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'Left on Their Own, Most Governments Wouldn't Care About Indigenous Issues'

U.N. Tools at Work in the Philippines

An interview with Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, executive director of the Tebtebba Foundation, an indigenous rights organization in the Philippines, and newly appointed member of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

What has been the most important accomplishment of the International Decade?

The Peoples of Darfur

In the past few months, over 50,000 people have died; thousands more have been raped; and more than a million have been displaced as a result of attacks by marauding militias in the Darfur region of Sudan. Until the killing started, the peoples of this remote, inhospitable desert region were not on the international radar screen. Even now, mass media reports make them seem more like statistics than human beings with families, communities, and cultures; real people who are enduring the worst imaginable suffering. Here, Cultural Survival introduces the Peoples of Darfur.

Native Youth Movement in Winnipeg, Canada

Native Youth Movement (NYM) is made up of Native youth from the Four Corners of Canada. We are artists, warriors, athletes, musicians, speakers, writers, and dancers who have a common vision of solidarity, empowerment, and resistance.

We work toward asserting our traditional roles in the community so that we can directly participate in creating a healthy future for our children and their children.

The Hardships and Successes of Being Indigenous in Kenya

In Africa indigenous peoples face a lot of challenges, but there also have been remarkable achievements by indigenous people in the last 10 years.

In the past, it was illegal in Kenya to speak about the rights of indigenous people. It also was illegal to hold meetings, as they supposedly amounted to inciting people against the law of the country. Meetings educated the people and the government knew that if the indigenous people knew their rights, they would claim those rights and expose the violations against them to the international society.

San Celebrate Some Victories During International Decade

The San of southern Africa have made important steps during the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.

In 10 Years Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples Redefined Their Image

For the roughly 400,000 indigenous Austronesian minorities of Taiwan, whose population comprises two percent of the island’s population, the last decade has been one of cautious optimism. The dominant Han society’s view of aboriginals has shifted. Ten years ago, indigenous people were most commonly referred to as “Mountain People” (san-tee’-ren) or other slurs in the Mandarin Chinese dialect. They are now more commonly referred to as “Original People” (yuen-tsu’-min).

An Interview with a United Nations Rising Star

Mirian Masaquisa Jerez, a Quichua woman from Ecuador, has worked since 1988 with the Confederacion Nacional de Campesinas, Indigenas y Negras del Ecuador (Confederation of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Ecuadorians and Rural Organizations, FENOCIN). She currently is the associate social affairs officer for the secretariat of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. During the third session of the Permanent Forum, Masaquisa spoke with Cultural Survival about her work.

Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord Ignored

Allegations of arrest and torture of indigenous activists are daily occurrences for the Jumma indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh.

It has been seven years since the signing of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Peace Accord, but the government of Bangladesh continues to ignore its obligation under the accord.

International Criminal Court to Examine Abuses of Bambuti

On July 6, Minority Rights Group International asked the International Criminal Court to investigate human rights abuses aimed at the Bambuti Pygmies of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since July 2002. Known by the code name effacer le tableau, or "erase the board," the military conducted what Minority Rights Group (MRG) terms a campaign of extermination against the Bambuti who live in Ituri and North and South Kiva provinces in eastern DRC. MRG claims that the current vice president of the DRC was specifically involved in this campaign.

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