Cultural Survival is celebrating good news with the Indigenous Peoples of Didipio in the Philippines! The Philippines Human Rights Commission has asked the government to consider cancelling an Australian company’s mining permit because of “gross violations of human rights” that they have committed against the local Indigenous populations.
In 2009, Cultural Survival initiated a Global Response campaign to stop OceanaGold from mining in the Didipio region against the expressed will of the Indigenous communities. Elected local and regional government bodies have rejected construction of the mine, fearing devastating impacts on the area’s forests, water sources, and rich agricultural lands. In spite of this opposition, OceanaGold (with the aid of National Police) forcibly removed hundreds of Didipio families from their farms.
The Global Response letter-writing campaign helped Didipio residents persuade the national Human Rights Commission to conduct an on-site investigation in Didipio. Reports were also submitted to the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
For more information:
See news reports from Reuters HERE
Read major points of the Resolution from the Commission on Human Right HERE,
Download the full text of the resolution below:
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