Tag Archive for 'Good News'Page 6 of 6

01
Mar

Court orders Ecopetrol to halt production on Bari land

Colombian court orders Ecopetrol to halt production on Bari land
by: Lisa Garrigues - www.indiancountry.com
February 26, 2007

LA PAZ, Bolivia - In a victory for the Bari people of Colombia, the national constitutional court has ordered the state oil company Ecopetrol to halt oil production on their land.

According to the judgment, ”We have observed not just damage to the fundamental right of the Motilon Bari Indigenous People to be consulted beforehand, but profound harm to the legitimate confidence that traditional authorities have deposited in government authorities.”

The judgment was first reported Feb. 2 in the Colombian newspaper La Republica, and later confirmed by Ecopetrol officials, who have not commented on the decision.

It called for the suspension of oil exploration in the Alamo 1 installation in the municipality of Gebarra, in Norte de Santander, and asked for the Minister of Defense to provide the necessary support to ensure company compliance with the judgment.

Though …

Published on
March 1, 2007
  0 Comments 936 views

07
Feb

Mapuche reconvene historic parliament

Mapuche reconvene historic parliament
by Lisa Garrigues
Today Correspondent

PANGUIPULLI, Chile - One hundred years.

That’s how long it’s been since the call of the traditional Mapuche instrument, the kull kull, has rung out in the Chilean valley of Koz Koz to announce the beginning of a Mapuche parliament.

This year’s parliament, which brought together almost 4,000 members of the Mapuche Nation from Chile and Argentina, was held in the valley of Koz Koz from Jan. 14 - 18. It commemorated the parliament of 1907, when Mapuche longkos, or chiefs, came together for the last time after the Chilean government invaded and took over their territory.

The objective of this year’s event was ”to call upon our individual and collective force, our connection with earth and territory, and from this relationship to confront the work that we have to do as a people in the sociopolitical environment,” organizers said.

Participants were asked before the gathering ”to put …

Published on
February 7, 2007
  0 Comments 898 views

16
Jan

Indias forgotten tribes gain rights over forests

By Rupam Jain Nair (Reuters) January 2, 2007.
GIR SANCTUARY, India. - Daya Rakha, 36, was born in the jungles of the Gir wildlife sanctuary in western India and knows little else except how to live off the forest’s resources.

Just as his ancestors did generations ago, Daya ekes out a meager living mainly by tending to his cattle which relentlessly graze in Gir’s lush forests.

But Daya — like millions of India’s forest dwellers — has never been able to call the forest his home. Instead he has been treated as a criminal by authorities as he has no legal right to stay in the forests where his forefathers lived and died.

“It is the eviction notices from the government and rules made to uproot us by the forest officials that give us sleepless nights,” said Daya, who belongs to the 8,400-strong Maldhari tribe of Gir.

Over 40 million of India’s most impoverished …

Published on
January 16, 2007
  0 Comments 765 views

15
Dec

Botswana: Kalahari People Win Legal Case

BOTSWANA: JOY AS BUSHMEN WIN LANDMARK LEGAL CASE
Survival international

Scenes of jubilation greeted the Botswana High Court’s ruling today in favour of the Kalahari Bushmen.

The court ruled today that the Botswana government’s eviction of the Bushmen was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

The court also ruled that the Bushmen applicants have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve, and should not have to apply for permits to enter it.

One of the judges, Justice Phumaphi, said the government’s refusal to allow the Bushmen to hunt ‘was tantamount to condemning the residents of the CKGR to death by starvation.’

However, the judges also said that the government is not obliged to provide services to Bushmen in the reserve.

Bushman spokesman Roy Sesana said outside the court, ‘Today is the happiest day for us Bushmen. We have been …

Published on
December 15, 2006
  0 Comments 1,008 views

15
Aug

Landmark decision for Canadian indigenous community

Published in: Legalbrief Today, Issue No: 1642

A remote northern Ontario Aboriginal community has won the first stage of a controversial legal battle that could have major repercussions for mining and resource extraction operations throughout the province, according to a report on the minesandcommunities site.

In May, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) launched a lawsuit to counter a $10bn case filed against them by an Ontario mineral exploration company, Platinex, that wants to exploit platinum deposits located within KI’s traditional territory. The landmark decision from Judge GP Smith of the Ontario Superior Court represents one of the most important victories empowering Aboriginal communities in Ontario’s judicial history. The decision states that Platinex is to a large degree the author of its own misfortune and that because of the huge cultural and spiritual importance of the land to the KI people, ‘no award of damages could possible compensate KI’ for losses of these values if …

Published on
August 15, 2006
  0 Comments 789 views

20
Jan

Betchel vs. Bolivia: The People Win

Article By Democracy Center, COA - The Cochabamba water revolt - which began exactly six years ago this month - will end this morning when Bechtel, one of the world’s most powerful corporations, formally abandons its legal effort to take $50 million from the Bolivian people. Bechtel made that demand before a secretive trade court operated by the World Bank, the same institution that coerced Bolivia to privatize the water to begin with.

Faced with protests, barrages of e-mails, visits to their homes, and years of damaging press, Bechtel executives finally decided to surrender, walking away with a token payment equal to thirty cents.

That retreat sets a huge global precedent.

The Cochabamba Water Revolt

In January 2000 the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia woke up one morning to discover that their public water system had been taken over by a mysterious new private company, Aguas del Tunari. The World Bank had coerced Bolivia to …

Published on
January 20, 2006
  1 Comment 1,861 views

Video activism and the Chiapas Media Project

In the following presentation, Claudia Magallanes-Blanco from the University of Western Sydney talks about the role of video activism as a world-wide tool for empowerment and the Chiapas Media Project, a collaborative effort based in Mexico that provides indigenous Zapatistas in Chiapas and peasants in Guerrero with training and equipment to produce their own videos.

Since forming in 1998, CMP has distributed over 6000 videos, including: Zapata’s Garden, a film that looks at the society the Zapatista’s are building; …


I Am A Defender of the Rainforest

Known as ‘Soy defensor de la selva’ in Spanish, I am a Defender of the Rainforest is an award-winning documentary that was filmed, edited, and directed by members of the Sarayaku community in southern Ecuador.

The film shows how the …


Underreported Struggles #19, October 2008

In this month’s Underreported Struggles: 400,000 Guatemalans Reject Development Model, Philippines Indigenous People Unite for the Land, Riot Police Target Algonquin Blockade, Chagos Islanders Denied the Right of Return, and 17 other stories …


Top
Hosted by May First / People Link