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News (280)
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Western Sahara: Academics Address Biden |
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By :Academics |
| 20 January 2021 |
20 January 2021
President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Biden,
We are writing to express our strong objections to President Trump’s decision to recognize Morocco’s illegal annexation of Western Sahara, and to call on you to rescind the declaration as soon as possible upon coming
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UNSRs Address Israel over Naqab Demolitions |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 21 December 2020 |
After the standard 60-day embargo on releasing such communications, the 12 October joint letter of seven UN Special Rapporteurs (SRs) to the Israeli government is now public. The SRs on adequate housing, cultural rights, human rights defenders, the rights of indigenous peoples, the human rights of internally displaced persons, minority
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UNSRs Address Israel over Naqab Demolitions |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 21 December 2020 |
After the standard 60-day embargo on releasing such communications, the 12 October joint letter of seven UN Special Rapporteurs (SRs) to the Israeli government is now public. The SRs on adequate housing, cultural rights, human rights defenders, the rights of indigenous peoples, the human rights of internally displaced persons, minority
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Land Times No. 21 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 12 December 2020 |
What better way to commemorate World Human Rights Day than with HIC’s Housing and Land Rights Network (HIC-HLRN) Land Times? Today’s 21st issue reports on the role of civil society resisting the COVID-19 crisis and supporting the subsistence of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities often targeted with violations of
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India: Farmers March against Agriculture Laws |
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By :Hannah Ellis-Petersen The Guardian South Asia correspondent |
| 30 November 2020 |
Indian farmers march on Delhi in protest against agriculture laws
More than 300,000 farmers head to capital for ‘decisive battle’ with government
Hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers have marched upon Delhi and set up vast camps blocking entry to the city in protest at agriculture laws they say will destroy livelihoods.
More
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Azerbaijan: Armenians Burn Vacated Homes |
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By :Associated Press |
| 14 November 2020 |
Armenians burn their homes rather than turn them over to Azerbaijan
KALBAJAR, AZERBAIJAN—In a bitter farewell to his home of 21 years, Garo Dadevusyan wrenched off its metal roof and prepared to set the stone house on fire. Thick smoke poured from houses that his neighbors had already torched before fleeing
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Zimbabwe: Villagers up in Arms over Relocation |
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By :Tatenda Chitagu, Newsday.Co.Zw |
| 29 October 2020 |
RUNDE Rural District Council (RDC) faces resistance from about 50 families it intends to evict to pave way for the upgrading of Vugwi Business Centre into a growth point.
The business centre is about 22km from Zvishavane town and falls under Runde RDC.
The affected villagers have vowed to resist eviction without
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USA: CSOs Urge Senate Reject SCotUS Pick |
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By :Over 150 organizations |
| 06 October 2020 |
Following the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court, over 150 justice organizations and movements, including advocates for the homeless and defenders of the human right to adequate housing, issued a letter urging the Senate to oppose her confirmation. While the nomination raises a broad
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New from HIC-HLRN: “A Pandemic of Violations” |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 05 October 2020 |
On the occasion of World Habitat Day (5 October 2020) and “Urban October,” HIC-HLRN has produced its annual report from the HLRN Violation Database.
This year’s review of patterns and trends in housing and land rights violation around the world is dedicated to the theme: A Pandemic of Violations: Forced Evictions
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New from HIC-HLRN: "A Pandemic of Violations" |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 05 October 2020 |
On the occasion of World Habitat Day (5 October 2020) and “Urban October,” HIC-HLRN has produced its annual report from the HLRN Violation Database.
This year’s review of patterns and trends in housing and land rights violation around the world is dedicated to the theme: A Pandemic of Violations: Forced Evictions
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New: "Development" Dispossessing Women |
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By :HIC-HLRN, Mazingira Institute, Pamoja Trust |
| 25 September 2020 |
Incidents of Infrastructure Development That Dispossess and Displace People: Baseline assessment of women’s wealth, wellbeing and habitat
HIC-HLRN has just released the outcomes of an unprecedented assessment of impacts from infrastructure development on women in Kenya.
