India-China-Bangladesh Dimapur declaration on water and indigenous communities rights May 20, 2013 A Statement from the Northeast Dialogue Forum We, the representatives of the indigenous people's organizations of India's North East concerned over the issue of water and adverse impacts of mega development processes, such as mega dam constructions, mining in the region, coming together on 17 – 18 May 2013 at ...

"I call you to remain the same  for those who are in exile and those who stayed.  If time passed by and I return to my home I will henna the house for my beloved ones" (Palestinian song) By Mjriam Abu Samra The return of the refugees has been a prerogative of the Palestinian struggle since the Nakba. Yet, the approach to this fundamental issue has radically changed over the years as a consequence of the sev ...

Open letter sent to the President of Chile: "New York, 14th.February  2013 Mr. Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile: We are individuals of different nationalities, cultures, and races. We are religious and nonreligious people, political and non-political. We are a good sample of the 99% of the population. We are ordinary people who are directly affected by the rapid, widespread changes that are taking place ...

The 89-page report “Those Who Take Us Away” documents both ongoing police failures to protect indigenous women and girls in the north from violence and violent behaviour by police officers against women and girls. Police failures and abuses add to longstanding tensions between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and indigenous communities in the region, Human Rights Watch said. The Canadian government ...

by Kelsey Alford-Jones.  The original article on Waging Nonviolence can ge found here. Residents of San Jose del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc, about an hour north of Guatemala City, have been steadfast in their rejection of a gold mine in the region. They are concerned about the mine’s health, social and environmental impacts, which will last for generations to come — so much so that one woman’s spontaneous ...

Indigenous and Non-Indigenous youth and women respond to the gentle wake-up call sounded by some courageous women. A movement came to light, a historical slumber shook off its sleepy head, a peaceful grassroots wave irradiated! That tiny wave began on November 10th, 2012 in a place relatively close to the geographical centre of Turtle Island (North America) exactly at Station 20 West, in the City of Saskato ...

The situation in Mali is confused and complex.  People in the south of the country fear for their future under attack as they are by Islamic fighters from the North, the nomadic Touareg in the North seek independence, French uranium interests in the region gives it strategic importance and the overthrow of Libya has resulted in overseas members of the Libyan security forces returning home heavily armed. In ...

"Our challenge is to maintain our culture and live globally. We need the means and the ways to allow skilled workers to work and communicate from our remote area and also to work locally," said Cree Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come when opening Eeyou Communications Network, providing broadband Internet, and serving Eeyou Istchee and the James Bay region of northern Québec. "We want a role in the wider economy ...

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its condemnation of the newly-adopted General Telecommunications Law (LGT), which will penalize small radio stations, especially indigenous community radio stations, that are waiting to be officially assigned broadcast frequencies.   Approved on third reading by the Guatemalan congress on 19 November, it was signed into law by President Otto Pérez Molina on 6 December. R ...

Tribesmen continue to attack villages in Kenya’s southeast, torching homes and sparking clashes that have to date killed many people in tit-for-tat ethnic violent fights. These are vendettas between the Pokomo farming community and their Orma pastoralist neighbours, which left 52 dead in this past August, Kenya's worst tribal killings in years. "Sixteen men, nine police officers, eight children and five wom ...