Indigenous Rights

Lynch Mobs Hide Behind ‘Community Justice’ in Bolivia

By Franz Chávez
Images of tortured bodies and barely recognisable faces, victims of lynch mobs made up of furious local residents, periodically shock Bolivian society.

Bringing Cameroon’s Marginalised to the Poverty Debate

By Monde Kingsley Nfor
Lydia Njang, a widow and mother of five from Cameroon’s North West Region, has lost her farmland three times. 

U.S. Vows Support for Colombia Peace Talks

By Ramy Srour
Despite looming differences over Colombia's drug policy, President Barack Obama renewed his support for a peaceful settlement to the civil war that has plagued the country for over half a century in a meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Tuesday.

Saving Children From Loggers

By Catherine Wilson
Logging is the largest industry in the Solomon Islands, an archipelago located northwest of Fiji, where 80 percent of the islands are covered in tropical rainforest. But, although timber accounts for 60 percent of this South Pacific nation’s export earnings, most local communities have experienced no beneficial development.

When Calamity Strikes, Think Local

By Malini Shankar
More than a month after Cyclone Phailin battered Orissa, tribes in the eastern Indian coastal state are still feeling its wrath. Besides the damage to their homes and hearths, it has also meant a loss of their traditional food.

The Other Rearguard of Colombia’s FARC Rebels

By Humberto Márquez
The presence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is evident in Venezuela’s Amazon region, where the guerrillas can be seen on speed boats, in camps, or interacting with local indigenous communities.

Almost 20 Years On – International Justice Still Fails Rwandans

By Adam Bemma
"There is a saying that all Rwandans believe in. You can't forgive if you forget, but when you remember, you know what harmed you and you can forgive and move forward," Honore Gatera tells IPS as he walks through the grounds of the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda’s capital. 

A Google for India’s Poor

By Keya Acharya
Deep in the forests of central India live the Gond tribals, an almost forgotten lot, neglected as much by the state as by mainstream media. Many cannot read or write. But thanks to a new technology, and the rapid spread of mobile phones through India, they are now picking up their cell phone and making their voice heard.

Demarcation of Native Territories Essential for Venezuela’s Amazon Region

By Humberto Márquez
“All of the countries of the Amazon basin say they want to protect the environment, but they all have agreements with transnational corporations for the construction of roads or for mining and exploitation of forests,” Curripaco indigenous leader Gregorio Díaz Mirabal, from the south of Venezuela, told Tierramérica.*

Indonesia’s Forest Communities Victims of ‘Legal Land Grabs’

By Stephanie Wildes
Indonesia’s rainforests are facing “legal land grabs”, allege NGOs. Its ancient communities are finding that their ancestral lands are slipping into the hands of foreign companies for oil palm cultivation, as demand for the product grows in Europe, India and China.

Idyllic Island Confronts Bloody Past

By Catherine Wilson
Anguish over the whereabouts of loved ones who went missing during a five-year civil conflict that ended a decade ago continues for countless families in the Solomon Islands. Searching for the remains of those who disappeared is vital to enduring peace in this culturally diverse south-west Pacific island nation of 550,000.

Mining Takes a Bite Out of Guyana’s Amazon

By Desmond Brown
Guyana is engaged in a balancing act to save its rainforest, regarded as a living treasure, from the destructive activities of miners digging their way to another kind of treasure buried beneath this fragile ecosystem.

Ethiopia’s Indigenous Excluded from Rapid Growth

By Ed McKenna
As the construction of a major transmission line to export electricity generated from one of Ethiopia’s major hydropower projects gets underway, there are growing concerns that pastoralist communities living in the region are under threat.

The Woman Who Reduced Impunity in Guatemala

By Louisa Reynolds
Guatemala’s first female attorney general has managed to reduce impunity in a country where over 90 percent of murders go unsolved.

Zimbabweans Left Worse Off by Local Mining Companies

By Tatenda Dewa
Ranganai Zimbeva, from the rural village of Mutoko, which lies about 200 km northeast of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, plugs his ears with his fingers and shakes his head as he watches miners close to his village blast the hard rock to extract the black granite within.

South of the Border, Mining Is King

By Carey L. Biron
Civil society groups from throughout Latin America are urging “home countries” to take greater responsibility for the actions of their companies abroad, particularly those in the extractives industry.

India Illegal Mining Enquiry Cut Short

By Ed McKenna
A nationwide enquiry into illegal mining in India was aborted before it completed its investigation into the failings of the country’s mining industry. The study had prompted the government to ban mining in two states and arrest high-ranking politicians.

Conflicts Over Water Rise in Tanzania

By Kizito Makoye
Conflicts over water are increasing in the sprawling Pangani River Basin in northeastern Tanzania as farmers and herders jostle for dwindling water resources in the face of climate change.

Walking an Economic Tightrope with No Safety Net

By Thalif Deen
With the richest one percent of the population now owning 40 percent of global assets, and the bottom half sharing just one percent, inequality is fast being recognised as a stubborn underlying obstacle to development.

Finding Land for Cameroon’s Pastoralist Nomads

By Ngala Killian Chimtom
Adamou Harouna’s herd of cattle grazes leisurely on lush green vegetation in Ndop, a small village in Cameroon’s North West Region.

Chevron Fights Amazon Pollution Verdict in U.S. Court

By Samuel Oakford
Two years after they were awarded 18 billion dollars by an Ecuadorian court for environmental damage caused by Chevron in the Amazonian rainforest, a group of indigenous villagers and their U.S. lawyer went on trial Tuesday in New York, accused by the oil company of bribery and racketeering.
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