Web pages about "Indigenous peoples"

Breakthrough in Canadian Indigenous rights flashpoint

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:37:26 +0000

An Indigenous Canadian community’s longstanding campaign to stop clear-cut logging on its land has prompted a multinational paper company to stop buying wood fibre from the area.

On 27 February, Boise Inc announced that it would “stand in support of Amnesty International’s recommendation” and not buy any wood fibre from the traditional territory of Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwest Ontario until the community has given its consent to logging.

“Boise has done the right thing,” says Craig Benjamin, campaigner for the human rights of Indigenous peoples for Amnesty International’s Canadian section. “The company has set an example that we hope other companies and the Province of Ontario will follow.”

The Anishnaabe people of Grassy Narrows rely on the forest for hunting, trapping, harvesting food and other activities central to their culture and their livelihood. In 1873, they signed Treaty No 3 with the Government of Canada, recognizing that they had the right to pursue those activities throughout their traditional land use area.

Amnesty International’s ongoing research at Grassy Narrows has confirmed that the province of Ontario has allowed large-scale logging to proceed without adequate human rights protections and in violation of its own obligations under Canadian law.

On 2 December 2002, the youth of Grassy Narrows laid down in the path of industrial logging machines, blocking access to their traditional territory. Their action sparked the longest-standing Indigenous logging blockade in Canadian history.

In January 2007, Grassy Narrows community leaders declared a moratorium “on further industrial activity in our Traditional Territory until such time as the Governments of Canada and Ontario restore their honour and obtain the consent of our community in these decisions that will forever alter the future of our people.”

Courts have repeatedly ruled that governments in Canada have a clear legal obligation to carry out meaningful consultation in every instance when considering plans that could impact on the rights of Indigenous peoples.

The Supreme Court of Canada says that when the rights of Indigenous peoples are at stake, there is a duty to consult "in good faith and with the intention of substantially addressing the concerns of the aboriginal peoples whose lands are at issue."

Despite this, Ontario’s government has done little to protect the rights of the people of Grassy Narrows, who have had control over their traditional lands and territories taken from them before.

In the 1950s, the building of two hydro-electric dams flooded large areas of land. Wild rice beds central to their culture were wiped out. Sacred sites and the local fishery were also disrupted.

In the 1970s, a pulp and paper mill contaminated their rivers with an estimated ten tonnes of mercury. This has caused long-term health problems.

Today, about half of their traditional territory has been logged to supply mills run by the transnational corporations Abitibi Consolidated and Weyerhaeuser.

In September 2007, an Amnesty International paper detailed Grassy Narrow’s history of disastrous social and economic upheaval as a consequence of government decisions. The paper called on the province “to respect the moratorium declared by the people of Grassy Narrows and to halt all clear-cut logging and other industrial development in the traditional territory until free, prior and informed consent has been given.”

China: Concern grows over crackdown on Tibetan protesters

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:49:02 +0000

Amnesty International today condemned the harsh crackdown on peaceful protesters in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. According to eyewitness reports, on 11 March, Chinese police used teargas and electric prods to disperse 500 demonstrators, who were seeking the release of fellow monks held after the previous day’s protests.

On 10 March, it was reported that 11 protesters, including nine monks, were severely beaten and detained outside Tsuklakhang cathedral in central Lhasa. They had been demonstrating to mark the 49th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet after his failed rebellion against Chinese rule. Some 50 monks have also been detained across the capital.

“Demonstrators have a right to protest peacefully. China violates international human rights standards in denying their freedom of assembly and freedom of expression,” said Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Deputy Program Director Tim Parritt.

“Amnesty International condemns human rights abuses wherever they occur: on the streets of Beijing or the mountains of Tibet.”

Amnesty International calls on China to release immediately all those detained for peacefully exercising their rights.

Rape: ever present danger for Darfur's women

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:14:09 +0000

"All around the camps there is not enough wood. But the Arab Jammala dominate the area and we daren’t go far out. If you are a man you will be beaten, if you are a woman you will be raped." – Internally displaced man living in a camp, 2007.

At least 2.3 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Darfur. Most of those driven from their homes and communities are now living in more than 65 camps dotted around Darfur.

Hundreds of thousands of people were driven from their home in 2003-4 in attacks that were accompanied not only by killing, but also by rape of women on an unprecedented scale.

