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About the Sami people
Reportage
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Reportage
- The Silent Revolution
Gáldu čála
Sami Self-Determination: Scope and Implementation
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The Nordic Sami Convention: International Human Rights, Self-Determination and other Central Provisions
We are the sami
Permanent Forum
NOTE: FOLLOWING ARE SUMMARY STATEMENTS IN TODAY’S MEETING OF THE PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES. A COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THE MEETING WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE MEETING, AS PRESS RELEASE HR/4988.
RECOGNIZING POVERTY’S DIVERSITY, TURNING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ UNIQUENESS INTO ASSET. FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WILL HELP MEET THEIR NEEDS, PERMANENT FORUM TOLD
PERMANENT FORUM, INDIGENOUS GROUPS, SEEK CHANGE IN UNITED NATIONS WORKING METHODS. TO TURN THEIR CONCERNS INTO DRIVING FORCE BEHIND, NOT JUST OBJECT OF, STRATEGIES
Reports
COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONSIDERS REPORT OF NICARAGUA
COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONSIDERS REPORT OF UNITED STATES
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders concludes her mission to Guatemala
Articles
The Roots Causes of Maasai Predicament, By Navaya ole Ndaskoi
‘Improving their lives.’ State policies and San resistance in Botswana
Reindeer husbandry rights in Norway
Norwegian Saami policies in an equality perspective
Indigenous Peoples` Land Rights Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Gáldu


 
Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA)
US-ECUADOR: Chevron Fails in Effort to Lift Trade Benefits
WASHINGTON -- In the latest in a string of setbacks that could cost the U.S. oil giant Chevron billions of dollars in damages, President Barack Obama decided this week to extend trade preferences for Ecuadorean exports for another six months under the 1991 Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA).
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03.07.2009
Crossed spears left by uncontacted Indians in the region where Perenco is working. © Marek Wolodzko/
PERU: Government Approves Massive Oil Project Just Days After ‘Amazon’s Tiananmen’
LIMA -- Peru´s government has given the green light to an Anglo-French company to drill for oil in the Amazon, just thirteen days after more than 30 people died in protests against the exploitation of the rainforest.
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03.07.2009


Reindeer Herders Congress Visiting a Sami Siida


World Reindeer Herders Congress


Say No to Fake Sami Costumes
Headlines
Members of the Central North Island Iwi Collective receive a powhiri on their arrival for the signin
NEW ZEALAND: Central North Island Land Transferred to Iwi
AUCKLAND -- A ceremony in Turangi, New Zealand, on Saturday marking the transfer of approximately $450 million in land and cash to eight Central North island Iwi completes the largest single settlement of historical grievances by the Crown, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Christopher Finlayson said.
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03.07.2009
Bangladesh map
BANGLADESH: Stop Encroachment of Land of Indigenous People, Speakers Tell Seminar
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Indigenous people will continue to suffer land-related problems unless Bangalee settlers are withdrawn from the hilly region and camps of army, BDR, police and Ansar are removed, speakers at a seminar said on Wednesday.
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02.07.2009
Tariana Turia, Co-Leader of Maori Party
NEW ZEALAND: Coastal Law Should Be Repealed, Review Says
Maori Party Claims Victory over Foreshore and Seabed
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand should scrap a contentious 2004 law that angered indigenous Maori by making the nation´s coastline public property, a government review board said Wednesday. "It is a major victory," says Maori Party´s co-leader Tariana Turia.
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01.07.2009
Peru’s Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas.
PERU: Minister Tried to Promote Police Investigated for Massacre
LIMA -- Peru’s Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas attempted to promote 11 police officials for their performance in the brutal Jun. 5 crackdown on native protests against government decrees that opened up indigenous land in the Amazon jungle to oil, mining, logging and agribusiness companies.
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01.07.2009
Photo credit: aua.org.au
AUSTRALIA: Policy May Force Indigenous Communities From Traditional Lands
MELBOURNE -- A government plan purporting to improve the lives of people living in isolated areas of Australia’s Northern Territory will be implemented at the expense of surrounding homeland communities and ignores the cultural and health benefits for people living on those traditional lands, warn critics.
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30.06.2009
Barack Obama
HONDURAS: Obama Declares Coup "Not Legal" Amid Uncertainty
WASHINGTON -- Capping a day of mixed signals, U.S. President Barack Obama said late Monday that he considered Sunday´s ouster and exile of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to be "not legal" and that Washington still considered him the legitimate president of the Central American country.
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30.06.2009
President Manuel Zelaya, Honduras
HONDURAS: Referendum Row Rocks Democracy
TEGUCIGALPA -- Honduras is caught up in a crisis following the dismissal of the head of the armed forces for refusing to provide logistics and security for a non-binding referendum called by President Manuel Zelaya for Sunday, the legality of which is disputed by the courts and the opposition.
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28.06.2009
Ancient Mayan ruines, Chichen Itza, Mexico.
CULTURE-MEXICO: "New Seven Wonders" Win Falls Flat
MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican government spent time and money in 2007 to get the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza declared one of the "new seven wonders of the world" in a contest organised by a Swiss-Canadian businessman. But winning has failed to deliver the desired results.
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28.06.2009
U.S.: House Passes Controversial Climate Legislation
WASHINGTON -- Amid furious lobbying on both sides, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved landmark legislation Friday designed to reduce the nation´s greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.
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28.06.2009
Photo credit:
ENVIRONMENT: Japan to Take Leadership Role Toward Copenhagen
TOKYO -- Environment Minister Tetsuo Saito talked to IPS about Japan giving technical and financial support to developing countries and its goal of cutting its greenhouse emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Japan is the world’s fifth- largest greenhouse gas emitter.
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27.06.2009
Malaysia
MALAYSIA: Blacklisted For Not Enforcing Trafficking Laws
KUALA LUMPUR -- After years of lobbying by rights activists and the international community, Malaysia passed an effective and comprehensive law in 2007 against human trafficking with provisions for protection, shelter and return of trafficked person to their home countries.
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24.06.2009
Photo credit: AP
GREENLAND: New Era of Self-Rule Starts
NUUK -- Greenland has welcomed a new era of self-rule after 300 years under Danish authority.

