UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination considers the report of Guatemala

whit — Thu, 14 May 2015 15:15:37 +0100

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today concluded its consideration of the combined fourteenth and fifteenth periodic report of Guatemala on its implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Introducing the report, Hugo Martinez, Presidential Commission for Coordinating Executive Policy on Human Rights, introducing the report on behalf of Antonio Arenales, President of the Presidential Commission, said that the 36-year-long internal armed conflict had not been an inter-ethnic conflict, and what had happ

Do no harm, Canada

whit — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 09:17:33 +0000

The Inter American Human Rights Commission — an independent office of the Organization of American States — has added its voice to a growing list of human rights bodies calling on Canada to prevent mining abuses and hold Canadian companies and state agencies responsible to account.

In a statement released summarizing dozens of hearings heard in late October, the Commission specifically urged Canada — as home to hundreds of mining companies with mining projects throughout Latin America and the Caribbean — to “prevent the multiple human rights violations that can result” from their advanc

Reindeer herds in danger as Australia's mining boom comes to Sweden

whit — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 10:26:58 +0000

Lars Jon Allas, whose family has herded for generations, says mine dust kills the lichen reindeer eat in winter

The town of Kiruna in far north Sweden is home to the largest underground iron mine in the world. Piles of mined earth dwarf the town and smoke churning from the processing plant at the mine’s entrance creates the impression of an active volcano.

Lars Jon Allas and his reindeer herd spend their winters in the pastures just outside Kiruna.

Peru’s Culture Ministry blocks expansion of country’s biggest gas project – but for how long?

whit — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 17:39:34 +0000

Peru’s Ministry of Culture (MINCU) has issued a report that blocks, at least temporarily, the expansion of the country’s biggest gas project in the Amazon rainforest in a Reserve set aside for the protection of isolated indigenous peoples.

Fears Peru's Gas Expansion will Generate Conflict in UNESCO World Heritage Site

whit — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:36:07 +0100

A department within Peru’s Environment Ministry is concerned that the expansion of the country’s biggest gas project in the southeast Peruvian Amazon could generate conflict between indigenous peoples living there.

SERNANP, the state institution responsible for ‘protected natural areas’ in Peru, has stated that the expansion of the gas project could generate conflict between indigenous peoples in “voluntary isolation” in the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti Reserve (KNNR) and other indigenous peoples living in neighboring Manu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

SERNANP expressed it

UN Urges Peru to Suspend US$480m Gas Plans 'Immediately'

whit — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:19:25 +0000

The United Nations’ Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is urging the Peruvian government to ‘suspend immediately’ plans to expand the country’s biggest gas project.

CERD’s request was made in a letter dated 1 March to Peru’s Ambassador to the UN, Luis Enrique Chavez Basagoitia, expressing concern over government plans to expand the Camisea gas project in the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti Reserve for indigenous peoples living in ‘voluntary isolation’ in the Amazon.

‘The Committee is concerned at the possible discriminatory impact on the indigenous inhabitants of the re

United Nations Human Rights Complaints for Hannans

whit — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:19:49 +0000

Today, in Perth at the AGM of the Australian based exploration company Hannans Reward Ltd, investors were notified by the Saami Council and affected Saami communities that complaints to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had been prepared and would be officially lodged with the UN if the company goes ahead with its open-pit mining plans in Northern Sweden, home of the Indigenous Saami people.

Western Shoshone Carrie Dann: Civil disobedience one way to protect Mother Earth

whit — Sun, 13 May 2012 09:37:02 +0100

TUCSON — Western Shoshone Carrie Dann spoke of the sacredness of all living things and how gold mining is continuing to destroy the land, water and sacred places of the Western Shoshone.

During testimony to the UN Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, Dann stressed the importance of ancestral lands of the Western Shoshone in Nevada and southern Idaho, in regards to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“Think as an Indigenous Person, how it must hurt our Mother to have her ripped apart by gold mining companies and others that drill for things under her skin and throug

‘It is clear the United States’ laws do not protect the human rights of Navajos’

whit — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:35:05 +0000

St Michaels, Ariz.— The Internationally community is now coming together to help save Dook’o’osliid (San Francisco Peaks) the Executive Director of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission (NNHRC) Leonard Gorman blast the U.S. for not doing enough to illuminate the issue. “the Navajo Nation has exhausted its grievance process in the United States to protect Navajo human rights. It is clear the United States’ laws do not protect the human rights of Navajos.” said Gorman.

In 2011, Navajo officials said they wrote to the U.N.

UN Expert Urges States, Companies to Involve Indigenous Peoples as Partners in Development

Kailash — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:17:23 +0100

KIRKENES, Norway — The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Professor James Anaya, urges state authorities and industrial companies to involve indigenous peoples as genuine partners in decision making on and extraction of natural resources in or near their traditional territories.
In a keynote speech delivered in Kirkenes, Norway, Professor Anaya underlined the key developments that have taken place in recent decades aimed at safeguarding the rights of indigenous peoples.