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Thursday, November 12, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
PERU: Environmental Clean-up not Complete, Say Achuar Communities
Leaders of the Achuar people are challenging a decision by the Peruvian government to declare that a clean-up effort by the PlusPetrol oil company in the northeastern Amazon jungle has been completed.ENVIRONMENT: Women on Front Lines of Climate Week
Women's voices remain highly underrepresented in the climate change debate, say international civil society leaders attending events taking place around the United Nations Climate Summit Tuesday.GUYANA: Brazil Opens Gateway to Wider Caribbean
Earlier this month, Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula DaSilva flew more than 1,600 kilometres from his base in Brasilia to a remote state on the Guyanese frontier to formally commission a border river bridge with his country's English-speaking neighbour.RIGHTS-BANGLADESH: Glimmers of Hope Amid an Elusive Peace
Sultana Kamal dreams of a country "where every single citizen will live in democracy, in equality" and where everyone has "equal share to resources and opportunities." Fulfilling this dream has been her lifelong advocacy as a human rights advocate.
LAOS: What People Cannot Eat is of Great Importance to Women – Part 2
"When I was born my mother could not eat anything but tiny fish and tea made from herbs for one whole year," says Dr Bhounsouane. "She was so weak that she could hardly walk. Post partum food taboos (phit kam) are a major problem in Laos for women," he said.RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Win Some, Lose Some for Beleaguered Penan Tribe
In wealthy Malaysia that employs over four million Asians to service its high- rolling lifestyle, a tiny indigenous tribe is fighting for its survival against state inaction and bureaucratic apathy, as well as marauding giant multinationals and timber loggers.
LAOS: Land Legislation Disempowers Women – Part 1
Ki is seven years old but looks more like three. His legs are bowed and skull misshapen. He looked at me with a blank stare. The health worker, Kheo, suggests rickets.RIGHTS-MEXICO: Wrongly Imprisoned Native Woman Released
"I cried a lot, I couldn't believe I was in prison. The day I was put in jail, I never thought I would be there for a long time," an indigenous market vendor, Jacinta Francisco, said Thursday in Mexico after she was released from prison, where she spent three years for a crime she did not commit.BOLIVIA: A Race with a Foregone Conclusion
President Evo Morales and Vice President Álvaro García are set to handily win the Dec. 6 elections in Bolivia, against a fragmented opposition.COLOMBIA: Neutrality Impossible for Indigenous Groups
The latest killings of Awá Indians in southern Colombia – 12 members of a family, including four children and three teenagers –, the forced displacement of hundreds of native villagers, and death threats against indigenous leaders and teachers are signs indicating that their demand to be considered neutral in the armed conflict is still being ignored.
RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Justice for Indigenous Leader’s Murder – 21 Years On
One night in February 1988 in the native Nasa territory of Jambaló, in southwest Colombia, soldiers barged into Etelvina Zapata's home and snatched her 21-year-old son, barefoot and clad only in shorts, accusing him of working with the leftwing guerrillas.PERU: Former Minister Should Answer for Massacre in the Amazon
"Did I have a feather on my head and kill the policemen myself?" Mercedes Cabanillas responded when journalists asked her if, as interior minister of Peru, she assumed responsibility for the operation that led to the deaths of 24 members of the police and at least nine indigenous protesters near the Amazon jungle town of Bagua.
ENERGY: Pipeline Sabotage Blows Image of Stable Canada
North America's largest natural gas corporation hopes a one-million-dollar bounty will take down the saboteur who is blowing up their pipelines in northern Canada.
PERU: Rural Highlands Communities Coming Online
Little by little, rural communities in southern Peru are beginning to take advantage of the internet to acquire new knowledge and increase their income. But the use of computers in rural areas faces numerous challenges, from illiteracy to fear of the unknown or questions about the sustainability of these new communications initiatives once they are left in local hands.
BOLIVIA: Too Many Obligations, Too Few Rights for Aymara Women
Teenage Aymara girls only mature as women in the eyes of their community when they are able to demonstrate great industriousness and knowledge of traditional tasks. But by virtue of that same condition they are denied rights, justice and access to community leadership positions.DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Airwaves Changing Lives of the Physically Challenged
In the past physically challenged Theophilus Ayim would have been kept behind closed doors by his family because they feared he would be scorned and ridiculed by the community.
TOURISM-COSTA RICA: Much More Than a Walk in the Countryside
Some 3,000 people make their living from rural community-based tourism in Costa Rica, according to the association of tour operators who connect visitors to the delights of rural life.RIGHTS-CHILE: Mapuche Activist’s Death Heats Up Conflict
The lack of opportunities for dialogue and participation and the struggle for control over land and natural resources in Chile are hurdles to a solution to the Mapuche Indians' century-long conflict, which claimed a new victim this week: a 24-year-old activist shot by the police while taking part in an occupation of land claimed as indigenous territory.COLOMBIA: Indigenous People Troubled by U.S. Military Presence
The head of Colombia's biggest association of indigenous people is concerned that allowing U.S. troops to use military bases in his country will signal a regression to former times when the United States exercised control over Latin America, while a native activist warned of an increase in the number of cases of sexual abuse of young indigenous women by foreign soldiers.MOROCCO: The Berber Dance Is Over
The satellite receiver has speeded up the process of wiping out the cultural heritage of Morocco's Berbers. Old traditions are now dying out under the influence of television imams.LABOUR-GUATEMALA: Domestics Finally Gain (Limited) Rights
"What really hurt was that they refused me my right to rest before and after I had my baby. Even when my contractions started, they wouldn't let me go to the hospital," said Mildred Díaz, a Guatemalan domestic employee, talking about the worst aspects of her job.« 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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