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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon Market Heads to the Forests
The new asset of the century is carbon, to be traded between the developed and developing world in the carbon markets of the future.LATIN AMERICA: Rural Women Forge Their Own Path in Microenterprise
Rural women from five Andean countries presented their successful microenterprises as part of a regional competition for female crafts and food producers, which also served as an opportunity for sharing the life stories of these leaders in the struggle against poverty.FINANCE: Prickly Peru Gas Project Gets Key Loan
The Inter-American Development Bank approved key financing Wednesday for a Peruvian bid to become an exporter of gas, over the objections of environmentalists and indigenous people's advocates.
COLOMBIA: Indians Neither Museum Exhibits Nor Tourist Attractions
Indigenous people in Colombia today are elected to office as legislators, governors, mayors and city councillors. But their communities continue to be seen as marginal, ignorant or mired in the deepest poverty.HEALTH: Native Youth Suicides in Canada Reach Crisis Rate
Suicide rates are now five to seven times higher for First Nations youth than for non-aboriginal youth, according to Health Canada, and among Inuit youth, suicide rates are 11 times the national average. Some aboriginal bands have suicide rates over 800 times the national average.PERU: Opening Up Indigenous Land to Foreign Investors
Peruvian President Alan García plans to introduce in Congress a draft law that would facilitate the purchase by foreign investors of communally owned land in rural indigenous villages.RIGHTS-US: Native Tribes Take on Ski Resort
Indigenous communities are up in arms against commercial plans to expand a ski resort on a mountain peak in the U.S. state of Arizona that has been held sacred by the natives for centuries.CHILE: Indigenous Hunger Strikers in Critical Condition
Four Mapuche community leaders and an activist are in critical condition on the 58th day of a hunger strike in the southern Chilean prison where they are serving time on charges of terrorism. Two of them had already fasted for more than two months in 2006.BOLIVIA: Governors Accept President’s Referendum Challenge
Bolivian President Evo Morales said he would send a proposal to Congress Thursday for a referendum in which voters would decide whether or not he should stay in office, and the country’s governors accepted his challenge to also submit themselves to a vote.RIGHTS-PARAGUAY: More Than a Rap on the Knuckles
The Paraguayan government was reprimanded by a United Nations expert committee for the extent and degree of poverty in the country, the denial of land to campesinos and indigenous people, the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals and the persistence of discrimination against women.CANADA: Gov't Urged to Rein in Mining Sector
Canadian mining companies continue to come under scrutiny from civil society organisations for international human rights violations and environmental damage that critics say the Canadian government has done little to check.GUATEMALA: Teaching With Two Voices
In the Xepanil village school in Santa Apolonia, to the west of the Guatemalan capital, 20 children are learning both Spanish and the Mayan indigenous language Kaqchikel. Their teacher, Marta Lidia Rodríguez, one of thousands of bilingual education teachers in this country today, walks an hour a day to get to the school.AGRICULTURE-ARGENTINA: Using Internet and Bicycles to Search Out Markets
Just 45 kilometres outside of Buenos Aires, a group of 20 families have set up a farming operation where they work in harmony with nature and without bosses, selling their products through a small network of consumers who appreciate the benefits of organic food and cooperative labour.RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Cooperation for Peace, Not War
"A state becomes a violator of human rights when it fails to guarantee, promote or defend them," said Argentine ambassador to Colombia Martín Balza during the Third International Conference on Colombia.
COLOMBIA: The Chibcha Culture – Forgotten, But Still Alive
Use of the sacred coca leaf, respect for water and nature, and other practices of the pre-Columbian Chibcha or Muisca culture survive in Colombia in spite of five centuries under attack. The culture was as highly-developed as those of the better-known Inca, Maya and Aztec people, according to scholars.ENVIRONMENT-ARGENTINA: Ban on Logging Approved
Pressure exerted by civil society and the creation of a compensation fund were crucial in securing the passage of a national law suspending all logging in native forests in Argentina, until such time as each province has a land use plan defining forest areas to remain untouched, and those that may be developed.CANADA: Landmark Ruling Backs Native Self-Determination
In a case that took a decade to complete and cost close to 30 million dollars, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge last week gave a boost to Native Canadian bands seeking aboriginal land title, but also sent the various parties back to the table to negotiate a treaty.
ENVIRONMENT-PHILIPPINES: Aerial Spraying Issue Turns Seesaw Court Battle
The villagers in the mountains surrounding Davao city are bracing for the day the crop-dusting planes resume dropping fungicide on the banana plantations - and the wind blowing toxic fog over their houses, water supply and children.BOLIVIA: Threat of ‘Secession’ from the East
The protests against the draft constitution approved by Bolivian President Evo Morales’ supporters in the constituent assembly continued Tuesday in the country’s eastern regions with an announcement by a large landowner and local civic leader, Branco Marinkovic, of measures aimed at winning regional autonomy.
RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Ethnic Indians on the Warpath
Malaysia’s Hindus - mostly Tamil descendents of 19th century labourers - on Sunday ignored warnings by Prime Minister Abdul Badawi and braved tear gas and police batons to protest alleged official discrimination and demand a fair share of the national wealth.GUATEMALA: Activists Call for Reparations for Victims of Conflicts
Human rights groups from Guatemala, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, Western Sahara and Sweden called for reparations for victims of armed conflicts and crimes against humanity, and punishment for those responsible.« 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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