Tag Archives: indigenous rights

Now End All the Drilling, Campaigners Say as Biden Rescinds Arctic Refuge Leases

“Our sacred land is only temporarily safe from oil and gas development,” said one First Nations leader, urging Congress and the White House to “permanently protect the Arctic Refuge.”

By Julia Conley. Published 9-6-2023 by Common Dreams

Polar bear, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Photo: Alan D. Wilson/Wikimedia Commons/CC

Indigenous tribes and climate campaigners applauded the Biden administration’s announcement Wednesday that it will cancel all existing oil and gas drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and ban drilling across 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve, while hundreds of groups also called on the U.S. Interior Department to go further on fossil fuel leasing.

Biden’s move in Alaska will reverse former Republican President Donald Trump’s approval of a 2017 law that required leasing in the Arctic Refuge, the nation’s largest area of pristine wilderness which is home to vulnerable species including polar bears, migratory birds, and caribou.

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How conservative stronghold Guatemala elected a progressive president

Results suggest conservative fear-mongering failed to connect with an electorate weary of corruption and inequality

By Dánae Vílchez. Published 8-25-2023 by openDemocracy

Guatemala’s elected president Bernardo Arévalo Screenshot: YouTube

The victory on Sunday of progressive politician Bernardo Arévalo in Guatemala’s presidential runoff suggests that voters’ primary concerns are corruption and poverty – rather than conservatives’ fear-mongering about abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Arévalo, a 64-year-old sociologist who ran for the centre-left Semilla (Seed) party, secured a resounding win, with 58.01% of the vote, while his contender Sandra Torres, former first lady and leader of the UNE (Unidad Nacional por la Esperanza, National Unity for Hope) party, got 37.24%.

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US Appeals Courts Halts ‘Climate Bomb’ Oil Rail Project Over Environmental Concerns

“This is an enormous victory for our shared climate, the Colorado River and the communities that rely on it for clean water, abundant fish and recreation,” said one campaigner.

By Jessica Corbett Published 8-18-2023 by Common Dreams

Oil and gas fields along the proposed route. Map: Uinta Basin Railway

U.S. Green groups and some Democratic politicians on Friday celebrated a federal appellate court’s ruling that pauses the development of the Uinta Basin Railway, a project that would connect Utah’s oil fields to the national railway network.

“The court’s rejection of this oil railway and its ensuing environmental damage is a victory for the climate, public health, and wild landscapes,” said WildEarth Guardians legal director Samantha Ruscavage-Barz. “The public shouldn’t have to shoulder the costs of the railway’s environmental degradation while the fossil fuel industry reaps unprecedented profits from dirty energy.”

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Tribes to EPA: Ban Fish-Killing Tire Chemical 6PPD

“If EPA truly cares about protecting the environment and the tribe’s treaty rights, not just industry’s pocketbooks, it will act now,” said one tribe’s environmental scientist.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 8-1-2023 by Common Dreams

Coho spawning on the Salmon River. Photo: Bureau of Land Management Oregon and Washington/flickr/CC

Three Western Indigenous tribes on Tuesday petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeking a ban on a toxic chemical used in the manufacture of tires that poses a deadly risk to fish—including species listed as endangered or threatened—when it breaks down.

Acting on behalf of the Yurok Tribe of northern California and the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Puyallup tribes from the Puget Sound region of Washington state, the legal advocacy group Earthjustice filed a petition asking Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan to invoke Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) “to establish regulations prohibiting the manufacturing, processing, use, and distribution of N-(1,3-Dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD) for and in tires.”

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UN should be learning from sustainable food producers – not hosting Big Ag

Small-scale farmers and Indigenous groups say they have again been shut out of the UN Food Systems Summit

By Shalmali Guttal and Sofia Monsalve. Published 7-21-2023 by openDemocracy

With support from Oxfam, small-scale farmers in Tanzania are thriving. Photo: Alun McDonald/Oxfam/CC

A UN summit on global food systems should be an opportunity to address structural inequalities and tackle hunger. It should be a chance to learn from small-scale producers whose sustainable food practices feed 70% of the world. Instead, next week’s conference in Rome will be a festival of greenwashing, allowing Big Agriculture corporations to tighten their grip on food systems.

This will be the second Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). The first, in 2021 was supposed to address the lack of progress towards the UN’s sustainable development goals. It was dubbed a “people’s summit” by the organisers, but caused an outcry among local producers when their calls to roll back the power of transnational corporations were cynically ignored.

