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Malaysia: Despite twenty years of protests, Penan communities in Sarawak are still threatened by logging
September 2007
For more than twenty years, the Penan in Malaysia's Upper Baram region in Sarawak have protested peacefully against logging companies' encroachment on their land. Despite the protests, logging continues to this day - and since 2005, even with a sustainability certificate from the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC).
 Read the Bruno Manser Fonds' Press release on the issue and get to know how you can support the Penan in their struggle (web link)
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India: Tribals still waiting for the Forest Rights Bill to be operationalized
September 2007
In December 2006, the Indian Parliament passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill. The Bill entitles Sceduled Tribes and other forest dwelling communities, to 4 hectares of land per family. Formerly forest dwelling tribals had been considered illegal encroachers on the forest land, even though it was their traditional territory, and their forefathers had lived there for generations. To date, though, the policy has not been operationalized and indigenous forest dwellers are still not recognized as rightful owners of their land.
Read IBN Live's article on the Indian Governments lack of operationalization of the Bill (web link)
Read The Hindu's story on the Parliament's adoption of the Forest Rights Bill in December 2006 (web link)
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| Thailand: First Indigenous Peoples' Festival held in Chiang Mai |
September 2007
On september 5-7 an Indigenous Peoples' Festival was held in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. The event was co-hosted by indigenous peoples' organizations and the Thai government. It was the first time ever that indigenous peoples got such official support from the government (financial and through their presence) for a cultural festival, and the support is seen as a positive sign that the Thai government acknowledges the existence of indigenous peoples in Thailand. Various high-ranking officials were present, and participated in the panel discussions. Indigenous peoples in Thailand consider their participation a positive development, and an initial step towards an improvement of their rights and overall situation.
Read the Highland Peoples' Task Force's notes on the festival, incl. photos (pdf)
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Lahu woman, Chiang Mai Region, Thailand.
Photo: Chris Erni |
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Philippines: Subanon tribe calls on the UN CERD Committee to put pressure on Philippine government to stop mining activities on their land
August 2007
Three indigenous Subanon organizations from the Philippines have called on the UN Committee against Racial Discrimination (known as the CERD Committee) to intervene and remind the Philippine government of its responsibility of protecting it's peoples' wishes and socio-cultural integrity. The government is promoting large-scale mining on their ancestral lands, and the Subanon fear destruction of their livelihood base and spiritual sites.
Read the story on Manila Bulletin Online (web link)
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Nepal ratifies ILO Convention 169
August 2007
The interim parliament of Nepal ratified ILO Convention 169 on August 22, 2007. Nepal is the 21st country to ratify the Convention. Ratification of the convention has been one of the main demands of the indigenous movement of Nepal.
Read about the ratification in The Rising Nepal (web link)
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Nepal: Seats to be reserved for indigenous groups in Constituent Assembly
August, 2007
The Nepal government has signed a 20-point agreement with the National Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) and the Nationalities Joint Struggle Committee (INJSC), promising to reserve at least one seat for each of the 59 constitutionally recognized indigenous groups in the coming Constituent Assembly. It has also, among other things, been agreed to immediately form a State Restructuring Commission to investigate models for a future federal state structure.
Read eKantipur's online story about the 20-point agreement
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Malaysia: Landmark High Court Ruling Supports Native Customary Land Rights in Sabah
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July 2007
On July 9, High Court Justice Datuk Ian H.C. Chin ruled in favor of Rambilin Binti Ambit in a civil suit and two related judicial reviews. The judgment is expected to set a precedence for court cases involving claims to Native Customary Right in Sabah.
Read more about the ruling
Read the full text of the ruling as a PDF (1,31 MB) |
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Philippines: Another call to stop extrajudicial killings
June 2007
A year ago, Rafael Markus Bangit, an indigenous activist from the Cordillera region in the Philippines, was assassinated by death squads. He became one of more than 850 victims of political killings in the Philippines. In remembrance of Rafael Markus Bangit, indigenous and human rights organizations in the Philippines call on citizens of countries that invest heavily in the Philippins, or extend development assistance to the country, to petition their governments to stop all investments in the Philippines as a way of exerting pressure on the regime to stop the killings.
Read the Philippine organizations' joint press release (pdf)
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India: Van Gujjar nomads detained while migrating to summer pastures
April 2007
The Uttarakhand government has detained more than a hundred Gujjar nomadic families migrating to their traditional higher alpine pastures in Garhwal Himalayas despite enactment of the Tribal Act that protects their traditional grazing rights.
