The bad new is that the repressive tactics of Philippine National Police are increasingly violent against the Indigenous people of Didipio who are trying to prevent further demolitions of their homes by the mining company, OceanaGold Philippines, Inc (OGPI). A mobile unit of the National Police is now stationed inside the offices of OGPI, clearing signaling the people that their government stands with the mining company and against them.
Ecuadorian police have attacked peaceful Shuar Indigenous protesters near the town of Macas in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon, leaving at least one Shuar teacher dead.
Nueva Vizcaya -- An alarming situation continues in the upland village of Didipio, in the province of Nueva Vizcaya, where Ifugao indigenous peoples live. Homes of Ifugaos known for their anti-mining sentiments were searched without warrants by security personnel of a mining company.
When the United Nations General Assembly voted on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, only four countries voted against it: the United States, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. Today, the Rudd government in Australia announced that it would endorse the declaration. The original vote on the declaration was largely the result of the tireless efforts of Cultural Survival board member Les Melezer, and Melezer played a key role in today's announcement by the Rudd government: he has been in New York for two weeks putting pressure on the Australian ambassador.
YAOUNDE -- Two-thirds of the forests in the Congo River Basin could disappear within 50 years if logging and mineral exploitation continues at current rates, environmental group WWF said in a report.
The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations is accepting applications for financial assistance for any representatives of indigenous communities who wish to participate in the 2007 deliberations of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, or the Working Group on the Draft United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Applications must be submitted by October 1, and must be in English, French, or Spanish. The U.N.
On March 15, the United Nations General Assembly voted 170–4 to create a new Human Rights Council, effectively dissolving the oft-criticized Commission on Human Rights. Candidates for the Council will need to be elected by an absolute majority of 96 votes in order to secure a position, and once elected members can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.
Budapest, Hungary.
The European Roma Rights Centre filed today an application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on behalf of 184 Romani residents of camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in northern Kosovo.
On December 18, 2005 Bolivians made history at the polls, as 54 percent of the country’s voters chose Evo Morales, an indigenous Aimara leader of the combative coca-growers’ unions, to become president.
Morales and his party, the Movement to Socialism (MAS), swept the elections in the first round with an absolute majority, trouncing competitors on the right: one a cement mogul and fast food franchise owner, the other a businessman-economist cultivated by the United States as its preferred choice.
The International Training Center of Indigenous Peoples is currently seeking indigenous applicants for its July training in Nuuk, Greenland. The two-week intensive session, conducted entirely in English, will be focused on strengthening participants’ deeper understanding of the many international legal instruments, covenants, and organizations that impact indigenous peoples. Limited funding is available for international travel, however each participant is responsible for funding their own visa and travel within their home country.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
