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Thursday, November 12, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
NEPAL: Hopes High for Environmental Rights in New Constitution
As the new federal republic of Nepal forges ahead with writing a new constitution, activists are demanding that environmental rights be enshrined in this important document.RIGHTS-INDIA: Gov’t Urged to Rethink War on Maoists
In the lull before the storm that the central government has vowed to unleash on Maoist rebels this month, voices of caution are being heard against precipitating an armed confrontation that could further hurt marginalised and largely indigenous populations in the worst affected central and eastern Indian states.
PERU: Cuzco Women Stand Up to Violence
For tourists and other visitors, Cuzco has a special fascination as the ancient capital of the Inca empire. But social scientists know it as one of the areas in the world with the highest rates of violence against women.
ECUADOR: Oil Giant Is Gone, Legal and Environmental Mess Remains
The story began almost 40 years ago, but when filmmaker Joe Berlinger "saw villagers eating canned tuna fish because the fish in their rivers were too contaminated to eat, [he] knew [he] had to do something".RIGHTS-CHILE: Stop Violence Against Indigenous Children – UNICEF
Reports of police violence against Mapuche children in the southern Chilean region of Araucanía prompted the country's UNICEF representative, Gary Stahl, to express the agency's deep concern at a meeting with three government ministers.
BOLIVIA: Politics, a Risky Business for Women
Taking an active part in politics in Bolivia can be a hazardous undertaking. Hundreds of reports of violence against women participating in politics attest to the risk. And while attacks go unpunished, a bill designed to protect the rights of women occupying public office has spent almost a decade in Congress waiting to be approved.PHILIPPINES: Storm-weary Farmers Suffer Huge Losses
Café by the Ruins, a popular rustic restaurant situated in Baguio City, the Philippines' famed mountain city resort, usually caters to tourists and residents who enjoy sipping their cups of brewed coffee while appreciating the artworks displayed on the café’s stone walls.GUATEMALA: Town that Suffered Military Terror Fights Reopening of Base
People in the town of Ixcán in northwestern Guatemala could relive the pain of the country's 36-year civil war if the army reopens a military base in the area, where more than 100 massacres of indigenous villagers were committed during the armed conflict.RIGHTS: Govts Failing Indigenous Declaration, U.N. Expert Says
A top U.N. expert on human rights law called Monday for governments to match their words with deeds and make good on promises to respect indigenous communities' right to live as they wish.
RIGHTS-UGANDA: Female Circumcision Still a Vote Winner
Over three decades ago a 14-year-old girl, her sister and a group of young teenagers from Bukwo headed to the River Amana for a ceremony that would change their lives forever.VENEZUELA: Indigenous People Killed, Injured in Land Dispute
Two members of the Yukpa indigenous community in Venezuela were killed and others were injured in a firefight between supporters and detractors of a government initiative to distribute land to the ethnic group at the northwest tip of Venezuela, where the Yukpa are caught up in a long-running conflict over land with ranchers and mining companies.
MEXICO: Indigenous Enterprises Unite
Mexico is about to become the first Latin American country with an indigenous chamber of business, dedicated to promoting and representing more than one million micro and small enterprises that are on the frontline in the fight against poverty.VENEZUELA: Land for Yukpa Indians, But No ‘Territory’
The Venezuelan government handed land titles to 41,600 hectares to three communities of around 500 Yukpa Indians on the western border with Colombia. However, the question of the demarcation of the broader ancestral territory of the entire ethnic group, made up of around 10,000 people, is still pending.EL SALVADOR: An Indigenous Language That Refuses to Die
"Yek shiajfikan" reads a sign hanging above the gate of the "Dr. Mario Calvo Marroquín" elementary school in the Salvadoran town of Izalco, welcoming pupils in Nawat, the language that was spoken by the area’s native communities.LATIN AMERICA: Big Gender, Ethnic Gaps in Wages Found
Indigenous people, descendants of Africans, and women in Latin America earn significantly less money than their predominantly white male peers of similar age and education levels, according to a new study released here Monday by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).RIGHTS-PARAGUAY: Int'l Backing for Indigenous Land Claims
After 20 years of fighting for their ancestral lands in Paraguay's northwestern Chaco region, the Xákmok Kásek indigenous community's case has reached the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Q&A: Indigenous Rights Appeals Increasingly Reach Inter-American System
Standards relating to indigenous peoples' rights, laid down by the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, are increasingly being incorporated into the laws of countries in the region, according to Víctor Abramovich, First Vice President of the Commission.CHILE: Indigenous Protests on Several Fronts
The tense relations between the Chilean government of Michelle Bachelet and the country's large indigenous minority are far from easing up.
CAMEROON: ‘Our Lives Are Defined By This Forest’
Pauline Siembe, a Baka pygmy in South East Cameroon, comes out of her smoky hut licking her fingers after a meal of pounded yam and bush meat soup.
PERU: Guinea Pigs Spell Independence for Women
In a rural village in the Peruvian Andes, very near yet so far from the popular tourist destination of Cuzco, the guinea pig, a rodent native to the region, has become "woman’s best friend" – an important means for women to earn money to support their families, as well as to learn how to defend their rights.CHILE: Preserving the Kaweshkar Language – In the Nick of Time
Sound files containing recordings of spoken Kaweshkar - a nearly extinct indigenous language of southern Chile – have been put together thanks to the work of ethnolinguist Óscar Aguilera and anthropologist José Tonko, and donated to national and foreign institutions with the aim of preserving the culture of one of Chile’s nine native groups.« 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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