This is the product of a collaborative project of Mazingira Institute, Pamoja Trust and HIC-HLRN on
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Kenya: Impoverishing Women with "Development" |
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By :HIC-HLRN, Mazingira Institute and Pamoja Trust |
| 25 September 2020 |
HIC-HLRN has just published the results of a study on the impacts of infrastructure development that dispossesses and displace women in Kenya. The report is a baseline assessment of women’s wealth, wellbeing and habitat values at stake.
This is the product of a collaborative project of Mazingira Institute, Pamoja Trust and
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Uzbeks Stlll Displaced 4 Months after Dam Collapse |
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By :Al Jazeera |
| 23 September 2020 |
Syrdario Region, Uzbekistan – Some dams last a thousand years. But Sardoba collapsed on May 1 after just three years, its mighty waters washing away villages of more than 35,000 hectares (86,486 acres) of land in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Maria and her family escaped in the last moment before the waves
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Zimbabwe: Evicted Villagers’ Living Hell |
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By :Tatenda Chitagu, The Standard |
| 22 September 2020 |
Evicted Lowveld villagers endure two months of hell
By the roadside in the scorching Lowveld heat, a group of women and children sit under a tree, their few belongings scattered all over the place.
Two women have just finished preparing a very small meal of sadza and cow peas, hardly enough to
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CSOs Urge UNGA to End Apartheid in Palestine |
| 22 September 2020 |
Global Response to Israeli Apartheid: A Call to the UNGA
Apartheid is a crime against humanity, giving rise to individual criminal responsibility and State responsibility to bring the illegal situation to an end. In May 2020, a large number of Palestinian civil society organisations called on all States to adopt “effective countermeasures,
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Greece: Moria Camp Blaze, 13K Homeless |
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By :Jean Mackenzie, BBC News |
| 10 September 2020 |
Moria migrants: Fire destroys Greek camp leaving 13,000 without shelter
The BBC`s Jean Mackenzie spent time speaking to people at the camp just six months ago and reflects on her experiences there
Fires have destroyed Greece`s largest migrant camp, an overcrowded facility on the island of Lesbos, leaving nearly 13,000 people without
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Guatemala: Denouncing Land Defender Murders |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 09 September 2020 |
So far in 2020, four farmer leaders have been murdered, and another one is missing. The organization also denounced the extrajudicial eviction of indigenous communities.
Guatemala`s government withdrew several institutions that enforced and veiled over land rights, such as the Secretariat for Agrarian Affairs (SAA), the Presidential Commission for the Coordination
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US War on Terror Displaced 37 million+ |
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By :John Ismay, The New York Times Magazine |
| 08 September 2020 |
A new report calculates the number of people who fled because of wars fought by the United States since
At least 37 million people have been displaced as a direct result of the wars fought by the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, according to a new report from Brown
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Indonesia: Mapping Policy Losses |
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By :A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil, Jakarta Post |
| 04 September 2020 |
Concerns of transparency, inclusivity raised as One Map nears completion
Jakarta—Indonesia`s highly anticipated One Map Policy is inching toward completion with most datasets successfully compiled by the government, but observers are wary of the project`s lack of transparency and inclusiveness and whether the rights of indigenous communities are honored.
