Indigenous communities’ livelihood in Colombia is threatened as they are struggling to keep their ancestral territory. The Arhuaco peoples have organised themselves and are making a last stand to prevent more mining concessions in their territory and create sustainable development.
Recent reports by UN experts and human rights organizations document an alarming increase in violent attacks against and criminalisation of indigenous peoples defending their rights to their traditional lands and natural resources, particularly in the context of large-scale development projects. Intensifying global competition over natural resources increasingly makes indigenous communities taking action to protect their traditional lands and territories targets of persecution by State and non-State actors who want to silence them and dissuade others to support them.
In May 2002, United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) held its first official meeting in New York. This was as a result of a groundbreaking process where indigenous peoples in nearly a decade pushed the boundaries for how United Nations functioned and overcame difficult obstacles for their full and equal participation on the way.
New IWGIA project supports Ogiek communities in Kenya to get access to their ancestral land in the Mau Forest. The project focuses on ensuring the Ogiek peoples’ participation and the implementation of the historic ruling of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in favour of the Ogiek Peoples’ land claims, after nearly a decade of disputes and evictions of the Ogiek peoples from the Mau Forest.
Read the programme for the International conference in Copenhagen themed "Defending the Defenders - New Alliances for protecting indigenous peoples' rights" hosted by IWGIA.
IWGIA - International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs - is a global human rights organisation dedicated to promoting, protecting and defending indigenous peoples’ rights. Read more.
IWGIA's global report, the Indigenous World, provides an update of the current situation for indigenous peoples worldwide. Download here.
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