The Bushmen of Botswana’s central Kalahari are well known to the world, the subject of books, films and anthropological studies. They are frequently portrayed — or, as many say, romanticized — as classic hunter-gatherers, a living link to humankind’s collective beginnings. But for decades, they have been entrenched in a tug of war over their fate that has often gone unnoticed, a saga now replete with edicts and court cases, with alcohol abuse and sundered families, with an aboriginal people despairing about the uncertainty of their future.

Since the 1980s, Botswana, a landlocked nation of two million people, has both coaxed and hounded the Bushmen to leave the game reserve, intending to restrict the area to what its name implies, a wildlife refuge empty of human residents. Withholding water is one tactic, and in July a High Court ruled that the government had every right to deny use of that modern oasis, the borehole. An appeal was filed in September.

On 8 November 2010, indigenous Jumma peoples in Ruma upazila under Bandarban Hill District organised demonstration and held meeting at Ruma Upazilla HQ protesting against acquisition of lands of the Jumma people recorded in their names as well as occupied by them so far for expansion of Ruma Cantonment of the Bangladesh Army and establishment of new wing headquarter of BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) in Ruma. The protest was organised by the local Jumma people under the banner of the People from All Levels in Ruma.

It is noted that the Army authority during the pre-CHT Accord period put a plan to acquire 9,560 acres of land for expansion of Ruma cantonment. Since mid 1980s the local Army authority time and again made attempts to have acquisition of the proposed area. Every time the local Jumma People particularly the Murung (Mro), who numbering to about 15,000 (Fifteen thousand) are to be uprooted even from their whole mouza (local traditional area unit) and would become completely landless and deprived from their livelihood, the occupation of plough land cultivation and shifting agriculture cultivation.

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 Read more on the Website of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (Chittagong Hill Tracts United Peoples' Party): pcjss-cht.org

Concerned about the extreme social and economic disadvantages that indigenous peoples have faced, the Third Committee approved a draft resolution today that would have the General Assembly organize a high-level plenary meeting in 2014 — to be known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in 2014 - to share perspectives and best practices on the realization of indigenous peoples’ rights.

Approved without a vote, the document would invite the President of the General Assembly to determine the modalities for the high-level meeting, including indigenous peoples’ participation at the Conference, through open-ended consultations with Member States, indigenous people’s representatives in the framework of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.
 
The Assembly would also expand the mandate of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, so that it could assist representatives of indigenous peoples’ organizations and communities to participate in sessions of the Human Rights Council and human rights treaty bodies. 
 
 Download a copy of the resolution A/C.3/65/L.22/Rev.1 as pdf here

10 November 2010

Natural History Museum expedition to remote area threatens uncontacted indigenous groups

An expedition of more than 20 scientists from the Natural History Museum is due to leave London this month to conduct a large scale research study in a remote area of Paraguay, near the border with Bolivia, alongside local scientists and support staff, forming a total expedition team of over 60. But the presence of uncontacted indigenous people from the Ayoreo ethnic group in the area has led local indigenous leaders to demand in a letter to the Paraguayan President, Fernando Lugo, that this huge expedition be immediately cancelled.

The expedition, called “Paraguay 2010”, would take researchers from diverse fields into virgin areas of the Dry Chaco, the largest dry forest in South America, covering a vast area of North Western Paraguay, Eastern Bolivia and Northern Argentina, with the largest part of virgin forest around the border area between Paraguay and Bolivia, where the scientists will be visiting. They describe it as “one of the great under-explored areas on Earth”.

However, the museum has now been sent detailed evidence, compiled by Paraguayan indigenous rights NGO, Iniciativa Amotocodie, whose work involves monitoring the presence of the uncontacted groups around the Chaco, which shows that the area is in fact home to several indigenous groups, who live without contact with modern civilization, and who reject and avoid all external contact. The isolated Ayoreo whose territories lie in the Chaco, in Paraguay and Bolivia, are the only remaining uncontacted peoples in Latin America outside of the Amazon basin.  

 Read the complete press release by Iniciativa Amotocodie, who records 6-7 groups of isolated Ayoreo in Paraguay, 3 of which are cross-border groups, and at least one group in Bolivia. It is estimated that groups in Paraguay altogether contain up to 150 people.

 Read the letter of protest by Ayoreo leaders here

9 november 2010

By Patricia Borraz, Almáciga

The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took place in Nagoya (Japan) from 18 to 29 October 2010. This note provides a number of links that will enable you to access relevant information on the process and outcome of the COP in relation to indigenous peoples.
 