Initiated in
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Palestine: Join Al-Haq Law School Program (10/2020) |
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By :Al Haq |
| 24 August 2020 |
Al-Haq International Law School Program, 12–22 October 2020
The Al-Haq Center for Applied International Law is pleased to announce its Sixth International Law Summer School Program for professionals, legal researchers, post-graduates and academics in the fields of international law and human rights.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing uncertainty around international
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Palestine: Join Al-Haq Law School Program (10/2020) |
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By :Al Haq |
| 24 August 2020 |
Al-Haq International Law School Program, 12–22 October 2020
The Al-Haq Center for Applied International Law is pleased to announce its Sixth International Law Summer School Program for professionals, legal researchers, post-graduates and academics in the fields of international law and human rights.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing uncertainty around international
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Indonesia: Indigenous Timor Families Evicted |
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By :Ryan Dagur, Union of Catholic Asian News |
| 18 August 2020 |
Evicted Indonesian families vow to stay put
Dozens of people in Catholic-majority province left homeless as land dispute turns violent
Defiant members of an indigenous community in Indonesia have vowed to stay put after security forces fired tear gas and demolished their homes on Aug. 18 in a bid to
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India: Turning 170K-ha Forest to Coal |
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By :Hannah Ellis-Peterson, The Guardian |
| 08 August 2020 |
India plans to fell ancient forest to create 40 new coalfields
Narendra Modi’s dream of a ‘self-reliant India’ comes at a terrible price for its indigenous population
Over the past decade, Umeshwar Singh Amra has witnessed his homeland descend into a battleground. The war being waged in Hasdeo Arand, a rich and
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Land Times issue 20 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 08 August 2020 |
HIC’s Housing and Land Rights Network (HIC-HLRN) welcomes you to its 20th issue of Land Times. This milestone edition emphasizes the role of civil society in identifying and remedying housing and land rights problems in the context of a global pandemic.
Amid this protracted crisis, events and developments in the Middle
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Occupied Kashmir’s Year of Exploding Memories |
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By :Adil Amin Akhoon, Sharafat Ali, Foreign Policy |
| 02 August 2020 |
In Kashmir, a Year of Exploding Memories
A year after the state’s special status was revoked, peace remains a distant hope.
SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir—Over the past year, life in Indian-administered Kashmir has grown markedly more challenging. On 5 August 2019, New Delhi revoked Article 370—which had guaranteed a measure of autonomy
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Battir, Palestine: Settlers Invade Heritage Site |
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By :Yuval Abraham, +972 mag |
| 29 July 2020 |
‘I want Battir to go to hell’: Settlers move in on Palestinian World Heritage site
Palestinians in the West Bank agricultural village of Battir are encountering armed Israeli settlers trying to push them off their land.
Khaled and Miriam Muammar live in Battir, an agricultural village in the occupied West Bank, just
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Kashmir: Prolonged Settler Colonialism |
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By :Samreen Mushtaq and Mudasir Amin/The Polis Project |
| 27 July 2020 |
India’s settler colonialism in Kashmir is not starting now, eliminating the natives is a process long underway
From controlling space to regulating movement, from land holdings to resource extraction, from neoliberal policies converging with colonial aims to memory erasures and intensive surveillance, the Indian state has been at it for long.
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Western Sahara: NGOs Appeal to UNSC |
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By :GSGPPHRWS |
| 16 July 2020 |
NGOs –– Geneva Support Group for the Protection and Promotion
of Human Rights in Western Sahara
Open letter to the President of the UN Security Council
H.E. Mr. Christoph Heusgen
Your Excellency,
Having followed the discussion at the high-level open debate held on 7 July on the theme "Peace operations and human rights," the 214
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Palestine/Israel: JNF Trees Dispossess Bedouin |
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By :Zafrir Rinat and Almog Ben Zikri, Haaretz |
| 14 July 2020 |
Israel pushing large tree planting in Naqab to disclaim lands to Bedouin
Israel is pushing through a plan to plant trees across a significant swath of the Negev in a bid to deny Bedouin residents from accessing the lands.
The plan is described as “agricultural planting” but local activists and human
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A Chinese Province Razes Its Countryside |
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By :Alexander Boyd, SupChina |
| 10 July 2020 |
A Chinese province razes the countryside. Why?
How are Shandong villagers being convinced to go along with a provincial plan to raze their homes and move them into high-rises? With promises of economic benefits in the future, and if that doesn’t work, with coercion and threats.
