Physicians for Human Rights

Environmental health scientists from the University of Michigan find that a sample of Guatemalans who live near a controversial gold and silver mine in the country's western highlands have higher levels of potentially toxic heavy metals in their urine and blood than a sample of residents who live farther from the mine.

Indigenous groups in the Philippines are hoping that president-elect Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will make good on his campaign promise to investigate illegal mining activities that affect Indigenous communities.

Michael Lolwerikoi, representing the Samburu people of Kenya, and Ellen Lutz, executive director of Cultural Survival, presented Cultural Survival’s report, “When the Police are the Perpetrators,” to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people during the meeting of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, April 18-30.  The 32-page report, written by Cultural Survival’s Global Response program director Paula Palmer and human rights expert Chris Allan, documents violent attacks by Kenyan police forc