Pope urges respect for Indigenous Amazon peoples at start of three-week gathering
Vatican CityReuters Pope Francis on Monday told an assembly of bishops discussing the Amazon region of South America that modern society should not try to impose its rules on Indigenous people but respect their culture and let them chart their own future. Francis, who is from Argentina, was addressing the opening of the first working […]
Christian family takes refuge in mountains after expulsion from their home in Mexico
Miami, USMorning Star News Miguel Pérez Díaz, his eight children and 87-year-old father have been living in a mountainside shack since May, when local officials expelled them from their village in Chiapas state, Mexico. Relatives, friends and neighbours in Tajlovijho, a village in the municipality of San Andrés Larráinzar in southern Mexico, had been harassing […]
Arctic cruises accused of leaving Indigenous people in the cold
LondonThomson Reuters Foundation A lust for adventure tourism is driving a rise in the number of cruise ships touring the Arctic, but local people are not seeing the benefits, experts said on Tuesday, after an explorer raised fears over “party ships” in the region. Indigenous communities are being “overwhelmed” by ships that drop up to […]
Ecuador to launch new anti-human trafficking plan – official
Bogota, ColombiaThomson Reuters Foundation Ecuador will launch a new prevention and assistance plan focused on sexual and labour exploitation victims, where hundreds of human trafficking survivors have been rescued in the past two years, a top government official said. While authorities have saved 332 trafficking victims since 2017, the US State Department kept Ecuador on […]
Ecuador tribe wins legal battle over the Amazon
Bogota, ColombiaThomson Reuters Foundation A court in Ecuador has upheld a ruling that prevents the government from selling land in the Amazon rainforest to oil companies, a move activists called a historic win for the Waorani indigenous tribe living there. The government had appealed an earlier court ruling in April that the 2,000-strong tribe had […]
Australia promises national vote on recognition of Indigenous people by 2022
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia will hold a national vote within three years on whether to include recognition of Indigenous people in its constitution, the government said on Wednesday, an issue that has spurred decades of often heated debate. Australia has struggled to reconcile with descendants of its first inhabitants, who arrived on the continent about 50,000 […]
Faster land reform on the cards with Indonesian President’s re-election
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation With his election win confirmed on Tuesday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo is set to push ahead with his promise to register all land in the country by 2025, redistribute land to Indigenous people and resolve disputes over claims, land experts said. Widodo – popularly known as Jokowi – was re-elected last […]
Heritage site or home? Indigenous Thais fight for right to forest
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Hundreds of indigenous Karen people in Thailand face evictions from a national park that authorities wish to turn into a World Heritage Site, joining millions in a similarly precarious situation as authorities worldwide push tough conservation laws. The Kaeng Krachan is Thailand’s biggest national park, sprawled over more than 2,900 square […]
Hong Kong urged to call time on “archaic” Indigenous land policy
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Hong Kong must end a discriminatory land policy that favours Indigenous men, land rights campaigners said last week, after a top court upheld a minor law that has long been criticised for exacerbating the city’s chronic housing shortage. The government’s small house policy, introduced in 1972 to improve living conditions of […]
Cambodia returns land taken from indigenous people in “unprecedented” move
BangkokThomson Reuters Foundation Cambodia has returned land taken a decade ago from Indigenous communities for a Vietnamese company’s rubber plantation, a sign that foreign investors are facing greater scrutiny over rights violations, analysts said on Wednesday. The governor of the north-eastern province of Ratanakiri on Tuesday asked the agriculture ministry to take out 64 areas […]