The recent visit of Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Leila de Lima in Didipio last 05 November is commendable and shows seriousness and sincerity on the part of the commission to undertake a top level investigation with regards to complaints of human rights violations committed by OceanaGold Philippines Inc (OceanaGold) against the indigenous peoples’ residents of Barangay Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya.

It appears that the White House Tribal Nations Conference held on November 5th, 2009 will be the first of many such meetings. President Barack Obama has now signed a presidential memorandum establishing “regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration” between tribal nations and the federal government.

Cultural Survival Executive Director Ellen Lutz was in Washington November 2 for a hearing at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding Panama's violation of the rights of Ngobe people by constructing a dam on their territory. The hearing was held at the request of Panama, which apparently hoped to justify its support of the dam project.

The Cape Wind project, which would place 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts, was put on hold in October when the Wampanoag Nation objected to the project, saying that their spiritual ceremonies require an unobstructed view of the sunrise. They also are objecting because they say the shoals on which the turbines would be built is a Wamapanoag burial ground.

The bad new is that the repressive tactics of Philippine National Police are increasingly violent against the Indigenous people of Didipio who are trying to prevent further demolitions of their homes by the mining company, OceanaGold Philippines, Inc (OGPI). A mobile unit of the National Police is now stationed inside the offices of OGPI, clearing signaling the people that their government stands with the mining company and against them. 

Ecuadorian police have attacked peaceful Shuar Indigenous protesters near the town of Macas in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon, leaving at least one Shuar teacher dead. 
 

Nueva Vizcaya --  An alarming situation continues in the upland village of Didipio, in the province of Nueva Vizcaya, where Ifugao indigenous peoples live.  Homes of Ifugaos known for their anti-mining sentiments were searched without warrants by security personnel of a mining company.

When the United Nations General Assembly voted on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, only four countries voted against it: the United States, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. Today, the Rudd government in Australia announced that it would endorse the declaration. The original vote on the declaration was largely the result of the tireless efforts of Cultural Survival board member Les Melezer, and Melezer played a key role in today's announcement by the Rudd government: he has been in New York for two weeks putting pressure on the Australian ambassador.