Indigenous Rights

Private-sector estimates suggest the combined value of chromite and nickel in the north is approximately 60 billion dollars. Credit: Lazurite/CC BY 2.0

Native Canadians Fear Mining Boom in “Ring of Fire”

By Fawzia Sheikh
With accusations that Canadian resource companies and government officials are disregarding the need for indigenous consent in development projects, First Nations leaders have lashed out by approving a resolution calling for a moratorium on mining development in the so-called Ring of Fire until proper consultation begins.

Children Injured in Police Crackdown on Chile’s Mapuche Indians

By Marianela Jarroud
“We have been trampled by this racist Chilean state, which oppresses us. The police force represses all Mapuche people…they shoot at us in cold blood.”

Bolivia’s Indigenous Women Seek the Political Kingdom

By Jenny Cartagena Torrico
A growing number of Bolivia's indigenous women are participating in politics, ready to break the barriers of gender and ethnicity.

Guyana’s Gold Boom Brings Pollution and Conflict

By Bert Wilkinson
Pedro Melville, 62, a father of nine from Guyana's northwestern gold and manganese mining district of Matthew’s Ridge, sees the impacts of unchecked prospecting on the local environment every day.

Women Rights Defenders Targeted in Mexico

By Lawrence Del Gigante
There has been an alarming increase over the past two years in violence against women human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico, according to women’s human rights organisations.

Death Stalks Pregnant Women in East Myanmar

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
From a wooden, weather-beaten building on the edge of this border town, Mahn Mahn charts dangerous missions deep Myanmar (also Burma) for the 2,000-odd health workers under his wing.

BOLIVIA: From Police Mutiny to Indigenous Vigil

By Franz Chávez
After a 62-day march from Bolivia’s tropical lowlands, over 1,000 indigenous protesters opposed to the construction of a road through a pristine rainforest reserve reached the seat of government Wednesday, just a few hours after the police called off a six-day national strike.

Conflict Heats Up in the Sahara

By Karlos Zurutuza
"We’ve been building a lot of new walls lately," says Polisario Front commander Ahmed Salem as he drives his 4 X 4 across Tindouf in Western Algeria. But the newly introduced security measures may not be enough to ensure the survival of the Western Sahrawis.
Caricature of President Evo Morales saying "More development, more roads!" Credit: Subcentral Tipnis

Native Protest March Approaches La Paz

By Franz Chávez
Snow-capped mountains shrouded in clouds tower over the ninth gruelling march of indigenous people from Bolivia's eastern lowlands to the seat of government, to challenge the government's environment policy and protest the construction of a road through a protected area of rainforest and water reserves.

Biofuels and Hunger, Two Sides of the Same Coin

By Daan Bauwens
Despite growing evidence that biofuel production is causing food insecurity around the world, the new European Union policy blueprint on renewable energy ignores the social effects of biofuels. Last week, Guatemalan victims of the food crisis came to Brussels to make European policy makers aware of the problem.

Disasters Hold Climate Change Lessons for Thais

By Prangtip Daorueng
The Kiriwong community in southern Thailand is confident of handling climate change, thanks to lessons learned from a natural disaster that hit its village 25 years ago.
The Chikka Sampige tree is revered by the Soligas tribe in the Billigiri Ranga Temple Tiger Reserve as the sister of the 1000 year old Dodda Sampige tree. Credit: Malini Shankar/IPS

Earth Summits Fail Biodiversity in India

By Malini Shankar

Heads of state and governments are meeting in Rio de Janeiro this week to decide how to renew their pledges made during the first Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992.

Two girls from the Chortí indigenous community in their doorway in a village in Chiquimula. Credit: Danilo Valladares/IPS

Poverty Rates Strikingly High Among Indigenous Populations

By Ethan Freedman
Although they are only five percent of the global population, indigenous people account for up to 15 percent of the world’s poor, according to a new study published by members of the World Bank.
Navanethem Pillay. Credit: Courtesy of UNHCHR

Q&A: Battle for Human Rights in Rio Is “Far From Over”

By Rousbeh Legatis
Human rights should be explicitly recognised as an indispensable ingredient of sustainable development at the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, says Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Moi Enomenga, just before boarding a bus in Quito, Ecuador, the starting point for the caravan to Rio de Janeiro. Credit: Courtesy of Moi Enomenga

Indigenous Message to Rio+20: Leave Everything Beneath Mother Earth

By Stephen Leahy
Indigenous leaders from all over South America are making their way by foot, canoe and eventually on buses to be part of the Kari-Oca Caravan to Rio de Janeiro, to talk to world leaders at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20.
ndigenous people like María Solís grow native varieties of corn, which are more resistant to the impacts of climate change. Credit:Emilio Godoy/IPS

MEXICO Farmers Use Traditional Knowledge to Deal with Climate Change

By Emilio Godoy
Small farmers in Mexico, who receive little institutional support, are drawing on their traditional knowledge to deal with and adapt to climate change, experts say.

Youth Reaffirm Indigenous Identity

By Kara Santos
Barefoot and clad in traditional clothes, over a hundred indigenous Aetas gathered around a bonfire in a community nestled in the mountains of Capas town, in the Philippines’ Tarlac province. They had come together to celebrate their traditions and to instill in youth a sense of pride in their cultural identity.
Most indigenous women in Guatemala use the services of midwives. Credit:Danilo Valladares/IPS

Midwives Play Key Social Role in Guatemala

By Danilo Valladares
"Midwives in Guatemala attend to women during pregnancy, the birth and the post-partum period. They give the women warmth and support, because they speak the same language and belong to the same culture," said Silvia Xinico with the Network of Organisations of Indigenous Women for Reproductive Health.
Chief Almir Suruí (left) in his village. Credit:Paiter-Suruí Indigenous People press photo

Brazilian Indigenous Community Seeks Survival Through Carbon Credits

By Fabíola Ortiz
Less than 45 years ago, the Paiter-Suruí, an indigenous people living deep inside the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, had never been in contact with the outside world. Today they hope to ensure their survival through the complex mechanisms of the carbon market.
Guardians of the potato crop in Huama, Cuzco inspect frost and drought damage in the fields. Credit:Milagros Salazar/IPS

Elders in Peruvian Andes Help Interpret Climate Changes

By Milagros Salazar
A unique response to the challenge of global warming is happening in rural areas of Peru, where a network of indigenous elders is working out how to adjust weather forecasts in the light of climate change, while taking measures to safeguard their crops.

Native Canadians See Way of Life Under Assault

By Fawzia Sheikh
Canada's West Coast First Nations are feeling overwhelmed by crises affecting their land rights, economic well-being and health, prompting warnings in one territorial dispute with a local energy company that the country risks a degeneration of Aboriginal-federal government relations to a level unseen in two decades.
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