Israel Destroys the Homes and History of Palestine’s Indigenous Bedouin

Because the Naqab is a largely fertile desert where agriculture and animal husbandry were practiced by the indigenous Bedouin community for centuries, from 1948 the State of Israel, in settler-colonial fashion, has been engaged in taking the land and the resources while getting rid of the indigenous communities on it.

Miko Peled
By Miko Peled
Palestinian Bedouin Negev

BIR-AS-SABA’, NAQAB (Analysis) -- The Naqab region is assumed to be an integral part of the apartheid state of Israel. However, like all other parts of historic Palestine, it was taken by force and occupied since 1948, when the Zionist state was established. For the last seven decades its indigenous people, the Palestinian Bedouin who have

Read Full Article

Ecuador Quietly Grants Transnational Corporations Rights To Protected Forests and Indigenous Land

The Ecuadorean government has quietly granted mining concessions to over 4.25 million acres of forest reserves and indigenous territories to transnational corporations in closed-door deals without public knowledge or consent.

John Seed
By John Seed
Sarayaku women attend a ceremony where the Ecuadorian Government offered a public apology that came as part of a ruling by the Inter-American Human Rights Court which found that the government allowed for oil exploration in Sarayaku lands without their consent. Indigenous people will have access to the courts as part of a recent historical declaration protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples through-out the Americas, with the exception of the U.S. and Canada.

Ecuador (Editorial) -- The tropical Andes of Ecuador are at the top of the world list of biodiversity hotspots in terms of vertebrate species, endemic vertebrates, and endemic plants. Ecuador has more orchid and hummingbird species than Brazil, which is 32 times larger, and more diversity than the entire USA. In the last year, the Ecuadorean

Read Full Article

63 Dead In Brazil Land Killings As Political Crisis Continues

63 people have been killed in conflicts of resources in rural areas this year, sparking concerns from human rights groups.

Joe Sandler Clarke
By Joe Sandler Clarke
Indigenous protesters from various ethnic groups carry fake coffins representing indians killed over the demarcation of land, as they demand the demarcation of indigenous lands, outside the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, April 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

This year’s sharp rise in violent conflicts over land and resources in Brazil further intensified over the past three months, new figures show. The research, shared with Unearthed by Brazilian human rights group Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), shows that more people were killed in rural land conflicts in the first nine months of 2017 than in

Read Full Article

UN: Brazil Backsliding On Indigenous Rights, Environmental Protection

Under the embattled President Temer, “the rights of indigenous peoples and environmental rights are under attack in Brazil.”

Joe Sandler Clarke
By Joe Sandler Clarke
A Pataxo indigenous woman performs in front of police during the Indigenous Peoples Ritual March outside the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, April 27, 2017. (AP/Eraldo Peres)

A United Nations human rights expert has warned that Brazil is going through a “dangerous time”, as the country experiences political turmoil putting indigenous rights and environmental protection at risk. John Knox, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, told Energydesk that proposals under consideration in the country’s

Read Full Article