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Thursday, October 29, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
Civil Society Calls for Vote on Drilling in Ecuador’s Yasuní Park
The Ecuadorean government’s decision to allow oil drilling in the Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet, has caused alarm among environmentalists and indigenous people, who are calling for a referendum on the issue.
Civil Society Trial Finds Oil Corp Guilty in Colombia
An “ethical and political trial on pillaging of natural resources” in Colombia condemned three foreign corporations, including Canada’s Pacific Rubiales Energy, which has dozens of oil and natural gas operations around the country.
Q&A: Colombia Still in the Icy Grip of Impunity
Death threats are hardly uncommon in Colombia. In fact, if you are a human rights activist, they are practically guaranteed.
Haitian Farmers Lauded for Food Sovereignty Work
Work by the Group of 4 (G4) union of Haitian peasant organisations, along with assistance from the Dessalines Brigade - South American peasant leaders and agroecology experts supported by La Via Campesina - has been singled out for promoting “good farming practices and advocat[ing] for peasant farmers” in Haiti.
Alberta’s Oil Sands Bring Jobs, Services and Despair
“First the bugs began to disappear,” says Eriel Deranger, spokesperson for Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.
Report Finds Pattern of Inequity in Development Aid
Despite global efforts to provide development aid, the world’s poorest are getting poorer, says a new report by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).
Caribbean May Seek Reparations for Slavery
As Caribbean countries prepare to observe Emancipation Day on Aug. 1, they are also caught up in an ongoing debate over reparations for slavery.
U.S., U.K. Accused of Ignoring, Facilitating Abuses in Ethiopia
The U.S. and U.K. foreign assistance offices are being accused of ignoring, mischaracterising or downplaying testimony offered by ethnic communities in Ethiopia who accuse the Addis Ababa government of forcefully evicting them from their lands and violating their human rights in the name of mass development projects.
China Leads Battle Against Poverty, Says U.N.
The United Nations has singled out China - the world's most populous country with over 1.3 billion people - as one of the key success stories in the longstanding battle against poverty.Native People’s Land Demands Gain Visibility in Argentina
The native people of Argentina are achieving unprecedented visibility for their demands. However, they are still faced with hurdles to more rapid progress towards their claims.
Govt Council Raises Hopes for Improved U.S.-Tribal Relations
Indigenous rights groups are applauding U.S. President Barack Obama's creation of a new high-level council aimed at coordinating government actions relating to Native American communities, a move that advocates have been urging since early in the president's first term.
Locals Risk Their Lives Fighting Mining in Mexico
"They brutally repressed us. The mining company buys off people’s consciences, it divides the community, but we’ll keep fighting it. Some people have had to flee the community,” Rosalinda Dionisio, a Zapoteca indigenous woman in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, told IPS, sobbing.
Q&A: Empower Indigenous Women to Assert Their Rights
Women around the world are exposed to domestic violence, sexual and economic exploitation, gender-based violence, female genital mutilation and child marriage. For indigenous women and girls, however, the risk of being victims of such issues is especially high.
Creating Their Own Spring
The soldiers of former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi had left just a few days before, but a group of about 50 children were already singing in the Amazigh language in the village of Yefren, 110 kilometres south of Tripoli. This month will mark two years since the establishment of the first Amazigh school in Libya.
Resurgence of Indigenous Identity in the Crossfire in Brazil
The powerful tractors and other farm machinery that landowners recently used to block roads at a dozen points from north to south in Brazil illustrated the economic clout of big agriculture, which rose up against the demarcation of indigenous reserves.
Rural Mexican Communities Protest Wind Farms
"We can't sow our fields, which they have rented for next to nothing. What good do we get out of it?" Guadalupe Ramírez complained about wind farms operating in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.
MDGs Fund Boosts Food Security
Since its founding in 2007 to help developing nations fight poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease and gender discrimination, the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) has financed about 130 joint programmes in 50 countries.
Survivors Reluctant to Testify in New Genocide Trial
Fear and mistrust reign in Santa María Nebaj. The people of this Maya Ixil indigenous town in the highlands of northwestern Guatemala are worried about intimidation attempts to keep them from testifying again in a retrial of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.How to Close Latin America’s Rich-Poor Chasm
Latin American governments have increasingly been working to lessen inequality in the region, but new data suggests their efforts vary widely in quality and impact.
U.S., Malaysia Lead Worldwide “Land Grabs”
Africa is the main target for "land grabs" by foreign investors, according to a new report on large-scale land acquisitions around the world released Monday.
Isolated Amazon Indians Under Pressure in Ecuador
Reports of another massacre in an isolated indigenous community in Ecuador's Amazon region cast doubt on the state's compliance with precautionary measures imposed in favour of uncontacted peoples in 2006 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.« Previous Page — Next Page »
The planet's roughly 350 million indigenous peoples took notable steps on the international stage in the last decade. They got the world's governments to agree to create a body to represent them at the United Nations, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and to appoint a special rapporteur responsible for their human rights. In 2007 a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was approved by the UN. Yet the living conditions of most "tribal", "aboriginal", "native" or "first" peoples remain precarious. IPS, with its network of contributors at the UN and linked to indigenous communities worldwide, is committed to tracking the world community's efforts to do justice to the rights and aspirations of these peoples, with a special current focus on Latin America's 40 million rural indigenous peoples.
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