The COP had a number of important issues on the agenda. Firstly, it had to establish a new Strategic Plan and Targets in relation to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The previous target, which anticipated reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, has not been reached. The discussions on the new Plan were long-drawn-out and heated, with many countries against setting targets that were too ambitious or that had fixed dates or percentages, in order to avoid any further failure from being noted, while civil society and some Parties were proposing more ambitious plans and the need to mobilise financial resources to help developing countries fulfil them. 
 
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UN Human Rights Council adopts two resolutions related to indigenous peoples' rights

20 October 2010

4 October 2010

This morning a C-47 military plane arrived on Rapanui (aka Easter Island) with a contingency of SWAT teams to augment the already in-place armed forces set to remove indigenous Rapanui people from their ancestral lands.

The Rapanui people pledge support from their Indigenous brothers and sisters, peoples movements and wider civil society, to urgently contact, petition, protest Chilean embassies to demand that the Chilean Government cease hostilities against the Rapa Nui people and recognise their rights to their homeland.

'The Chileans are still colonizing the island and continuing to destroy the ancient archeological sites which have been desginated by UNESCO as a "patrimony to humanity."'
 
 Read more on http://saverapanui.org/home.html

Bangladesh: Indigenous peoples demand recognition right in Constitution

27 September 2010

On 25 September, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum yesterday reiterated its demand for constitutional recognition of the ethnicity, language and culture of the country's indigenous people. They also demanded constitutional recognition of the indigenous people of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) for their political, economic, social, cultural and religious security. The forum placed the demands at a human chain programme in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh in the city

  Recognise the indigenous in constitution, Adivasi Forum urges govt (The Daily Star)
 Indigenous peoples call for restoration of '72 constitution (The Daily Star)

Peru's highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, said the executive branch isn't fully complying with international conventions that oblige it to consult with indigenous peoples before approving projects, especially in the mining and hydrocarbons sector.  The Tribunal Wednesday ordered the Ministry of Energy and Mines to fully comply as soon as possible with its obligation to put into place the right to allow indigenous groups to have "prior and informed" consultation.

Read more (Tradingmarkets.com

Brazil's government has given the formal go-ahead for the building on a tributary of the Amazon of the world's third biggest hydroelectric dam. After several failed legal challenges, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the contract for the Belo Monte dam with the Norte Energia consortium. Critics say the project will damage the local ecosystem and make homeless 50,000 mainly indigenous people.

 Read full story (BBC News)

17 august 2010

The Ecuadorian government is investigating Marlon Santi (president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, or CONIAE) for alleged sabotage and terrorism in connection with his participation in a protest against government exclusion of Indigenous representatives from a high-level, international meeting about Indigenous issues. On June 24 and 25, the presidents of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela met in Otavalo to discuss, among other issues, Indigenous affairs, but no Indigenous groups were invited to this meeting of the “Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA).” This omission spurred a protest by thousands of Indigenous people.
 
Increasingly, the Ecuadoran government has been launching investigations and legal actions against NGOs that oppose the government, especially those involved in anti-mining activities. Ecuador’s new mining law now guarantees mining companies protection of their operations; hence these accusations seem to serve to marginalize the voices of Indigenous and campesino organizations.

 Read more on the web site of Cultural Survival

15 August 2010   

After being forcibly removed from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana in 20002, the Bushmen won a historic victory on 13 December 2006, when Botswana's High Court ruled that their eviction by the government was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’. The Court also ruled that they have the right to live inside the reserve, on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. However, this ruling has been seriously crippled by the denial to Kalahari Bushmen of the right to water contained in the judgment no. MAHLB-000393-09 delivered Wednesday July 21st 2010 by the High Court in Lobatse, Botswana. The right and access to water are essential to the full enjoyment of the right to life and all the rights contained in the African Charter. A denial of such right is a denial of the basic right and the denial of the right to life as enshrined in the article 4 of the African Charter.

Read the press release of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights on this issue. 
 

10 August 2010  

In a historic constitutional referendum on 4th August, 2010, 68 % of the Kenyan’s who turned out to vote supported the proposed new constitution. Indigenous communities also voted in favour of the proposed new constitution. The new constitution is a clean break with the past and provides several avenues for the pursuit and strengthening of indigenous peoples individual and collective rights.

Read more about the gains for indigenous peoples ...