Human Rights-Militarisation

Extraction of natural resources a key cause of abuse of indigenous peoples’ rights

Kailash — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:06:30 +0000

GENEVA – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, warned Wednesday that indigenous communities’ right to self-determination in the political, social and economic spheres is being threatened by the current model for advancing with natural resource extraction.

“Natural resource extraction and other major development projects in or near indigenous territories are one of the most significant sources of abuse of the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide,” said Mr. Anaya in his latest report* to the UN Human Rights Council.

Indigenous peoples suffer abuses in race for natural resources – UN rights expert

Kailash — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:42:12 +0000

Extraction of natural resources and other major development projects in or near the territories of indigenous peoples is one of the most significant sources of abuse of their human rights worldwide, an independent United Nations expert warned today.“In its prevailing form, the model for advancing with natural resource extraction within the territories of indigenous peoples appears to run counter to the self-determination of indigenous peoples in the political, social and economic spheres,” the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples James Anaya told the UN Human Rights Counc

Colombia: priest shot dead in mining town & Father Marco Arana escapes from violent ambush

Kailash — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:05:44 +0000

The Regional Indigenous Council of the department of Caldas and the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective condemn the murder of José Reinel Restrepo, the parish priest of the municipality of Marmato and a defender of the rights of people to survive and remain on their territory.

On Friday September 2nd 2011, the priest’s body was found without any identification alongside his motorcycle in which he had been traveling between Mistrató and Belén de Umbría in Colombian coffee country.

Colombia: priest shot dead in mining town

Kailash — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:10:21 +0000

A young priest from the mining town of Marmato, in the department of Caldas in the west of Colombia, Father Jose Reinel Restrepo Idairraga, was killed by unknown assailants, according to information given to the local press by the Secretary of the Government in that region, Henry Murillo.

In a report in the newspaper El Tiempo Murillo said that the priest was killed on Thursday, 1 September on a road from Mistrato in Bethlehem of Umbria, in the neighboring department of Risaralda (west of Colombia about 200km from Bogota.

Ethiopia’s ‘bulldozer’ government arrests 100 tribal people over dam

whit — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:37:32 +0100

Survival has received reports that around one hundred Ethiopian tribespeople have been arrested and jailed for opposing Ethiopia’s controversial Gibe III dam.

Plans for the dam and irrigated land plantations nearby are gathering pace, along with rising repression and intimidation to any opposition.

A policeman reportedly told one indigenous community that the government was, ‘like a bulldozer, and anyone opposing its development projects will be crushed like a person standing in front of a bulldozer.’

Ethiopia is leasing out large tracts of tribal lands in the South Omo region t

Law firm hopes to keep suits against Hudbay alive

Kailash — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:32:18 +0100

TORONTO, Aug 16 (Canadian Lawyer InHouse) – A Toronto law firm is pushing for lawsuits against Canadian mining company HudBay Minerals (HBM.TO: Quote) regarding alleged human rights abuses to continue, despite the fact the company no longer owns the project where the alleged killing of one man and gang rape of 11 women occurred.

The claims stem from the death of Adolfo Ich in September 2009 and the alleged rapes of 11 women in January 2007 by mine security workers.

Ich, an indigenous community leader and an outspoken critic of Canadian mining activities in his community, was allegedly ha

Lina Solano, woman leader, defender of mother earth

Kailash — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:55:06 +0100

Small but feisty, Lina Solano, an Ecuadorian woman spent most of her life defending mother earth and the people affected by the destruction brought about by plunder of Ecuador’s resources.

Solano was in Manila early this month for the first general assembly of the International Women’s Alliance (IWA).

Solano said her advocacy started when she was still a college student at the university. “I am always inclined to fight for justice, just even before my militant spirit is so alive,” Solano said.

Navajo anti-uranium group challenges HRI Churchrock state discharge permit

Kailash — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:54:29 +0100

RENO, NV – Undeterred by court decisions upholding the state of New Mexico’s right to regulate Hydro Resources Churchrock Section 8 in-situ uranium project, the Eastern Navajo Diné against Uranium Mining and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center have filed a complaint with the First Judicial Court in Santa Fe.

The filing asserts that the New Mexico Environment Department bypassed the normal regulatory process by allowing HRI to conduct mining activities before the state agency made a decision on the company’s discharge permit application.

The plaintiffs argue that the New Mexico Envir

India: Vedanta Orissa projects ban must be upheld

Kailash — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:26:07 +0100

Ongoing attempts by UK-based mining company Vedanta Resources to overturn an Indian government decision blocking a proposed bauxite mine and expansion of an alumina refinery in Orissa should not be allowed to succeed, new report by Amnesty International says.

The report, Generalisations, Omissions, Assumptions [http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA20/036/2011/en], reveals that the company has failed to adequately consider the human impact of its proposed projects with an investment of US$ 1,7 billion in Orissa.

“Vedanta’s mine and refinery expansion projects must not be allowed

Diodora Hernandez Continues In Resistance To Goldcorp Inc

Kailash — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:01:38 +0100

On 7 July 2010, Diodora Antonia Hernandez Cinto (a Mayan-Mam campesina woman from the mountainous village of San Jose Nueva Esperanza) was shot point-blank in the head and left for dead by two local men (mine workers) who ran off into the night.

She was shot because she refuses to sell her plot of land to Montana Exploradora, Goldcorp’s subsidiary operating an open-pit, mountain-top removal, cyanide-leaching gold and silver mine in the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala.

The bullet went in her right eye, and exited behind her right ear.