Indigenous Rights

Locals Risk Their Lives Fighting Mining in Mexico

By Emilio Godoy
"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

By Silvia Romanelli
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

By Karlos Zurutuza
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

By Mario Osava
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

By Emilio Godoy
"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

By Thalif Deen
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

By Louisa Reynolds
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

By Cydney Hargis
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”

By Stephen Leahy
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

By Ángela Meléndez
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.

Q&A: “The State Does Not Lose Sovereignty If It Respects Indigenous Rights”

By Milagros Salazar
"There is a belief that consent is about saying yes or no, about who wins," observed James Anaya, the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous rights. But consultation with indigenous peoples is a matter of “creating open processes where they can voice their opinions and influence decisions, and where there is the necessary will to seek consensus.”

Healthcare for Native People in Brazil Is Ailing

By Clarinha Glock
Healthcare for Brazil’s indigenous minority is in poor health, according to U.N. experts, missionaries, social workers and native people themselves.

Five Native American “Champions” Call for Change

By Sudeshna Chowdhury
It’s Sarah Schilling’s usual manner of greeting when she meets other members of her tribe: “Aanii Sarah Schilling n'diznakaas, which translates to ‘Hello, Sarah is my name’ in English,” she said.

Native People More Than Just Park Rangers

By Milagros Salazar
Some good-byes can actually mean the start of a long road working together. That was how it felt at the end of the World Indigenous Network (WIN) conference in this northern Australian city.

Q&A: Israel Treats the Bedouin Like “People in a Box”

By Lucy Westcott
For thousands of years the Bedouin people have made their home in the desert of what is now Israel. But for almost the last six decades, the Bedouin have been on the move, repeatedly relocated to make room for Israeli settlements.

Sharing Indigenous Knowledge from All Ends of the Globe

By Milagros Salazar
This city in northern Australia brought them together to share their experiences this week. They are indigenous Shipiba people fighting indiscriminate logging in Peru’s Amazon jungle region and delegates from the Ando-Kpomey community in Togo, which created and protects a 100-hectare forest.

Guardians of the Land and Sea Meet in Darwin

By Milagros Salazar
“Are you a park ranger?” IPS asked. “No, I am one of the owners of the territory,” Ángel Durán responded in a firm voice. The Bolivian indigenous leader is in this northern Australian city along with 1,200 other native delegates from over 50 countries for the World Indigenous Network (WIN) conference.

Forestry Programmes Bogged Down in Latin America

By Emilio Godoy
Issues related to the ownership of forest carbon and to prior consultation mechanisms threaten to derail plans for the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of Forests (REDD+) in some countries of Latin America, according to experts.

Q&A: “I Feel Indigenous No Matter Where I Am and Where I’m Going”

By Lucy Westcott
Aboriginal youth are making their mark at the two-week United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. And this year, the gathering's twelfth, 24-year-old Angela Landry, whose Anishinaabe name is Eagle Heart Woman, is representing them.

Advocates Cheer Tightening of Extractives Transparency Standards

By Carey L. Biron
Development groups and corruption watchdogs are applauding landmark new standards adopted Wednesday by an international initiative focused on ensuring greater transparency among oil and mining companies operating particularly in developing countries.

Where Law Enforcement Goes Bad

By Fabíola Ortiz
There is a “deficit of justice” in Brazil, where the police themselves sometimes join the ranks of organised crime, in the form of militias, according to Amnesty International.
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