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South Central People’s Development Association (SCPDA) Newsletter

11 September, 2012

The South Central People’s Development Association (SCPDA), based in Guyana, have just released their latest newsletter containing information on what the organisation has been working on, and what their plans are for the future.

Venezuela: piqued by international criticism of its tardy response to the alleged massacre of Yanomami Indians by illegal miners, the Government has withdrawn from the American Convention on Human Rights

11 September, 2012

On 5th September 2012, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organisation of American States issued a press release in which it urged the Venezuelan Government to carry out an investigation in the Upper Ocamo village of Irotatheri where the alleged massacre of as many as 80 people is supposed to have taken place. On 10th September 2012, the IACHR issued a further press statement noting that Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had officially 'denounced' the Convention. However, as the IACHR notes, withdrawal from the Convention requires one year's notice and moreover:  

Shipibo communities in the Peruvian Amazon reject implementation of the Imiria Conservation Area for violation of their rights as indigenous peoples

10 September, 2012

Representatives of 12 Shipibo indigenous communities and neighbouring villages from the Imiria lake region in Ucayali, Peru have expressed their opposition to the Imiria Regional Conservation Area (RCA-Imiria), a protected area established by the Regional government of Ucayali. The RCA-Imiria was created in 2010 but the communities denounce the fact that it overlaps their traditional territory including the titled lands of seven communities.

Venezuela: Indigenous organizations denounce another serious massacre of indigenous Yanomami by illegal Brazilian miners

29 August, 2012

Following a recent investigation carried out by the indigenous organization, Horonami, other indigenous organizations in the Venezuelan State of Amazonas have issued a joint statement denouncing a massacre of Yanomami indigenous people in the headwaters of the Ocamo river in the Upper Orinoco. The massacre is alleged to have been perpetrated by Brazilian miners who illegally crossed the border into this remote, forested, upland area.

World Bank Forest Investment Programme challenged to respect indigenous peoples' rights in Peru

23 August, 2012

Peruvian national indigenous peoples' organisation AIDESEP have written to the Forest Investment Programme expressing serious concerns that INDUFOR,  the team of consultants hired by the Peruvian government to develop a draft national investment plan, are still failing to address their key concerns and ensure their rights are safeguarded.

Draft framework for the Whakatane Mechanism open for feedback by IUCN members

21 August, 2012

A draft Framework for the Whakatane Mechanism has been developed jointly by the IUCN secretariat, IUCN-CEESP, IUCN-SPICEH and FPP with feedback by many others and based on the experience of the two pilot Assessments in Thailand and Kenya. The aim is to circulate it within IUCN for wider feedback in order to agree on a final Framework by the end of the World Conservation Congress in Jeju.

New video produced by IMPECT: Mowakhi

9 August, 2012

FPP partner the Inter Mountain Peoples Education and Culture in Thailand Association (IMPECT) has produced a new video about a community school project in the Mowakhi indigenous community in Northern Thailand.

Click here to watch the video.

To view IMPECT's YouTube channel click here.

Venezuela: Indigenous organizations denounce cuts in land demarcations in Amazonas, 6 August 2012

8 August, 2012

Government moves to cut the Hoti people's lands in the Venezuelan State of Amazonas by 42% have been denounced by all the main indigenous peoples' organizations. The Hoti were only brought into sustained contact with the national society by missionaries in the 1960s and many groups are still choosing to remain out of contact in the forested highlands. After flawed consultations, the Government has proposed reducing the Hoti territory by almost half, thereby excluding from protection the most isolated groups.

Whakatane Mechanism workshop at the 5th World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Korea on 10th September 2012

8 August, 2012

A workshop about the Whakatane Mechanism will be held at the IUCN World Conservation Congress on 10th September from 7pm to 9pm (in Room 202 of the Jeju ICC).

Second FAPI Statement on the current political and social situation in Paraguay, 11 July 2012

26 July, 2012

Read FAPI (Federation for the Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples)'s second statement on the current political and social situation in Paraguay below:-

FAPI’s second message to the national and international public