Since March, the provincial government
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USA: Judge Shuts Down Dakota Access Pipeline |
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By :Amy R. Sisk, Bismarck Tribune |
| 06 July 2020 |
A federal judge has ordered the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline while a lengthy environmental review is conducted of the project opposed by environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
The move was requested earlier this year by Standing Rock and three other Sioux tribes in the Dakotas who fear environmental harm from
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USA: Bison Returning to Indigenous Lands |
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By :Return to Now |
| 19 June 2020 |
Bison Return to Lakota Reservation in South Dakota for First Time in 150 Years
Now that bison have repopulated national parks, the extra are being given back to Native Americans
Around 400 bison will be transferred from a national wildlife refuge in Colorado to the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South
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Kenya: Ruai Evictions, Why Now? |
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By :Ruai News |
| 21 May 2020 |
Ruai Evictions : Is This Why Government Had To Do It Before September?
Renowned political commentator Allan Kibet has come out to claim that President Uhuru Kenyatta forcefully evicted the residents of Ruai and Kariobangi from the ` public` land so as to commence the construction of Nairobi Metropolitan Services Improvement
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Kashmir: Security Forces Burn, Loot Homes |
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By :Anees Zargar, NewsClick |
| 20 May 2020 |
Over Dozen Homes Burned, More Looted During Nawakadal Encounter, Allege Residents
The residents of the area alleged that the police looted cash, jewellery and other valuables from several homes in the dense locality of Kanimazar as they carried out the operation in the wee hours of May 19 to eliminate militants
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World Distracted, Amazon Keeps Burning |
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By :Agence France-Presse |
| 09 May 2020 |
With world distracted, the Amazon rainforest continues to burn
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of this year, with 1,202 square kilometres of forest wiped out
That was a 55 per cent increase from the same period last year, and the highest figure for
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Brazil: Ashaninka Win Case against Loggers |
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By :YaleEnvironment 360 |
| 01 May 2020 |
Indigenous group wins case over illegal tree logging
The Ashaninka indigenous community in Brazil has won a two-decade federal court dispute against illegal logging interests, receiving $3 million in compensation and an official apology from companies for cutting down thousands of mahogany, cedar, and other tree species in the Kampa do Rio Amônia
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Nicaragua: Assaults on Indigenous Lands |
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By :Oakland Institute |
| 29 April 2020 |
Nicaragua’s Failed Revolution details the incessant violence facing the Indigenous communities in the Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions, as evidenced by recent attacks against the Alal, Wasakin, and Miskitu communities, and provides in depth information about the actors involved—foreign gold mining firms, national and international actors in logging and cattle ranching industry,
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Evicted Indigenous People in Manaus |
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By :Ignacio Amigo, Mongabay |
| 29 April 2020 |
Evicted indigenous people in Manaus struggle to stay safe amid COVID-19 crisis
A group of about 400 indigenous people were displaced from an informal settlement on the outskirts of Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon in February, reportedly in connection with drug trafficking issues in the area, despite previous promises to regularize
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One Species Responsible for COVID-19 - Us |
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By :Josef Settele, Sandra Díaz, Eduardo Brondizio[1] and Peter Daszak[2] |
| 27 April 2020 |
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
COVID-19 stimulus measures must save lives, protect livelihoods, and safeguard nature to reduce the risk of future pandemics
There is a single species that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic - us. As with the climate and biodiversity crises, recent pandemics are
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Guatemala: Evicting Maya Q’eqchi` amid COVID-19 |
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By :Minority Rights Group International |
| 21 April 2020 |
Violent attempt to evict Maya Q’eqchi villagers despite COVID-19 crisis in Guatemala
On 13 April 2020, private security forces suspected of working for Industria Chiquibul, S.A., an agribusiness engaged in the harvesting and extraction of palm oil, attempted to evict 200 indigenous peasant families from their homes in Tierra Blanca, municipality
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BADIL Palestinian Rights Course |
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By :BADIL |
| 10 April 2020 |
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights
BADIL`s second International Mobilization Course: The Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, West Bank, Palestine, 17 July - 28 July 2020.
This course is an opportunity for international advocates, activists, mobilizers, policy officers and interested individuals, to gain a deeper understanding of a human
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Brazil: Land Defender Zezico Guajajara Murdered |
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By :BBC World |
| 01 April 2020 |
Zezico Guajajara, an Amazon Guardian has been shot dead on 31 March 2020
A member of a protected tribe in the Amazon has been killed by gunmen, authorities in the Brazilian state of Maranhão say.