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‘Historic Day’ as Brazilian Court Hits Bolsonaro With 8-Year Political Ban Over Election Lies

“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s chances of being president again, and he knows it,” said one political scientist.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 6-30-2023 by Common Dreams

Jair Bolsonaro, speaking during the Session: “Special Address by Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil“ at the Annual Meeting 2019 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 22, 2018. Photo: World Economic Forum/Flickr/CC

Brazil’s highest election authority on Friday barred Jair Bolsonaro from running for any public office for the next eight years over the disgraced former far-right president’s abuse of power related to baseless claims of electoral fraud—the first of 16 election-related charges he faces.

Five members of the seven-judge Superior Electoral Court (TSE) found that Bolsonaro violated election law last July when he summoned more than 100 international diplomats for a nationally televised 50-minute presentation in the Palacio da Alvarada—the executive residence—during which he disparaged the judiciary and claimed the country’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to hacking.

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Conservatives could take over key inter-American human rights body

Countries will this week elect members to the Americas’ most important institution for protecting human rights

By Angelina De Los Santos Published 6-21-2023 by openDemocracy

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2021 – the first year that the leading three commisioners were women Photo: Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos/flickr/CC

Governments across the Americas are set to take part in a crucial vote that could decide the future of a body that has been vital in protecting human rights in the region for more than 60 years.

Since 1959, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has guided countries in establishing legal standards and assisting millions of victims of violence and inequality.

It is responsible for investigating human rights violations – including unfair trials, extrajudicial executions and violence against women and vulnerable populations – and submitting cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR, founded in 1979). Both bodies comprise the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS).

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‘Huge Win for Tribes’ as US Supreme Court Preserves Indian Child Welfare Act

“By ruling on the side of children’s health and safety, the U.S. Constitution, and centuries of precedent, the justices have landed on the right side of history,” said one Cherokee chief.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 6-15-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: Native News Online

In what one chief called “a major victory” for Native American tribes, the United States Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a federal law enacted to protect Indian children from being separated from their families.

The justices’ 7-2 decision in Haaland v. Brackeen leaves intact the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a 1978 law passed in response to over a century of Native American children being taken from their relatives and often placed in state or religious institutions or with white families.

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Brazilian Indigenous Activists Join Peruvian Comrades Fighting ‘Genocide Bill’

Opponents warn that the proposed legislation is “a naked land grab by the oil and gas industry” that critically imperils Peru’s uncontacted tribes.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 6-13-2023 by Common Dreams

Brazilian and Peruvian Indigenous leaders speak out against a proposed bill that critics say threatens unconctacted tribes during a June 13, 2023 press conference at the Peruvian Congress. (Photo: AIDESEP/Twitter)

A delegation of Indigenous leaders from Brazil is in Peru this week to join forces with their counterparts there who are fighting to stop proposed legislation many critics call the “genocide bill” due to fears its passage could result in uncontacted tribes being wiped out by fossil fuel companies and other rapacious resource extractors.

Members of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA), a coalition of tribes from the Amazon region, joined the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) and the Regional Organization of Eastern Indigenous Peoples (ORPIO) on Tuesday during a joint session of Peru’s Congress ahead of a Wednesday meeting of a congressional decentralization committee debating 3518/2022-CR, a bill that would modify a law protecting uncontatced tribes.

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As Insurers Cut Coverage Due to Climate Disasters, Senators Probe Continued Backing of Fossil Fuels

“By underwriting and investing in new and expanded fossil fuel projects, U.S. insurers are helping Big Oil bring us closer to the worst runaway climate scenarios,” said Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

By Kenny Stancil. Published 6-9-2023 by Common Dreams

Storm damage from Hurricane Ian. Photo: Florida Fish and Wildlife/flickr/CC

As insurance giants limit coverage in hundreds of disaster-prone areas across the United States, a Senate panel on Friday launched an investigation into seven major carriers’ continued backing of planet-heating fossil fuel projects that are driving increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather.

Senate Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent letters to the executives of seven companies—American Insurance Group (AIG), Berkshire Hathaway, Chubb, Liberty Mutual Group, Starr Wright USA, State Farm, and Travelers Insurance—demanding that each firm disclose how it underwrites, invests in, and profits from coal, oil, and gas.

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