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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
POLITICS-CHINA: Sudan – Showcase for New Assertiveness
When soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army join a United Nations peacekeeping unit in Sudan, early October, they will mark Beijing’s new diplomatic assertiveness. They will also signify a departure from a posture of refusing to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.ENERGY-ARGENTINA: Handing Out Concessions ‘In Perpetuity’
Political leaders and activists have asked the justice system in Argentina to rule on the legality of the Chubut provincial government’s extension until 2047 of a foreign corporation’s concession to the country’s largest oil reserve. The decision was taken 10 years before the current concession expires.
ENERGY-CANADA: Wind vs. Water in Giant Dam Dispute
A controversial hydroelectricity expansion project in Quebec has drawn sharp criticism from aboriginal and environmental organisations on both sides of the Canadian-U.S. border.BOLIVIA: Morales Gets Boost from UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights
President Evo Morales’ dream of creating a "plurinational" state in Bolivia, with territorial and administrative autonomy for indigenous peoples, has just received an international boost that is as welcome as it is unexpected, arising as it did from what seemed like a never-ending debate.RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Aborigines Insist on Ancestors’ Repatriation
Successful negotiations with the renowned Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, for the repatriation of human remains against claims made by indigenous Australian communities, have extended the hope that more institutions will follow suit.ENVIRONMENT-LATIN AMERICA: Coming Together to Rescue the Reserves
Many reserves in Latin America are walking a tightrope between degradation and isolation. To overcome these problems and appreciate the contribution of natural heritage areas to fighting poverty, Argentina will host an international congress attracting wide participation at the end of this month.LATIN AMERICA: Native Leaders Half-Heartedly Embrace ‘Historic’ Declaration
While governments and the representatives of international agencies celebrated the approval of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples after more than two decades of negotiations, some native leaders and experts in Latin America were less enthusiastic.
BURMA: Poppy Farming Cuts – 'UN Praise Misplaced'
Praise from the United Nations for continued drop in poppy cultivation in military-ruled Burma paints a false picture of success, say members of the Shan ethnic community and human rights activists. What cannot be ignored, they add, is how profitable the narcotics trade remains for the local commanders of the junta.RIGHTS: Native Peoples Score Historic Political Victory
After 22 years of long and cumbersome negotiations, leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous people have won a powerful symbolic victory in their fight for recognition of the right to self-determination and control over their land and resources.BOLIVIA: Women Councillors Fight Harassment
Women town councillors in Bolivia are pressing for a law to protect them from discrimination and political harassment on the part of their male colleagues, whom they accuse of intimidation and even death threats, especially in rural areas.PERU: Mining Project Hurting Highland Ecosystem
The preliminary results of a study by researchers at the University of Texas have shown that the exploration phase of the Río Blanco mining project in Peru’s northwestern Andes mountains caused damages to the area’s biological diversity.RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Ethnic Indians Blame Britain for Sorry Plight
As Malaysia marked 50 years as an independent nation on Aug. 31, a team of Malaysian lawyers were in London filing a lawsuit against the British government for abandoning minority Indians to the mercy of majoritarian Malay-Muslim rule while granting independence in 1957.POLITICS-FIJI: Int'l Pressure Mounts After Emergency Is Imposed
International pressure has mounted on coup-prone Fiji after the military-appointed interim regime brought back emergency regulations, last week.RIGHTS: South Stands with Indigenous Peoples at the U.N.
Despite continued opposition from the United States and some other major powers, the United Nations General Assembly seems poised to adopt the Universal Declaration of Indigenous Peoples' Rights later this month.MALAYSIA/INDONESIA: Ethnic Ties Won't Paper Over Class Differences
They share the same Malay cultural roots and the Islamic religion, but the shoddy treatment of Indonesian workers in Malaysia has soured relations between the South-east Asian neighbours.MIDEAST: Not Even the Desert Is Home Any More
Israeli police and security forces invaded the small Bedouin village of Taweel abu Jabral in the Negev desert last week, backed by bulldozers and dump trucks. Residents and human rights organisations reported that several homes were demolished as Israeli forces confiscated property and left families homeless in temperatures that soared above 40 degrees centigrade.ARGENTINA: Expansion of Agricultural Frontier Endangers Native Communities
Encroached upon by the expanding agricultural frontier and facing the indifference of the state, indigenous communities in the northeastern Argentine province of Chaco have problems of access to water, food and their natural medicines, and are heading towards extinction.BOLIVIA: Polarisation Reaches Boiling Point
A 24-hour business strike called by opponents of leftist President Evo Morales in six of Bolivia’s nine departments or states was the latest demonstration of the polarisation dividing the country.SRI LANKA: Calls for Int'l Intervention Met With Chauvinism
When Sri Lankan health minister Nimal Siripala de Silva shocked delegates to the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) by telling them that "when the western world was living in jungles, we were leading a civilised life,’’ it marked the chauvinism of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s nationalist government.
ELECTIONS-GUATEMALA: Rigoberta Menchu Running for the Long Term
The first indigenous woman candidate for president of Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchú, is behind in the polls, but the very fact that she is standing is an important precedent and a sign that the political system is more open, analysts say.POLITICS-THAILAND: Islamist Teachers Fuelling Insurgency – Report
The image of a leading private school in southern Thailand took a beating after a new report, released Tuesday, fingered its teachers and alumni as being instrumental in an increasingly brutal insurgency in the region that borders Malaysia.« 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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