The body of Zezico Guajajara, of the Guajajara tribe, was found near his village on Tuesday. He
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Palestine: Land Day (joint statement) |
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By :NGOs |
| 30 March 2020 |
On Land Day, Civil Society Urges Accountability and the End to Israel’s Illegal Closure of Gaza
For the past two years,[1] Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip have gathered on a near-weekly basis to participate in the Great Return March demonstrations at the Gaza perimeter fence, calling for an end to
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South Africa: Evictions Despite Moratorium |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo |
| 29 March 2020 |
Evictions continue in Durban despite the national moratorium
The national government made a clear promise that there would be no evictions during the national shutdown implemented to slow the spread of the coronavirus. However, today, at around 12:30, Calvin Security returned to the Ekuphumeleleni settlement in Mariannhill, which falls under
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UN Invites Corporate Capture of Food Systems |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 23 March 2020 |
The UN has increasingly involved corporations in UN decision making, a trend made obvious in the 2012 Rio+20 Conference. This time, the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) has formed an alliance with the corporate world—outside of the framework of UN Charter-based specialized agencies—to set the global agenda for further corporate capture of
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South Africa: Call for Solidarity amid Crisis |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo |
| 22 March 2020 |
Coronavirus: A Call for Solidarity in a Time of Crisis
Abahlali baseMjondolo has held small meetings with elected leaders in all the provinces where we have members to discuss the coronavirus crisis. The best available scientific information has been shared with our members. We have decided to suspend our entire programme
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ZA/Palestine: Apartheid 60 Yrs after Sharpeville |
| 21 March 2020 |
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Time to Recognise and End Israeli Apartheid over the Palestinian People
21 March 2020
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination also marks the 60th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre under apartheid in South Africa, on 21 March 1960. At Sharpeville, police opened
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IPC on post-2020 Biodiversity Strategy |
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By :IPC |
| 18 March 2020 |
Don’t let agribusiness take over the Post – 2020 Biodiversity Strategy
The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) delegation of small-scale food producers participated at the Second meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Rome, from 24
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US Aid to Israel Razing Palestinian Homes |
| 16 March 2020 |
House Democrats ask if Israel violating US aid restriction by using resources to demolish Palestinian homes.
More than 60 Democratic lawmakers are pushing the Donald Trump administration to clarify whether Israel uses American military equipment to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank, hinting that doing so could trigger military aid
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UN: New Study on Climate-change Impacts |
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By :Chinedum Uwaegbulam, The Guardian |
| 16 March 2020 |
A wide-ranging UN climate report, released on last week, shows that climate change is having a major effect on all aspects of the environment, as well as on the health and wellbeing of the global population.
The report, The WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2019, which
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Syria: Reparation is a Key for Building Peace |
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By :Ibrahim Hamidi, Asharq Alawsat |
| 15 March 2020 |
Sunday marks the ninth anniversary since the peaceful demonstrations kicked off in Syria calling for democracy. Today, regional and international players coexist in regime-run areas in an interlocking manner that could lead to a military clash at any moment while Syrians remain divided.
The Russian and Turkish armies conducted joint patrols
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Missouri Farmer Wins $265m Monsanto/BASF Claim |
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By :Carey Gillam, Sierra |
| 25 February 2020 |
Missouri Farmer Wins $265 Million Verdict against Monsanto. Jury finds that, because of dicamba, a peach farmer is going out of business
A Missouri peach farmer notched a rare courtroom victory this month, defeating the former Monsanto Co. and chemical giant BASF in the first of what is expected to be
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UN: A Call to Human Rights “Action” |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 25 February 2020 |
At the opening of this 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, on 24 February 2020, Secretary-General António Guterres finally issued a formal initiative to consolidate human rights action in the fourth year of his five-year term. The much-welcome initiative bears the title The Highest Aspiration: A Call to
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Indonesia: Taman Sari`s Eviction |
| 19 February 2020 |
Taman Sari`s evicted residents pursue alternative avenues after court loss
BANDUNG –Residents who were evicted from Taman Sari subdistrict in Bandung, West Java, have filed more than 100 complaints to the government’s online public-service complaint system to step up their fight against their eviction.
