Indigenous Rights

THAILAND: Malay-Muslim Insurgency – Lessons Learnt

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Teachers’ Day on Jan. 16 was a sombre affair in Thailand’s troubled southern provinces where memories are strong of 155 educators killed over the past eight years in an insurgency led by Malay-Muslim separatists.

Melting Ice Makes Arctic Access a Hot Commodity

By Stephen Leahy
China, Brazil and India want seats on the Arctic Council as global warming creates new opportunities for shipping and resource extraction in the vast Arctic region.

INDIA: The Tribal Show Goes On

By Sujoy Dhar
In the eastern city Kolkata, a tourist just back from a holiday in India’s Andaman islands last week boasts he threw bananas to Jarawa tribe members and secretly photographed them when their car passed through a jungle.

INDIA: Indigenous Rights Versus Wildlife Rights? – Part 2

By Malini Shankar
As the amount of protected forest dwindles rapidly in India, indigenous groups and wildlife find themselves living cheek to jowl in an increasingly contested space.

GUATEMALA: For the Maya, the World Isn’t Ending – the Environment Is

By Danilo Valladares
The end of the Maya long-count calendar does not predict a global catastrophe, let alone the end of the world, say native activists and elders who spoke to IPS in Guatemala. But what are coming to an end are the world's natural resources, as a result of human activity, they warn.

INDIA: Indigenous Rights Versus Wildlife Rights? – Part 1

By Malini Shankar
Tucked away in a dense and ecologically diverse tiger reserve in Southern India, tribes-people and wildlife defenders are locked in a battle of indigenous peoples’ rights versus wildlife rights.

CANADA: U.N. to Probe Missing and Murdered Native Women

By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
As a United Nations committee initiates an inquiry procedure into the alarming number of missing and murdered Native women across Canada, human rights groups are hoping that an on-the- ground investigation by the international body will finally help stem systematic violence against Native women.

GUATEMALA: Native People Suffer Racism in Employment

By Danilo Valladares
"There's a big difference in the way indigenous people and mestizos (people of mixed ancestry) are treated. We are not paid the same wages for the same work," Higinio Pu, an activist with the native group Waxaquib Noj, which means "wisdom" in the Maya Quiché language, told IPS.

DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Tribal People on the Warpath

By - - and Sujoy Dhar
This small town, barely 150 km away from the bustling eastern metropolis of Kolkata, hit news headlines in December 2008 when adivasis (indigenous people) led by Maoist rebels briefly captured it.

SIERRA LEONE: Local Communities Divided Over Mining in Rainforest

By - - and Meena Bhandari
Sierra Leone’s Gola Rainforest remains a centre of contention as the local community here plan to take their chief to court next week over a controversial 50-year land lease to a mining company.

Green Tech Drives Search for Rare Earths in Argentina

By Marcela Valente
Argentina could meet part of the rising world demand for "rare earth" metals, required for a variety of green technologies, advanced electronic devices and medical diagnostic equipment. The challenge lies in mining them in a sustainable fashion.

BURMA: Kachin Refugees Get UN Relief, Finally

By Marwaan Macan-Markar and - -
Six months after fighting erupted between Burmese troops and ethnic Kachin separatists, international relief is finally trickling in for over 30,000 people who fled their homes near the snow-capped mountains north of the country.

West Papuan Conflict Begs Political Solution

By Catherine Wilson and - -
The Indonesian government’s offer of development for West Papua, following the crackdown by security forces on a pro-independence meeting in Jayapura in October, is unlikely to succeed in the absence of political dialogue and calls for self-determination are expected to continue.

Indigenous Peoples Call for REDD Moratorium

By Stephen Leahy
A new coalition of indigenous peoples and local communities called for a moratorium on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programs, a key part of the negotiations for a new international climate treaty that took place over the last two weeks in South Africa.

BURMA: Rape Used as Military Weapon

By Preethi Nallu
The Burmese army has been following a policy of systematically raping women and girls to subjugate the country's rebellious ethnic minorities, according to a new report.

Saving the Forests with Indigenous Knowledge

By Isaiah Esipisu
For the Laibon community, a sub-tribe of Kenya's Maasai ethnic group, the 33,000-hectare Loita Forest in the country's Rift Valley Province is more than just a forest. It is a shrine.

HONDURAS: Indigenous Cooperatives Cultivate Success

By Thelma Mejía
Thanks to the quality and freshness of their produce, indigenous Lenca farmers in western Honduras are regular suppliers of seven supermarket chains. This year they won the National Environmental Prize, in the community initiatives category.

Native Peoples Under Siege Around the Globe

By Elizabeth Whitman and - -
In polished versions of U.S. history, the near-extermination of Native Americans in the United States is an unsightly blemish that continues to be glossed over to this day. Yet the struggles of indigenous peoples are not exclusive to the United States and have grown increasingly complex in modern times.

Forest-Dependent Communities Lobby for End of REDD+

By Kristin Palitza and - -
Organisations working with indigenous peoples living in forests say the United Nations programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) is just another way for big corporates to reap huge profits.

Sweden Runs Into South Sudanese Oilgate

By Jared Ferrie and - -
Civil society leaders in South Sudan are closely watching a legal battle unfolding in Sweden, as prosecutors investigate an oil company accused of involvement in massive human rights abuses here.

ISRAEL: Not When Desert Is Home

By Pierre Klochendler and - -
"Anyone who lives sees, but he who moves sees more," a local Bedouin proverb has it. Caught in a web of roads and fences, electric cables and pylons, closed military training grounds and trails of Air Force jets, Bedouin Israelis have long been reduced to a half-hearted life of immobility.
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