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The Anchorage Declaration

Kailash — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:40:46 +0100

From 20-24 April, 2009, Indigenous representatives from the Arctic, North America, Asia, Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Caribbean and Russia met in Anchorage, Alaska for the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change. We thank the Ahtna and the Dena’ina Athabascan Peoples in whose lands we gathered.

We express our solidarity as Indigenous Peoples living in areas that are the most vulnerable to the impacts and root causes of climate change.

'We are fighting for our lives and our dignity'

Kailash — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:31:29 +0100

It has been called the world’s second “oil war”, but the only similarity between Iraq and events in the jungles of northern Peru over the last few weeks has been the mismatch of force. On one side have been the police armed with automatic weapons, teargas, helicopter gunships and armoured cars.

Shell pays out $15.5m over Saro-Wiwa killing

johnacuna — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:39:30 +0100

The oil giant Shell has agreed to pay $15.5m (£9.6m) in settlement of a legal action in which it was accused of having collaborated in the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria.

The settlement, reached on the eve of the trial in a federal court in New York, was one of the largest payouts agreed by a multinational corporation charged with human rights violations.

The scale of the payment was being seen by experts in human rights law as a step towards international businesses being made accountable for their environmental

MOSOP Welcomes Shell’s Settlement of Claims of Ogoni Families

johnacuna — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:44:22 +0100

The Movement for the survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) welcomes the news of the agreement by Shell to compensate families of some of the victims of the company’s atrocities in Ogoni.

Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. was let down by the Netherlands

johnacuna — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:01:08 +0100

Shell and the relatives of the executed Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa reached a settlement on Monday, effectively ending a 13-year long legal battle. The case concerned environmental pollution by oil exploration, human rights abuses by the Nigerian military regime in the nineties, and the role of Shell. A jury before the New York District Court was supposed to consider the evidence collected by the parties.

Shell has agreed to settle the law suit by paying 15.5 million US dollars in compensation and legal costs to the families of Saro-Wiwa and of the 8 other executed Ogoni-leaders.

Ghanian EPA asked to withhold papers of defaulting mining companies

Kailash — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:16:17 +0100

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been directed to withhold licences of Mining firms that do not fulfill the requirements of the Environmental Impact and Social Assessment.

The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Hanny-Sherry Ayittey, who gave the order said if that was done during the evaluation of performance of mining companies, most of the problems bedeviling the mining communities could be curtailed.

The country’s environmental and social assessment requirements for mining firms should build schools, plant trees in forest reserves where they operate, provi

South African villagers take action against Anglo American subsidiary

Kailash — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:30:53 +0100

The Sekuruwe community in the Mapela area, north of Mokopane in Limpopo Province, has been taking action for the last three days to demand cooperation from the Sekuruwe Section 21 Company in the reexhumation and reburial of community graves desecrated by Anglo Platinum and its subcontractor, Phuti Funeral Homes. There has been a regular police presence at the village for the duration of the action. Today, police arrested a youth from the village.

On Tuesday, the entrance from the main road to the Sekuruwe village was blocked and no one could drive in or out.

Declaration on Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Food Sovereignty

whit — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:59:52 +0000

Declaration on Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Food Sovereignty

20-29 September 2009

The Potato Park, Pisac, Cusco, Peru – http://www.andes.org.pe/web_001/

From 20-29 September 2009 a group of farmers and scientists from Ethiopia and Peru met in the Potato Park, Pisac, in the Department of Cusco, Peru to engage in cross-cultural and horizontal learning about concepts and methods on how to design, plan, implement and manage Agrobiodiversity Conservation Areas.

Dutch Court To Take On Shell Nigeria Cases

Kailash — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:30:09 +0000

AMSTERDAM – Royal Dutch Shell and its Nigerian unit will face compensation demands in a Dutch court for alleged damage caused by oil spills in Nigeria after the court ruled on Wednesday it was competent to handle the cases.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth Netherlands and four Nigerians aim to sue Shell and Nigeria-based Shell Petroleum Development Co. (SPDC) in a district court in The Hague on charges related to incidents of oil spills in Nigeria.

UN report paints grim picture of conditions of world’s indigenous peoples

Kailash — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:45:43 +0000

January 2010 – The world’s 370 million indigenous peoples suffer from disproportionately, often exponentially, higher rates of poverty, health problems, crime and human rights abuses, the first ever United Nations study on the issue reported today, stressing that self-determination and land rights are vital for their survival.