Twenty residents submitted around 120 reports regarding
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India: Evictions in Honor of Trump Visit |
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By :Avinash Nair, The Indian Express |
| 18 February 2020 |
Ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to India, officials serve 45 families in Gujarat slum with eviction notices. The move comes just days after the AMC began building a wall allegedly to cover the Saraniyavas or Dev Saran slum on a route that the US President is likely to take while
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Watch: The Heart of Nuba |
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By :Storyville Global, BBC World |
| 12 February 2020 |
For thirty years, Omar al-Bashir, the former president of Sudan, waged a brutal and bloody war on his own people. This program filmed before al-Bashir was ousted, features Dr. Tom Catena a U.S. doctor and missionary who has been working in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan (South Kordofan) for over
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Bolsonaro`s Ambiguous Amazon Plan |
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By :Luciana Coelho and Gustavo Uribe, Folha de São Paulo |
| 10 February 2020 |
Bolsonaro`s Proposed Amazon Plan Is Vague and Uncertain. Officials improvised the proposed project on eve of Davos event to appease critics.
SÃO PAULO and BRASÍLIA—Bolsonaro`s finalized his plan for the Amazon right before the World Economic Forum in Davis, Switzerland. The government wanted to alleviate investor doubts about the government`s inaction in forest
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Brazil: President Opens Indigenous Land to Mining |
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By :Amazon Watch |
| 06 February 2020 |
Illegal Bill to Permit Mining on Indigenous Territories Proposed by Bolsonaro to Brazil`s Congress
Yesterday, marking his 400th day in office, Brazil`s extreme-right President Jair Bolsonaro proposed new legislation that would permit industrial mining, oil and gas projects, and hydroelectric dams on protected indigenous lands. The bill – which brazenly violates Brazil`s constitution
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ETOs: German Cement Giant in Occupied Land |
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By :Al Haq and SOMO |
| 04 February 2020 |
The German extraction industry giant, HeidelbergCement is implicated in cross-border organized violations of international law in Palestine.
AMSTERDAM/RAMALLAH—The German multinational HeidelbergCement is complicit in the pillaging of natural resources from the Nahal Raba quarry in the occupied West Bank, with serious human and environmental rights violations against Palestinians, a new report by SOMO and Al-Haq
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Navajo Pres. Sides with Kit Carson on Palestine |
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By :The Red Nation |
| 02 February 2020 |
Navajo Nation President Nez Sides with Kit Carson on Palestine
The [president of the] Navajo Nation’s partnership with Zionist organizations raises historical questions.
Black men fighting for their freedom once drenched the earth with the blood of white men. We know this history. At the same time, our grandfathers carried guns against
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U.S. Revives Military Land Mine Use |
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By :Robert Burns, Associated Press |
| 31 January 2020 |
United States President Donald Trump authorizes a shift to wider U.S. military use of land mines, after much of the world has banned their use.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump on Friday canceled an Obama-era prohibition on the use of anti-personnel land mines outside of the Korean peninsula. With potential future conflict with
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How Chevron Crushes an Environment Defender |
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By :Sharon Lerner, The Intercept |
| 29 January 2020 |
How the Environmental Lawyer Who Won a Massive Judgment against Chevron Lost Everything
Last August, during the second-hottest year on record, while the fires in the Amazon rainforest were raging, the ice sheet in Greenland was melting, and Greta Thunberg was being greeted by adoring crowds across the U.S., something else happened
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Criminal Conspiracy of the Century |
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By :HLRN |
| 28 January 2020 |
In joint presentations, US President Donald Trump and pro tem Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu revealed the long-anticipated/-dreaded “deal of the century” today in a White House ceremony. The entitled “Peace to Prosperity” document is now available for scrutiny. The plan, echoing the South African vision of Grand Apartheid, seeks
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Nigeria: Mass Evictions, Protests as Housing Crisis Mounts |
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By :Libby George, Reuters |
| 24 January 2020 |
Mass evictions prompt protests as Nigerian housing crisis mounts
LAGOS—The men in naval uniforms charged into the Nigerian waterfront village of Okun Glass in the morning, chased out the residents, then called in the bulldozers.
