On September 6, 2011, Peru’s President Ollanta Humala signed a historic law guaranteeing Indigenous Peoples the right to prior consultation about any mining, logging, or petroleum projects affecting them and their territories.
President Humala said he wanted Indigenous People to be treated like citizens who must be consulted where their interests are involved.
Since Cultural Survival's Global Response campaign in 2003 to prevent gold mining in forests reserves in Ghana, one company has been successful in pushing their plans for the construction of a gold mine into reality. Newmont Mining Company, world renowned for human rights and environmental abuses, began construction on the Ahafo gold mine inside the Ghana Forest Reserves in 2008. Since then, re
The Ngöbe (also spelled Ngabe-Bukle) people of Panama held a series of peaceful demonstrations in Chiriqui,Veraguas, in the autonomous Indigenous region of the Ngöbe in Panama on September 1st to protest the hydroelectric project known as CHAN-75 on the Changuinola River as well as others planned within Ngobe territory.
Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Indigenous landowners who asked for a temporary injunction to prevent a Chinese company from dumping its mine and refinery waste into the Bismarck Sea.
In a letter addressed to the Fund for 21st Century Altai, Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources, R. R. Gizatulin, said that building a pipeline across the Ukok Plateau would violate Russia’s obligations to protect the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site, of which Ukok is a part. The letter, dated July 21, 2011, was published by altapress.ru on August 3.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the branch of the World Bank Group that loans money to private corporations, announced a new policy that will require clients to obtain the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous communities that could be affected by their projects. Approved as part of an updated Sustainability Framework by IFC’s board of directors on May 12, 2011, the policy will take effect on January 1, 2012.
The Sustainability Framework’s Performance Standard 7 concerns Indigenous Peoples. The introduction states:
August 6th, 2011- For the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, a coalition of Indigenous groups from the United States, Mexico, and Australia issued a proclamation on the state of Indigenous rights. To read that proclamation on the International Indian Treaty Council website, click here.
Over 1,000 Indigenous landowners are appealing a decision by Madang’s National Court that permits a Chinese mining company to dump toxic waste from a nickel mine and refinery into the Bismarck Sea.
On August 3, the government of Paraguay officially returned almost 9,000 hectares of ancestral lands to the Indigenous community Kelyenmagategma of the Enxet people in response to a petition the filed before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2004.
In late May, Cultural Survival attended the 10th annual conference of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples. It was a great success: major foundations, including the
The U.S. Department of Interior announced on July 7, 2011 the establishment of a new Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform that will evaluate in depth the Interior’s trust management of Native American assets. Secretary Ken Salazar is asking for nominations from the public on candidates for the new commission, as well as feedback on the commission’s proposed charter.
Cultural Survival's Global Response Program was invited to attend a conference held by campaign partners MASTA (Moskitia Asia Takanka) in Ahuas, Gracias a Dios, Honduras.
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.