“The Inuit of Greenland are many steps farther along than we are,” said Marianne Balto, Norwegian Sami Parliament’s vice president.

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22.06.2009
PERU: Govt Partly Backs Down in Standoff with Indigenous Groups
LIMA -- The Peruvian Congress repealed Thursday two of the most controversial decrees that sparked protests by indigenous groups which ended in bloodshed early this month.
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20.06.2009
PARAGUAY: University Opens Doors to Indigenous Students
ASUNCIÓN -- Video camera in hand, Isidro Romero is getting ready for another day of classes in the Paraguayan capital. He is studying Communications as part of a programme aimed at breaking down the barriers that have blocked access to university level studies by the country’s small indigenous minority.
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19.06.2009
CHILE: Festival to Showcase Films on Indigenous Peoples
SANTIAGO -- Thanks to the growing number of films by and about indigenous peoples, over 90 movies, mainly from Latin America, will be screened and voted on by spectators at the First Chilean Indigenous Peoples´ Film Festival in the Pacific port city of Valparaíso.
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18.06.2009
PERU: Congress Probes Massacre; Prime Minister to Quit
LIMA -- At the initiative of the opposition parties, the Peruvian parliament approved the creation of a committee to investigate the clash early this month between indigenous protesters and the police near the town of Bagua in the northern province of Amazonas, which according to official reports left a death toll of 34.
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17.06.2009
PERU: Families of Dead Native Protesters Tell Their Stories
BAGUA, Peru -- Sobbing, an indigenous woman dressed in black cries out as she sees us arrive: "My son, my son, they have killed my son!" She is Andrea Rocca, the mother of Felipe Sabio, a young man who died in a clash between police and indigenous protesters in the northern Peruvian region of Amazonas.
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17.06.2009
RIGHTS-PERU: Activists Urge Obama to Use Trade Pact as Leverage
NEW YORK -- The United States government is coming under intense pressure from rights organisations and environmental groups to redefine its trade pact with Peru, a tool that they charge the government in Lima is using to justify oppression against the indigenous population.
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17.06.2009
GUATEMALA: Crisis Hits Local Governments in Pocketbook
GUATEMALA CITY -- Incomplete infrastructure works and development projects and dismissals of teachers and municipal employees are some of the consequences of the global economic crisis in rural Guatemala, due to the central government’s decision to cut the budget for the country’s 333 municipal administrations.
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17.06.2009
AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Questioning Old Traditions
CAPE TOWN -- Inefficient production, bad infrastructure, poor access to markets, a lack of capital investment: the challenges facing smallholder farmers across Africa are many. A ´green revolution´ which appears to be gaining ground in Africa seeks to change all this.
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17.06.2009
USA: Obama Appoints Cherokee Tribal Member as Policy Adviser
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has been appointed by President Barack Obama to his domestic policy team.
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17.06.2009
PERU: Prime Minister Yehude Simon to Resign over Amazon Crisis
LIMA – Peru’s Prime Minister Yehude Simon said Wednesday that he will resign in the coming weeks after a crisis over Indigenous rights in the Amazon has been settled and calm returns.
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17.06.2009
UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples to Visit Peru
GENEVA -- The Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Professor James Anaya, will visit Peru from 17 to 19 June 2009.
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17.06.2009
Q&A: "The Order Was to Kill Us"
BAGUA, Peru -- The Peruvian government described the recent deaths of police officers in clashes with indigenous protesters in the country’s Amazon rainforest as "genocide" at the hands of "extremist savages."
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16.06.2009
PERU: UN Expert Urges Government to Dialogue with Amazon Indigenous Peoples
GENEVA -- The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Professor James Anaya, expresses his profound concern over the confrontations that took place on Friday, June 5, in Bagua, Department of Amazonas, Peru, and subsequent occurrences, which have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 30 people, including indigenous individuals and members of the Armed Forces, and in dozens of wounded and missing.
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16.06.2009
NORWAY: Sami Parliament Fights Government over Mining Rights
KÁRÁŠJOHKA -- The Sami Parliament demands that all companies engaging in mining activities in northern Norway pay a special fee compensating regional Sami communities. The Norwegian government wants it otherwise.
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13.06.2009
CHILE: Mixed Reception for Indigenous Protection Code
SANTIAGO -- Although it is still in the process of being drafted, a "code of responsible conduct" promoted by the Chilean government to regulate public and private investment in indigenous areas has already drawn resistance.
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13.06.2009
SOUTH AMERICA: Calls for Justice for Peru´s Indigenous Peoples
LA PAZ -- Social organisations in South America are backing the struggle against opening up Peru’s Amazon jungle to mining and oil companies, which resulted in clashes in which at least nine indigenous people and 25 police officers died.
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13.06.2009

© 2004 Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Editor: Magne Ove Varsi
Phone +47 7848 8000
Facsimile + 47 7848 8020

 
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