Languages
Friday, November 13, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
COLOMBIA: Indigenous People Protest in Face of Threats
At the top of the list of demands of some 7,000 people mobilising in the Cauca municipality of Piendamó is the clarification of the deaths of 13 indigenous people killed over the past two weeks in different parts of Colombia.RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Challenging Indigenous Alcohol Myths
While it may be a relic from the past, a common assumption in Australia is that indigenous people are particularly susceptible to alcohol and its effects. But a Canberra-based anthropologist is aiming to dispel such myths.BOLIVIA: Morales Leads March for New Constitution
Bolivian President Evo Morales was at the head of a march that set off Monday to the capital from Caracollo, a town 200 km to the south, to press Congress to schedule a referendum on the new constitution that has been drafted by a constituent assembly.PARAGUAY: Rally Clashes with Aid for Drought Victims
The suspension of a traditional rally in the western Paraguayan region of the Chaco, severely affected by a prolonged drought, has pitted the Fernando Lugo administration and local indigenous communities against the organisers of the automobile race.
RELIGION-INDIA: Canonisation Takes More Than Miracles
Christians who form 20 percent of the 32 million people of this southern Indian state are celebrating Sunday’s canonisation of their beloved Sister Alphonsa, unmindful of the controversies that surround the event and the life of the nun who lived at Bharananganam, a village 33 km from here.AFRICA: Research and Tradition Could Save Environment
Africa risks losing up to 50 percent of its indigenous species over the next century due to global warming.
CENTRAL AMERICA: Garifunas Confront Their Own Decline
"The Garífuna were the best sailors in the world," says Jermonino Barrios, standing barefoot on this slender thread of land between the Laguna de Los Micos and the blue Caribbean Sea.KENYA: Predicting Weather With Science and Spider Webs
When the magungu bird flies higher in the sky than usual and seems to float in the air in its passage from south to north, the Abasuba people living on the islands of Kenya's Lake Victoria and on the highlands near the lake know the rains are on their way and that it is time to plant.
CHILE: Native Community in Desert Oasis Threatened by Mines
The Diaguita indigenous community in Huasco Alto, surrounded by rich gold, silver and copper deposits in the northern Chilean region of Atacama, are engaged in a struggle to prevent mining projects from infringing on their territory and destroying their way of life and ancestral identity.POLITICS-BOLIVIA: Back to the Trenches
After failing to reach an agreement in talks with the rightwing opposition governors, Bolivian President Evo Morales is redoubling his efforts to secure a call for a referendum on the new constitution, which would introduce far-reaching social and economic changes to empower indigenous people and would make it possible for presidents to run for a second consecutive term.ENERGY: Governments Must Lead on Renewables, says Shell CEO
Royal Dutch Shell, with an annual turnover of more than 350 billion dollars from extracting oil and gas, mainly in third world countries, says it is up to governments rather than companies like Shell to take the lead in finding solutions for a sustainable energy future.MEXICO: Police Arrested for Killing Indigenous Protesters
The recent killings of six indigenous people and the injuries suffered by 17 others in a clash with police in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas were the result of a strategy of "criminalising social protest" adopted by the state’s "supposedly leftist government," according to a prominent local human rights group.ENVIRONMENT: To Build a School, Save the Hippo
As the Wechiau community living along the banks of the Black Volta river in Ghana discovered, looking after the hippopotamus can build schools and bring electricity.MALAYSIA: Emerging Trend in Trafficking Tribal Women
An emerging trend in the trafficking of tribal people, mostly young girls, is raising concern among government officials, rights organisations, migration experts and human rights lawyers.
PERU: Native Groups Hemmed in by Coca Threat
Small farmers from Peru’s impoverished Andean highlands provinces of Ayacucho are moving into indigenous land in the country’s central jungle region to grow coca.BOLIVIA: Water, Energy Everywhere – But Not for Locals
Peasant farmers in 42 villages along the Zongo valley in western Bolivia stand by and watch as the flourishing electricity industry harnesses the swift-flowing river while, paradoxically, their own farms are languishing from lack of water and energy.PHILIPPINES: Lumads Resist Inclusion In BJE
Ask Timuay Nanding Mudai how long he has been serving as traditional leader of the Subanon, one of the many indigenous groups based in Mindanao, Southern Philippines and he will tell you that he’s been holding this position "since birth".ECUADOR: Exit Polls Show Strong Support for New Constitution
The new constitution promoted by the government of Rafael Correa, indigenous groups and social movements in Ecuador was approved by a broad majority of voters in Sunday’s referendum, according to exit polls.
GUATEMALA: Lachua, a Corner of the Jungle Resists
Guatemala’s Laguna Lachuá National Park is a small corner of the Central American jungle that has withstood the encroachment of oil exploration, monoculture crops and road building, and serves as the area for sustainable development projects run by the indigenous people who live there.
MALAYSIA: Murum Dam – Public Funds for Corporate Profit?
Who will foot the bill for the Murum resettlement? ''Is it Sarawak Energy or will it be passed on directly to the state government and hence the tax payer,'' asked one Sarawak-based activist, who declined to be identified.
MALAYSIA: Power-Surplus Sarawak Funds Another New Dam
Preliminary work on a 3 billion ringgit (875 million dollar) dam in Murum in the north Borneo state of Sarawak has put the spotlight on a controversial scheme to build a string of public-funded dams to provide cheap electricity for energy-intensive industries to the state.« 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.
The Week with IPS
NEXT STOP - SDGs
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
