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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated existing inequalities and human rights abuses that affect Indigenous Peoples around the world. At the same time, governments are taking advantage of the attention that is directed to virus response in order to proceed with projects and policies that further violate Indigenous rights. The following are brief examples of key ways the virus is threatening Indigenous human rights.
Many A'uwẽ-Xavante ceremonies – such as wate’a (above), part of the male initiation complex -- revolve around water and ritual activities in water.  Plans for three hydroelectric dams on tributaries to the Rio das Mortes threaten the river basin. Photo by Rosa Gauditano/Studio R.
 

By Laura R. Graham, with collaboration from Edson Krenak Naknanuk
 


El proyecto de comunicación Tuklik, conformado por los ámbitos de la producción y difusión de programas de audio para radio, y la producción y proyección de videos, se desarrolla en seis comunidades de tres municipios ubicados en la región sur y oriente de Yucatán: Mayapán, Cantamayec y Tahdziú. Para ubicarles, nos permitimos decir que el estado de Yucatán tiene 106 municipios, según el gobierno de Yucatán agrupados en siete regiones: poniente, noroeste, centro, litoral centro, noreste, oriente y sur.
 

On May 10, 2020, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux  Tribe in South Dakota were told by Governor Kristi Noem they had to remove coronavirus checkpoints within 48 hours. However, given that the Cheyenne River Sioux only have an eight-bed facility for the 12,000 people living on the reservation, the checkpoints are an essential tool for regulating and limiting the spread of COVID-19 on the reservation.

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