De facto village leader, 75-year-old Dauda Musa, said he fled as the men fired guns into the
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Trump Removes More Environmental Safeguards |
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By :Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press |
| 23 January 2020 |
Trump Administration set to remove protections against water pollution
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration appears ready to move ahead with its plan to remove protections for some of the nation’s millions of miles, streams and arroyos, completing one of its most far-reaching environmental rollbacks.
The changes, promised by President Donald Trump in his first
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States Urge Spain to Respect Saharawi Rights |
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By :Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW) |
| 22 January 2020 |
As a matter of extraterritorial human rights obligation, Namibia and East-Timor have today recommended Spain to respect the Saharawi people`s right to free, prior and informed consent before any exploitation of Western Sahara`s natural resources.
Spain today went through its third Universal Periodic Review, a peer review in the
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Peru: Indigenous Win Amazon Oil Battle |
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By :Maria Cervantes, Reuters |
| 22 January 2020 |
Peruvian indigenous group wins suit to block oil exploration in Amazonian region
LIMA—A Peruvian judge ruled that the government exclude an indigenous region of the Amazon near the border with Brazil from any oil exploration and exploitation, a legal group said on Wednesday, in a win for native communities that have
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UN Landmark Case for Climate-displaced |
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By :Amnesty International |
| 20 January 2020 |
UN landmark case for people displaced by climate change
In a ground-breaking asylum case, a UN human rights body has ruled that governments must take into account the human rights violations caused by the climate crisis when considering deportation of asylum seekers, said Amnesty International today.
Ioane Teitiota, a man from the Pacific nation of
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CSOs Blast UN’s Corporate Take-over |
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By :FIAN and various CSOs |
| 16 January 2020 |
WEF takeover of UN strongly condemned. With the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos around the corner, hundreds of CSOs reiterate condemnation of the partnership between the corporate world with the UN.
As corporate executives fly into Davos for the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF),
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Outrage over Siemens Backing Adani Coal |
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By :Deutsche Welle |
| 13 January 2020 |
Climate Activists Outraged as Siemens Backs Adani Coal Mining Project in Australia
Siemens has announced it will remain involved in a controversial coal mining project in Australia, despite massive environmental criticism as the country continues to be ravaged by bushfires.
The German engineering conglomerate has a contract worth roughly €18 million ($20 million) which requires
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Netherlands: The Right to Climate Protection! |
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By :Lukas Schulze, Buzzfeed News |
| 20 December 2019 |
People have a fundamental right to be protected from climate change, a landmark court ruling says. The Dutch Supreme Court`s decision could have huge repercussions for how other countries tackle rising emissions.
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled Friday that the government must take urgent action on climate change to
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Brazil: New Decree to Support Land Grabs |
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By :Sputnik News |
| 12 December 2019 |
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signs a decree giving title to smallholder farmers, but may encourage land grabbing.
President Jair Bolsonaro issued a decree on Tuesday that will allow tens of thousands of small farmers finally to earn title to the land they cultivate, fulfilling a campaign promise to the agricultural sector
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India: Protesting > 40K Trees Cut for Mine, Police Crack Down |
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By :Newsclick Report |
| 12 December 2019 |
India: Talabira Odisha: Over 40,000 trees removed to pave way for Adani’s Mine. Heavy police force is present on the site to completely cordon off the region. Activists are terming the removal of the trees as a grave violation of community forest rights.
