Against all the odds, and despite the challenges that climate change represents for Latin America, women are demonstrating day in, day out that they have the ideas and the unique and essential skills to propose a radical change in the matrix of civilisation at this crucial point in humankind’s history.

IWGIA’s latest human rights report examines the sociocultural impacts two particular projects – the Lake Turkana Wind Power project and Olkaria Geothermal Power plants – are having in several Indigenous communities in Kenya.

How can indigenous peoples survive the dismantling of public policies and rights acquired by decades of work in Brazil? This process, resulting from setbacks to democracy, as described by the authors, shows that this is an emergency situation. There is a need to seek alternatives and for pressure from indigenous and civic organizations to help indigenous peoples exercise their rights. This report ...

This book comprises a total of 14 articles addressing the issue of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon and its impacts, not only on the Amazonian environment and wildlife but particularly on the communities inhabiting the area. These impacts are being facilitated by informal dynamics for which the state is largely responsible and has failed to act promptly enough to put a stop to these dynamics a...

If we calculate all the risks, 90 million Adivasis are struggling for their survival, losing access to forests and suffering the gravest threat of being alienated from their forest lands and traditional habitations. This book is an attempt to understand the relationship between Adivasis and the forest, unfolding the ground realities of the Forest Rights Act. It exposes the dual role of the State ...

In the current global economic consensus of neoliberalism, maximizing profit is prioritized on behalf of respecting international human rights regulations. Ensuring multinational enterprises implement adequate corporate responsibility in Peru has been troublesome. This report describes issues of union member harassment, questionable tax practices and denial of local Indigenous communities their ri...

Since early August 2019, the most widespread and enduring fires in Bolivia’s history have been recorded in the country’s lowlands (Tierras Bajas). Widespread due to the large area burned and enduring because climatic conditions, along with the negligence of the authorities and even of those involved in the conflict themselves (who have risked setting fires in order to prepare the land for cult...

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India published the Draft National Forest Policy of 2018 on 14 March 2018 and is expected to finalise the policy soon.  This draft policy provides for the adoption of а completely new legal framework that is discriminatory towards indigenous peoples and seeks to take away the rights of the indigenous peoples already re...

The world today faces many challenges: a global climate and biodiversity crisis, rising inequality, shrinking civic space in many countries, and increasing distrust in international institutions and national political systems. Indigenous peoples make up five percent of the world’s population and are disproportionately affected by much of this; but they are also key to many of the world’s solut...

To create a room for indigenous peoples to discuss and analyse their experiences around autonomy and self-government, the international seminar "Right to Autonomy and Indigenous Self-Government as a manifestation of the Right to Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples" was held on March 11, 12 and 13, 2019 in Mexico. Indigenous representatives from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Nicarag...

The report on the current state of Indigenous Peoples’ Lands, Territories and Resources (LTR) was prepared by the Indigenous Peoples Major Group (IPMG) to inform the implementation of global commitments to Sustainable Development and the various related processes for transformational change. It is a summary of regional reports written by indigenous researchers and experts under the guidance of t...

Rising tensions between states and indigenous peoples are reaching a tipping point, and with an ever-shrinking civic space worldwide, the topics of criminalisation of Indigenous Rights Defenders’ activities and their organisations; land rights issues; and access to justice are more important than ever. The Indigenous World 2019 adds to the documented records, highlighting the increase in attac...

The rising tensions between states and indigenous peoples are reaching a tipping point and The Indigenous World 2018 adds to the documented records, highlighting the increase in attacks and killings of indigenous peoples while defending their lands. The Indigenous World is a one-of-a-kind documentation tool, that offers a comprehensive yearly overview of the developments indigenous peoples exper...

Standing tall, head held high, her dignity on full display. That’s the image of an empowered indigenous woman confronting discrimination and violence, saying “enough is enough” to the tragic impact of extractive industries and other development projects in her ancestral territories. The play of shapes that combines an indigenous woman’s silhouette with mountains, lakes, trees, and moon/sun...

