In a year where a global pandemic has created mass upheaval, and people everywhere are questioning our current systems and what else could exist to combat rampant inequalities and form just and fair societies, the theme of this week is a timely reminder to ask ourselves: what is reconciliation? What is the intention, the meaning of this word—where has it come from and where is it meant to take us?
learn more downloadDespite recommendations in the first and second cycle aimed at improving the conditions and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples in Papua New Guinea, the government has failed to adequately address rights violations, including inadequate access to basic services such as healthcare. Indigenous women and people with disabilities face disproportionate violations to their human rights. Most concerningly, the extraction of natural resources by foreign private industries continues to be prioritized over the health and well-being of the citizens of Papua New Guinea and their ecosystems, despite numerous recommendations to address this issue over more than a decade.
learn more downloadEritrea is home to a culturally, ethnically, linguistically and religiously heterogeneous society. In spite of this, it has a highly centralised and unitary state. Its government wields complete control and monopoly of the state apparatus, and all national and natural resources belonging to the Eritrean people. With no available legal remedies, the rights of Indigenous Peoples and minorities remain severely curtailed. Eritrea has neither a national legislative nor institutional framework that protects the rights of minorities or other societal groups that lay claim to indigeneity.
learn more downloadNearly five months since conflict erupted in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray Region, hostilities involving the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), and other armed elements continue to generate and exacerbate humanitarian needs and displace populations. Volatile security conditions in Central, North Western, South Eastern, and Southern zones are rendering some populations inaccessible to humanitarian actors. Meanwhile, relief actors continue to report large population influxes from Tigray’s Western Zone—controlled by authorities from neighboring Amhara Region since November 2020—into North Western Zone’s Shire town, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced or expelled by armed actors.
learn more downloadEcuador’s greatest Indigenous group has filed a suit against President Lenin Moreno and other administrators for alleged atrocities against humanity perpetrated during demonstrations last October that left 10 people dead. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) requested the prosecutor’s office on Monday to probe “crimes against humanity” because they assume the crackdown was “a well-organized and comprehensive intervention on the civilian people,” the group’s lawyer, Carlos Poveda, reported to AFP news agency.
learn more downloadThis article analyzes the development and organization of the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), which is being convened by UN Secretary General António Guterres in late 2021. Although few people will dispute that global food systems need transformation, it has become clear that the Summit is instead an effort by a powerful alliance of multinational corporations, philanthropies, and export-oriented countries to subvert multilateral institutions of food governance and capture the global narrative of “food systems transformation.” This article places the upcoming Summit in the context of previous world food summits and analyzes concerns that have been voiced by many within civil society. It elaborates how the current structure and forms of participant recruitment and public engagement lack basic transparency and accountability, fail to address significant conflicts of interest, and ignore human rights. As the COVID-19 pandemic illuminates the structural vulnerabilities of the neoliberal model of food systems and the consequences of climate change for food production, a high-level commitment to equitable and sustainable food systems is needed now more than ever. However, the authors suggest that the UNFSS instead seems to follow a trajectory in which efforts to govern global food systems in the public interest has been subverted to maintain colonial and corporate forms of control.
learn more downloadIn the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay, focuses on the impact of the coronavirus disease on the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, including increased health risks, as well as the sources of resilience of indigenous peoples, State and indigenous responses to the pandemic and the adverse and disproportionate impact of confinement and emergency measures observed on indigenous peoples. He concludes with a set of recommendations geared towards an inclusive economic and social recovery and better preparedness for future similar situations.
learn more downloadThe narrative on indigenous women as leaders and main actors in development are little heard. It may be that being women and indigenous, the glass ceiling for them may be that much higher and harder to break. But the stories that emerge reveal that in various communities they are hurdling barriers in arenas beyond their traditional domestic domain. Although still marginalized and burdened by multiple work, they are proving that they can actively engage in their community’s economic and political development rather than remain passive receivers of programs and policy. These case studies from five Southeast Asian countries give a glimpse of what indigenous women can achieve when their potential and possibilities are unlocked. When armed with knowledge of their rights and their capabilities are enhanced, they can mobilize and lead in fostering the common good.
learn more downloadIndigenous women are not separate from the struggles of their communities and peoples. Within the collective struggle, it is important to acknowledge the personal or individual building blocks and gender dynamics. The challenge remains how to make these struggles gender responsive and empowering towards women’s full and effective participation in the context of strong patriarchal influences in customary institutions and practice. On top of this are colonial assimilationist policies that continue to be in place. Advancements in the recognition of women’s and indigenous peoples’ rights at the international level are not being felt on the ground, but these have influenced local discourse and mobilization for substantial implementation of these rights. Three country studies commissioned by Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education) present how these are being undertaken by indigenous women and their organizations in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.
learn more downloadIndigenous women the world over experience particular forms of discrimination because of their multiple identities, discrimination against them as indigenous peoples and discrimination of a different form against their gender. The struggle for the recognition of collective ownership of land, territories and resources—a primary concern of indigenous peoples—has been criticized by some as placing greater importance on collective rather than individual rights, resulting in further marginalization for individual women. However, this criticism reveals also an inability in some commentators to comprehend the collective contexts in which individual rights are experienced or enjoyed and a general bias against the recognition of the importance of collective rights
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