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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
Q&A: “We’ve Stopped Believing in Ourselves”
Dr. Michael Byers, a professor of politics and international law at the University of British Columbia, recently released a provocative book titled "Intent for a Nation - A Relentlessly Optimistic Manifesto for Canada's Role in the World."RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Indigenous People See Common Ground in Struggles
Indigenous people around the world are finding common cause in their struggles to retain their identities and their land.
RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Tamils Traumatised by War, Tsunami – Study
Residents of war-wracked Jaffna city in northern Sri Lanka are a community on the run; every family has a bag packed with essentials, ready to flee at a moment's notice, a new research study reports.
ENVIRONMENT-COLOMBIA: The Unusual Wealth of the Choco
"Let's go to the sea, let's go to the sea," one hears a nervous voice say every so often in the fishing village of Bahía Solano, on the Colombian Pacific coast. A package has been seen floating and boats are going after a not-so-traditional catch: cocaine thrown out by fleeing drug traffickers.RIGHTS: Indigenous Congress Demands Teeth for UN Declaration
Indigenous leaders are holding a regional congress in Bolivia to discuss strategies to oblige governments to take on board as state policy the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 13.RIGHTS: Peruvian Government Accused of Poor Track Record
The Peruvian government will be asked to explain Friday to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decrees that human rights groups say are aimed at clamping down on social protest, and what it has done to protect the rights of uncontacted indigenous peoples.RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Arbour’s Visit a Guided Tour – Critics
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour’s five-day tour of this strife-torn country is already circumscribed by the fact that she will not be allowed to visit areas in the Jaffna peninsula controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).INDIA: Tribals Get an Education – Through Their Children
"I’d like to be a teacher to help educate our people," says Neeta Kantha, a 14-year-old student at the Gram Vikas (Village Development) high school here for adivasi (tribal) children. "I too want to be a teacher,’’ chimes in her classmate Vijayalakshmi.LATIN AMERICA: Revving Up for Bicentennial Celebrations
Several Latin American countries have set in motion plans for celebrating the bicentennial of their independence from Spain, many of which will fall between 2008 and 2010. But the festivities will not take place without controversy.
CANADA: Native Way of Life Vanishing into the Clear-Cut
As the Ontario election draws to a close on Wednesday, a long-running land rights battle continues in the east-central Canadian province between First Nations groups and mining and logging interests that have been granted concessions to exploit the resources in a vast boreal forest known as Grassy Narrows.ENVIRONMENT-PERU: Joining Forces to Save the Mantaro River
Social organisations in Peru have joined forces to save the Mantaro river, which is being killed by pesticides, untreated sewage, and the waste products dumped by the mining industry.PERU: New Census to Make Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Count
The Peruvian state will repay a longstanding debt to indigenous people in the country’s Amazon region by including them in a national census in a way that pays attention to their particular social, economic and cultural characteristics. But experts say this is only a first step.MEDIA: Indigenous Journalists Seek Identity
Just weeks after giving up her post, the former president of the parliament of Norway's indigenous Sami people has lambasted Sami journalists for shoving aside their culture in the rush to get a 'scoop'.LATIN AMERICA: The Rights of Native People Living in Nature Reserves
Far from being uninhabited places where nature holds sway, the vast majority of Latin America’s protected areas are places where people live, so a balance has to be found between conservation goals and the need to reduce poverty.RIGHTS-MEXICO: Armed Forces Accused in Civilian Courts
The armed forces in Mexico are playing a central role in the security strategy ordered by President Felipe Calderón, but they are also being pilloried because of complaints that soldiers have raped women in two states.PARAGUAY: Hunger Follows Worst Fires in History
Food shortages and hunger in the northern Paraguayan provinces of Concepción and San Pedro have followed the worst fires in this country’s history, which destroyed over one million hectares of crops and forestland and left nearly 50,000 people homeless and eight dead.LATIN AMERICA: Nine Roads Through the Virgin Wilderness
In the name of development and integration, roads, bridges, dams, gas pipelines, ports and other infrastructure works are expanding in South America. But many of the projects are trampling roughshod over protected areas that preserve unique ecosystems and vulnerable native cultures.ENVIRONMENT: Conservation Expands in Latin America
In the past 10 years the size of protected areas in Latin America has nearly doubled and the participation of local communities in their preservation and management has sharply increased, says a regional study provided exclusively to Tierramérica.ECUADOR: Correa Wins Majority in Constituent Assembly
The landslide victory for Ecuador’s governing Movimiento Alianza País in the election for a constituent assembly to rewrite the Ecuadorean constitution has cleared the way for the foundations to be laid for a "solidarity economy."BOLIVIA: Visit by Iranian President Kicks Up Dust Storm
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales is beginning to forge his foreign policy in the conflict-torn Middle East as he announced the establishment of diplomatic relations with Iran, under the worried gaze of the United States and against stiff opposition from the local business community.CHILE: Mega Dams, Mega Impacts, Mega Half-Truths
An organisation in the Aysén region in the south of Chile which opposes the building of five hydroelectric stations on two large rivers has made a documentary film about the reactions of communities affected by dams and power lines in Chile and Argentina.« 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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