An International Seminar to assess the global status and trends with regards to indigenous autonomies is taking place in Mexico City in March 2019. This meeting follows the work developed by indigenous organizations and the organizing institutions over the last few years. In January 2018, at its annual Expert Meeting, the UN Permanent Forum was requested to compile information on indigenous autono...

In light of the urgency of both forest conservation and the recognition of indigenous communities’ rights to land and resources, along with the documented potential for creating conservation synergies through recognition of community rights, this study tries to look at the approaches to forest conservation taken in Myanmar so far, and to take stock of their achievements and impact with respect t...

Human rights defenders are dying, attacked and criminalized all over the world. This is happening at an increasingly alarming rate. In 2017, over 400 people were killed while protecting their community’s land or natural resources. Approximately half of these were indigenous peoples. The conference aimed to understand why in particular and increasingly indigenous peoples from developing countries...

In 2003, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) established the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa (WGIP) with the responsibility to advise the Commission on matters relating to the rights of indigenous populations/communities on the continent. In this capacity, the WGIP found it appropriate to commission a study on extractive industries, land righ...

This synthesis report of marginalized and vulnerable indigenous peoples in Thailand represents the cases of ten indigenous groups who are targets of the Community Knowledge-Based Database System (CKBDS) project for empowering the most marginalized and vulnerable indigenous groups in Thailand, namely Mlabri, Kow (Umpi), Bisu, Chong, Yakoor, Saek, Moken, Moklen, Urak-Lawoy and Mani. These groups are...

Recent texts on the rights of indigenous peoples clearly show that indigenous ownership of marine and coastal spaces must be respected. In addition, their rights to their sea spaces must be guaranteed according to local perceptions, and this is masterly described by some articles in this book. This is expressed in the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in...

Indigenous peoples play a crucial role in defending and protecting their forest land rights. The passing of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006 is a positive step towards the recognition of indigenous forest dwellers’ land rights and their role in forest protection. In line with the new legislation, IWGIA has developed a community-...

Naga society is a casteless and classless society where, traditionally, women have enjoyed a high social positioning and a fair spirit of independence, playing very central roles in family and community affairs; however, it is also a patriarchal, patrilineal and patrilocal society where, for instance, family names are carried forward through sons, who are also the family members that inherit fami...

In the global quest for land and natural resources, indigenous peoples are particularly negatively impacted. While most local communities, peasants, farmers and other local land users are affected by this global land rush, embedded discrimination, a lack of recognition of land tenure and vulnerability mean that this recent land rush is affecting indigenous peoples particularly badly. The following...

IWGIA is deeply concerned about the human rights violations that are currently happening in Jharkhand, India

This handbook provides comprehensive step-by-step instructions on how to document human rights violations, particularly indigenous peoples’ collective rights, and use the data gathered for advocacy.

Indigenous women and girls are the most vulnerable group in Bangladesh. They face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination due to their gender, ethnicity, language, religion, class and geographic location.

The Samburu are a Nilotic community who reside in Northern Kenya. One cultural practice among the Samburu community is Girl-Child Beading. This practice sanctions a non-marital sexual relationship between Samburu men in the ‘warrior’ age group and young Samburu girls (usually between the ages of 9-15 years) who are not yet eligible for marriage. The practice has been in the community for centu...

This briefing note call attention to the ongoing situation of harassments and arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders in Loliondo in northern Tanzania.It offers an account of the recent events taking place in the area and background information. IWGIA believes that these developments are a cause of great concern. The detentions, harassment and trumped up charges undermine civil society and oth...

IWGIA has recently been informed by local partners in Tanzania that a government operation aimed at forcefully removing pastoralists from the Kilosa district in the Morogoro Region in southern Tanzania started on the 29.1.2009. The Tanzanian government wants to remove all pastoralists from Kilosa district and, according to some sources, the whole of Morogoro Region, and force them to other areas o...

This urgent alert is based on the forceful evictions of Maasai pastoralists from their homes and grazing lands in Loliondo Division, Ngorongoro District in Northern Tanzania and the gross human rights violations that are being committed. The eviction operation started on the 4th July 2009 and was conducted by the notorious riot police, the Field Force Unit, with assistance of private guards from t...