On Tuesday night, before COVID-19 shut down most of Denmark, a dozen people gathered in Copenhagen to meet the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz. The meeting, organised by IWGIA and the Greenlandic House, created a space for Greenlanders in Denmark to openly present and discuss the situation and challenges they face and are confronted with in Denmark.
IWGIA welcomes the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, to Denmark and Greenland from 10-19 March.
The situation for Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh in many ways echoes the situation of other Indigenous Peoples in Asia: they face heavy militarization; they are stigmatized as anti-national for wanting to be included in decisions affecting their lives – such as industrial development taking place on their ancestral lands, lands which they depend on for their livelihood; and their lands are grabbed at the speed of light, and with their land goes a huge part of their identity. Indigenous women are targeted, and rape is used systematically as a weapon to suppress them. The misery seems to be unending. Yet they are still here; alive, struggling, fighting, uniting.
Agnes Karao Mgema, from the Parakuyo patoralists group in Tanzania, took the floor. She is the chair of Nalepo, a community based organisation that has mobilised their community to support girls from families that failed to take them to school, as well as those who were forced to drop out and get married.
The transition from the use of traditional energy sources to renewable energy solutions is rapidly becoming a necessity if humanity is to address the climate emergency we face. However, this pursuit cannot happen at the expense of human rights, including the loss of land, livelihoods and rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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. The Indigenous World 2019.
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