Categories Newsflash issues

Newsflash #8 – April 2018

News, Events and Initiatives

A delegation of 20 members of the ICCA Consortium was in New York from the 14th to the 23rd of April to participate in the 17th session of the United Nation Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Two powerful statements in support of indigenous peoples’ collective rights and their role in conservation were made in the larger assembly, and our side-event on resistance to destructive development in ICCAs filled the room. Read more ▸
We are pleased to announce that Dominique Bikaba's - ICCA Consortium Council Member with special responsibility for the ICCAs of local communities - project "Ensuring the survival of DRC’s eastern lowland gorillas" has won the 2018 Whitley Award donated by Arcus Foundation. Read more ▸
Five Indigenous communities in Sabah have been documenting their community protocols on adat and their ICCAs and engaging with High Court judges and native lawyers to improve recognition of these protocols in both court systems They presented them in front of Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, and the chairman of the Native Laws, Materials and Cases Committee. Read more ▸
The first peer-to-peer validation procedure meeting was held for the ICCA Registry in China. The Liguang (Nuomadi, in Lisu language) village of Lisu minority people, in Yunnan, was accepted. Read more ▸
Fifty european local community representatives, and other experts (NGOs representatives, academics, lawyers, etc.) gathered in Valsaín, Segovia (Spain) for a conference on ICCAs, and especially on the ICCA Registry. Read more ▸
The work of Professor John Knox, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, has significantly helped move the profile of the links between human rights and the environment from the periphery to the centre of the UN’s agenda. The new Environmental Rights Initiative of the UN Environment Programme was launched during the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council. Read more ▸

Resources & Multimedia

Relocation was found to be either ongoing or planned in at least twenty three Protected Areas. Read more ▸
The UN Environment Programme launched its new Environmental Defenders Policy, which proposes how it can promote greater protection for individuals and groups who are defending their environmental rights, and identifies solutions to mitigate the abuse of environmental rights. Read more ▸
On March 5, 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, Professor John H. Knox, presented the final report of his mandate to the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, which identifies 16 framework principles on human rights and the environment, addresses the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment and looks ahead to the next steps in the evolving relationship between human rights and the environment. Read more ▸
According to Professor John H. Knox, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, “No group is more vulnerable to environmental harm than children. More than 1.5 million children under the age of five lose their lives every year because of pollution and other avoidable environmental harms." Read more ▸

News from Our Partners, Allies and Related Initiatives

La indígena Ruth Alipaz denunció en la plenario del Foro Permanente de los asuntos Indígenas de la ONU que más de 5000 indígenas de cinco naciones de Bolivia perderán sus tierras con la construcción de dos megarepresas impulsadas por el gobierno boliviano. Read more ▸
"You can keep shooting the messenger, but you will run out of bullets before we run out of messengers and, at the end of the day, the message will be heard." Victoria Tauli-Corpuz - UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples writes about being added to the government's terror list. Read more ▸
The ICCA Consortium recently connected with the Environmental Defender Law Center (EDLC), a non-profit organisation that works to protect the human rights of people in the Global South who are fighting to protect their environment.  Read more ▸
IFAD’s Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF) is offering grants that will support up to 35 demand-driven projects by Indigenous Peoples' communities through the co-management of partner organizations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Read more ▸

Ms. Deborah David, Communications Assistant of the ICCA Consortium

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