Janjawid militias used rape as a weapon to humiliate and punish the communities they attacked. They often carried out assaults in public and abducting some women, taking them to militia camps to live for months in sexual slavery.

There are more women living in camps than men and the threat of rape remains rife for those who venture outside the camps. Many of the camps are surrounded by belts of deserted land with hardly a tree standing. Rapes are carried out on women who leave the camps to go to market or collect firewood. They are carried out by Janjawid militia, government soldiers, armed opposition groups and even by other displaced people.

One girl displaced during the conflict told of being raped by a group of men from the Sudanese army while collecting fire wood. When her brother took her to report this to the local police, the policeman refused to report the case and detained her brother when he questioned the procedure.

"The images of that day occupied my mind. I can’t say I have completely recovered. The shock is still terrible. I don’t trust the police and I never will trust them," said the girl to Amnesty International.

Most women raped in Darfur never report what has happened because it’s so unlikely that the perpetrator will be brought to justice that there’s little point in a woman harming her reputation and prospects of marriage.

Police rarely investigate cases of rape reported to them, while if the alleged rapists are members of the Sudanese Armed Forces, justice appears to be impossible. In some instances, it is the person who makes the complaint who is detained.

Australia apologises for abuses of Indigenous

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:34:23 +0000

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologised to the Indigenous people who were members of the Stolen Generation and their families on Wednesday in Parliament. The speech, which has been described as a significant event in Australia’s history, was televised live to cities all over Australia.

A spokesperson for Amnesty International said that the organisation is greatly encouraged by the Australian Government’s decision to make a formal apology one of its first priorities.

“We hope this gesture will be a symbolic end to the tragic legacy of horrific treatment of Aboriginal children, and the first step towards addressing the serious human rights violations Indigenous Australians face every day," said Rodney Dillon, Campaign Coordinator for Amnesty International's Australian Section.

“An apology will help develop respect and establish meaningful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and is essential to reconciliation.

“We are calling on the Australian Government to now implement the recommendations in the Bringing Them Home report. Restitution, rehabilitation, guarantees against repetition and compensation are critical next steps.”

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s (HREOC) outlined 54 recommendations in the 1997 Bringing Them Home report, as a result of its enquiry into the removal of Indigenous children from their families. It found between 1 and 3 in 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly removed from between 1910 and 1970. Many were sexually, physically and mentally abused.

The report’s recommendations are supported by international law, which provides that, where a person’s human rights have been violated, they must have access to an "effective remedy".

Amnesty International staff and activists this week took part in commemorations around the country in solidarity with all Indigenous Australians.

War crimes go unpunished in Guatemala

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:21:24 +0000

On 31 January 1980, Guatemalan police stormed the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City where protestors had sought refuge. Thirty-seven people inside the building died as a result. Twenty-eight years on, no one has been held to account.

Over a decade after the end of Guatemala's armed conflict, many of those responsible for its most brutal crimes continue to evade criminal prosecution.

A ruling releasing two former officers from pre-extradition detention in Guatemala is the latest obstacle to justice for the victims of the 36-year conflict, which ended in 1996.

In December, former army General Angel Aníbal Guevara Rodríguez and ex-Police Chief Pedro García Arredondo won an appeal to be released from provisional detention pending extradition. Spain has requested the extradition of both men, along with five others (including ex-president Efraín Ríos Montt), and wants to investigate them for crimes under international human rights law committed in Guatemala between 1978 and 1986.

31 January marks the 28th anniversary of one of those crimes: the massacre of 37 people in the Spanish Embassy fire is a brutal act for which no one has been punished.

The Guatemalan court's decision in favour of the retired officers wrongly questions the well-established principle of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity. It also suggests the crimes were political, and interprets this as meaning criminal responsibility could be waived.

Amnesty International calls on the new administration - led by President Alvaro Colóm - to tackle the ongoing impunity for crimes under international law committed during the armed conflict.

Mr Colóm's government must ensure the investigation and prosecution of these crimes. None of the cases brought against the ex-ruling military regime have advanced, while witnesses and victims with the courage to participate in them have faced intimidation, threats and attacks.

The decision to release two of the officers severely undermines the possibility of a future extradition and strengthens the reign of impunity in Guatemala.

Until those responsible are held accountable for the 200,000 disappearances and extrajudicial executions committed during the armed conflict, Guatemala’s victims will continue to be denied justice.