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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Indigenous Rights
JAPAN: A Reawakening of Neglected Island Cultures
After decades of cold neglect, the distinct and intricate cultures of the tiny islands that surround the archipelago of Japan's four main islands have recently begun to gain public attention.RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Victims Speak Out and Demand Respect
"One encounter, many paths: united against forgetting," the placards read, as 3,500 victims of the civil war in Colombia demand recognition and respect, from the authorities and society.RIGHTS-US: Congress Moves to Protect Native Women from Assaults
Acting in major part on a recent report by Amnesty International and Native American activists, the U.S. Congress is moving to provide additional funding to protect Native American women who suffer disproportionate levels of rape and other sexual abuse.BOLIVIA: Indigenous and Mestizo Power Flexes Muscles
An immense tide of people demonstrating to keep the Bolivian seat of government in this city took to the streets last week to show support for the indigenous Aymara and mestizo leadership, in the greatest expression of popular power in the history of the country.COLOMBIA: 'Independence? What Independence?' Indigenous Peoples Ask
Colombia celebrated 197 years of independence from Spain on Friday, Jul. 20. On Monday, at dawn, some 5,000 indigenous people set off on an 800-kilometre journey to ask the government, "what independence?"
RIGHTS: Native Peoples Renew Call for U.N. Recognition
Leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples are reiterating their calls for the 192-member U.N. General Assembly to recognise their sovereignty over ancestral lands and resources.SRI LANKA: Civil War Shifts to Jaffna
As the government celebrates the capture of the country’s east, all out battles with Tamil rebels in their northern bastion of Jaffna have become imminent.
BOLIVIA: La Paz Struggles Against Suffocation
The noise of traffic, dissonant car horns, people marching and shouting slogans, and firework and dynamite explosions is beginning to suffocate the urban centre of La Paz, Bolivia's seat of government, and is forcing consideration of medium term solutions.PERU: Escalating Conflicts Put Pres. Garcia on the Spot
Three people dead, several injured, and fire at an airport: the results of a wave of protests in Peru, regarded as the worst social crisis since Alan García became president nearly one year ago. Thousands of teachers, workers and peasant farmers continued the mobilisation Thursday.RIGHTS-BOLIVIA: Indigenous People March On Constituent Assembly
Indigenous people are marching for their right to autonomy, heading from the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in central Bolivia to the constitutional and judicial capital, Sucre, where the country's Constituent Assembly is meeting.
CHILE: Aymaras Don’t Want to Disappear
Twenty years ago, close to 100 indigenous Aymara people lived in the village of Cancosa, but today only 10 remain. The same is true of many indigenous communities in the Chilean Altiplano, as their members have moved out in search of jobs and educational opportunities.EGYPT: Fearing Border Protests, Cairo Meets Bedouin Demands
Two months after the Bedouin, an indigenous people of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula began holding angry demonstrations against what they call a policy of official harassment by police, the authorities last week released dozens of tribesmen detained in mass arrests over the last three years.LABOUR-PERU: National Strike Called in Solidarity with Casapalca Miners
Peru's National Federation of Miners, Metalworkers and Steelworkers has called a nation-wide strike for Tuesday and Wednesday, in solidarity with more than 1,500 workers at the Casapalca mine who walked out in May. The conflict has resulted in five deaths so far.
CHILE: Aymaras Vow Mining Co. Will Restore Wetland
The Aymara community of Cancosa on the Chilean Altiplano region of Tarapacá, bordering Bolivia, will spare no effort in its struggle to rehabilitate a wetland dried out by the Cerro Colorado Mining Company (CMCC), an affiliate of the Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton company.SRI LANKA: Norway in No Hurry to Resume Mediation
While much store is being set by the prospect of Norway returning to its key role as mediator between the nationalist government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and ethnic Tamil rebels, indications are that the Scandinavians are in no hurry.RIGHTS-BURMA: Junta Will Stop Recruiting Child Soldiers – Analysts
Talks between a senior United Nations envoy and Burma’s acting prime minister Thein Sein in Rangoon, last week, may actually see an end to the recruitment of children into the armed forces, say observers.
POLITICS: U.S. Social Forum Forges Common Ground
In all, the crowds were huge, the workshops passionate and inspiring, and participants made ideological, relational and personal gains, both large and small.ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Cape Yorkers Pin Hopes on Heritage Listing
With the Cape York peninsula, one of the wildest tropical environments on the planet, coming under pressure from mining, commercial fishing and the tourism industries, conservation groups are pinning hopes on this pristine locale gaining a World Heritage listing and thereby permanent protection.
RIGHTS-US: Native Americans and Immigrants Share Common Struggle
One group has lived here for millennia, while the other has just arrived. But Native Americans and immigrants have much in common, particularly the alienation and oppression they experience in U.S. society, activists and community leaders said on day three of the U.S. Social Forum (USSF) Friday.CANADA: Day of Action Highlights Native Frustration
A day of action by Canada's aboriginal community has led to nationwide protests across the country and some transportation closures in Ontario.AUSTRALIA: Plan to Curb Aboriginal Child Abuse Sparks Debate
Australia's federal government says its plan to protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory from abuse is altruistic and necessary, but a range of critics call it paternalistic, culturally insensitive and short-sighted.« 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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