Read more on The Indian Express online
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Bangladesh: Prominent tribal leader tortured to death
April 2007
Asian Centre for Human Rights urges the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to intervene against the torture to death of a prominent leader of the Garo indigenous people, who opposed the creation of an Eco-Park in Modhupur forest.
Read the action appeal
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Malaysia: Indigenous community protests against park project
March 2007
An Orang Asli community is slowing the government's plans to create a botanical park in an ancient rain forest in northern Malaysia, voicing fears the project threatens their traditional livelihoods and seeks to make them a tourist attraction.
Read the article
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Philippines: New human rights report on the Philippines
March 2007
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines has released a report entitled "Let the Stones Cry Out: An Ecumenical Report on Human Rights in the Philippines and a Call to Action", which was recently presented during a hearing in the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations aimed at finding ways to end the violence that has claimed the lives of hundreds of journalists and activists since 2001. The report links the continued extra-judicial killings in the Philippines to the government's counter-insurgency program.
Download the report
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Nepal: Council of Ministers agrees to ratify the ILO 169 Convention
March 2007
The Council of Ministers of Nepal is going to introduce a proposal to the Parliament to comply with the
Directive resolution of the Parliament on ratification of the ILO Convention No. 169 on indigenous peoples. The indigenous movement in the country is optimistic that the Parliament will ratify the ILO Convention.
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India: Indigenous peoples oppose proposed uranium mining in Meghalaya
March 2007
The Khasi Students' Union has prepared a background paper outlining the hazardous effects and deadly fallouts if the proposed uranium mining is allowed to take place in Meghalay, North-East India.
Read the background paper
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Philippines: UN rapporteur visits the Philippines
March 2007
United Nations special rapporteur on on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions described the cases of human rights violations presented to him during his visit to the Philippines as tragic.
Read the article
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Malaysia: NGO campaign against investment in Malaysian logging company
March 2007
A number of NGOs concerned with the conservation of tropical rainforests and the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights have launched a campaign against the public listing of the Samling group, a Malaysian logging corporation. Samling has a poor environmental and social record in its countries of operation, and have left behind a trail of destruction in the forests of Cambodia and Papua New Guinea where its bulldozers have been operating until a few years ago. With its current operations in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia, the Samling group is threatening the surviavl of the indigenous Penan people.
Read the Bruno Manser Fond's Press Release
Read Forest Peoples Programme's letter to investors in the Samling Group
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India: CERD considers State report from India
February 2007
At the February/March session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination the State report from India will be considered. IWGIA has supported the development of two shadow reports dealing with indigenous peoples' issues.
Read the shadow report by the National Network for Human Rights Treaty Monitoring in India
Read the shadow report by the United NGOs Mission Manipur & Forest Peoples Programme
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Malaysia: Police clear Penan blockade for "certified" logging
February 2007
A Malaysian logging giant has started to log the last primary rainforests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak after the police removed a roadblock set up by the local indigenous Penan communities.
Read the Bruno Manser Fond media release
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India: Van Gujjars fight for voting rights
February 2007
The Van Gujjars, a nomadic community leaving in the adjoining Shavilik forests, are protesting against anomalities over furnishing age-proof to get voter identity cards.
Read more
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Bangladesh: The Tanchangya tribe of Chittagong Hill Tracts
January 2007
The website News from Bangladesh has published an elaborate article on the Tanchangya, an indigenous tribal community living in the greater Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of South-eastern part of Bangladesh
Read the article
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Taiwan: Official recognition of indigenous group
January 2007
A Taiwanese indigenous group, the Sakizaya, thought to have been wiped out more than 100 years ago has been officially recognised as the country's 13th aboriginal tribe.
Read the article on BBC News
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India: India's tribal people win land rights
December 2006
The Indian Parliament has approved a new bill, Forest Rights Bill 2006, which grants land ownership and rights to millions of poor tribal people living in India's remote forests for generations.
Read the article
See the Bill
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Malaysia: EU urges Malaysia to pay more attention to the indigenous peoples in the rainforests
December 2006
In a speach scheduled to be delivered in Sarawak state on Borneo, the EU's envoy to Malaysia urges Malaysia to focus more on preserving the tribal communities living in its rainforests than on sustainable logging.
Read the article
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Bangladesh: Indigenous peoples struggling for recognition and development activities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
December 2006
NGOs in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, which were established after the Peace Accord in December 1997 and earlier mainly by the local indigenous people, are facing difficulties because of the recent undeclared policies of the present Islamic government in Bangladesh.
Read the article
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Malaysia: New book on the Orang Asli women of Malaysia
December 2006
Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) has recently published a book titled "Orang Asli Women of Malaysia: Perceptions, Situations & Aspirations".
Read more
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