Polynesian Voyagers Bring Messages of Hope to UN on World Oceans Day

By Lyndal Rowlands
Polynesian voyagers who have sailed the world by canoe using ancient navigation skills will bring pledges they collected along the way to the UN on Wednesday as part of World Oceans Day celebrations.

Indigenous Peoples Inclusion at United Nations Incomplete

By Aruna Dutt
The United Nations Indigenous Forum is one of the UN's most culturally diverse bodies yet its inclusion within the overall UN system remains limited.

Will Canada Recognise Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Developing Countries Too?

By Aruna Dutt
While Canada’s long-awaited support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples brought hope and celebration last week, it's not yet clear whether the rights of Indigenous people in developing countries harmed by Canadian mining companies will also be included.

A Latin American Humanitarian Emergency Invisible to the World

By Daniela Pastrana
“This is a humanitarian crisis,” said Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, referring to the generalised violence in Mexico and in Honduras and other countries of Central America, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and is a product of transnational crime, but is invisible to the international community.

Justice for Berta Caceres Incomplete Without Land Rights: UN Rapporteur

By Lyndal Rowlands
The murder of Honduran Indigenous woman Berta Caceres is only too familiar to Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Asia’s Indigenous Communities Marred by Militarisation

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Militarisation in indigenous territories in Asia is exacerbating conflict and human rights violations, said Secretary-General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact Joan Carling at an event during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) held here Monday.

Black Colombian Activists Continue Our Struggle For Rights

By Charo Rojas
While Colombia’s peace talks continue in Havana, Cuba, back home in the region of North Cauca, Black Colombians have found their cries for access to their ancestral lands met with tear-gas and rubber bullets.

West Papuans Turn to Africa for Support in Freedom Bid

By Catherine Wilson
For more than half a century, the indigenous people of West Papua, located on the western side of the island of New Guinea, who are related to the Melanesians of the southwest Pacific Islands, have waged a resistance to governance by Indonesia and a relentless campaign for self-determination.

Forced Closure of Bedouin Settlements

By Silvia Boarini
Despite ostensibly freezing the Prawer Plan -- a proposed bill to 'regulate Bedouin settlement in the Negev’-- in 2013, Israel continues to push for forced closure of unrecognised Bedouin villages in this southern region. The village of Umm al-Heran, near the Bedouin township of Hura, is amongst those slated for demolition.

Ethiopia’s Smoldering Oromo

By James Jeffrey
The Ethiopian government's most serious domestic political crisis in more than a decade began over a scruffy football field appropriated by local officials for development.

Are Indigenous Women Key to Sustainable Development?

By Valentina Ieri
"We, indigenous women want to be considered as part of the solution for sustainable development, because we have capabilities and knowledge, " said Tarcila Rivera, a Quechua journalist and activist for the rights of indigenous people in Peru, at a press conference on the Empowerment of Indigenous Women.

Corruption Threat to Pacific Island Forests

By Catherine Wilson
The vast rainforests of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean are crucial for environmental sustainability, survival of indigenous peoples and the wider goal of containing climate change. But forest degradation, driven primarily by excessive commercial logging, most of which is illegal, is a perpetual threat.

Tribute to a Slain Environment Activist

By Amantha Perera
Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, was in her early 20s when she co-founded the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (Cophin), a group that campaigned for the rights of indigenous communities in the Central American nation.

Public Primary Boarding Schools in Pastoral Communities

By Miriam Gathigah
Jonathan Tipapa is a nine year-old boy whose daily journey to and from school exposes him to many dangers that have seen him come close to dropping out of school -- like many of his friends who can be seen running after cows even on school days. He attends Enkutoto primary school in the expansive Narok South Constituency in the Rift Valley region, approximately 70 miles from the capital Nairobi.

Tanzania Farmers, Pastoralists Launch Forum to Resolve Water Conflicts

By Kizito Makoye
At a remote village of Itunundu in Iringa, farmers and pastoralists recently met to discuss the best way to share land resources while charting out a strategy to prevent unnecessary fights among themselves. No one in the village ever imagined that this meeting would ever take place as the two groups had for long considered themselves enemies: they often clashed for water and pastures to feed their animals thus causing deaths and loss of property.
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