The green lungs of industrial Odisha’s Sambalpur are
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Canada: Town Dies amid Environmental Changes |
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By :Chris Arsenault, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 10 December 2019 |
Closing down: aging residents, falling fish stocks spell end for Canadian town. A tiny town in Canada is closing down, with residents in the tight-knit community packing their belongings and making the final preparations to shutter their homes
TORONTO—Perched along Canada`s windswept North Atlantic coast, the town of Little Bay Islands
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South Korea: Neighborhoods Rallying before Death |
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By :Isaiah Winters, Gwangju News |
| 06 December 2019 |
Lost in Gwangju
Every year in Korea, autumn foliage treats us to one last gasp of life before the bleak onset of winter. I can’t help but liken this to cases of terminal lucidity, when patients on their deathbeds regain a fleeting clarity of expression before suddenly passing away. In much
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‘Amazon Completely Lawless’: Bolsonaro’s 1st Year |
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By :Matt Sandy. The New York Times |
| 05 December 2019 |
Deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest, an important buffer against climate change, has soared under President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil.
RIO DE JANEIRO—When the smoke cleared, the Amazon could breathe easy again.
For months, black clouds had hung over the rainforest as work crews burned and chain-sawed through it. Now the rainy
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EU Fisheries in Western Sahara "Unlawful" |
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By :WSRW |
| 20 November 2019 |
Former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, Mr. Hans Corell (Sweden), has again criticized EU`s approach to fisheries practices in Western Sahara. The statements came in a speech delivered at the annual conference of The Belgian Society of international Law, in Brussels, 14–15
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India: Gov’t. Rethinks Vicious Forest Act |
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By :Ishan Kukreti, Down to Earth |
| 18 November 2019 |
Government withdraws proposed changes to Indian Forest Act. Minister Prakash Javadekar said draft created misconception among people.
The Union government was withdrawing the officers’ draft of the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927 amendment, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) Prakash Javadekar told reporters on November 15, 2019.
Inspector General of Forests (Forest
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Brazil: The Life and Death of the Guajajara |
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By :Carol Marçal, The Guardian |
| 08 November 2019 |
It is not news that the Brazilian government has been failing to protect Indigenous lands and Indigenous rights. But due to ever-increasing invasion of their territories by land grabbers, loggers and even drug traffickers, the Indigenous Peoples from several groups in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil decided to
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Major Victory for Ecuadoran Indigenous Peoples |
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By :DTE Staff |
| 07 November 2019 |
Chinese company pulls out of contract to drill for oil in remote rainforest after protests by indigenous groups
Indigenous leaders from Ecuador’s Amazon declared victory on November 6, 2019, after revealing that the country’s government had granted a force majeure request by Andes Petroleum Ltd Ecuador to stop drilling in a rainforest concession
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Brazil: Loggers Murder Amazon Forest Defender |
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By :Aljazeera |
| 03 November 2019 |
An indigenous forest defender has been killed and another wounded after they were ambushed by illegal loggers in Brazil`s Amazon forest, according to authorities.
Paulo Paulino Guajajara, a leader of an indigenous group seeking to protect the Arariboia indigenous reserve in Maranhao state from incursions, was shot in the face while on a
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Kenya: Village Struggles with Industrial Giant |
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By :Lotte Hughes and Daniel Lepariyo, The Star |
| 01 November 2019 |
David v Goliath: A small village’s struggle with an industrial giant
Known as Kambi Turkana to its largely Maasai neighbours, Lorropil has 47 residents, including Turkana, Samburu, Kikuyu, Il Chamus, Kisii and Kalenjin. Akiira Geothermal Ltd claims these destitute people are ‘squatters’ who have only recently moved onto the land in
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USA: Keystone Pipeline Leaks 383K Gallons |
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By :James MacPherson, Associated Press |
| 31 October 2019 |
BISMARCK ND—TC Energy’s Keystone pipeline leaked an estimated 383,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of oil in northeastern North Dakota, state regulators said Thursday.
Crews on Tuesday shut down the pipeline that carries tar sands oil from Canada through seven states after the leak was discovered said Karl Rockeman, North Dakota’s water
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Coastal Cities Sinking Faster than Predicted |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 29 October 2019 |
Facing a flooded future, the world’s vulnerable coastal cities will undergo sea-level rise worse than previously understood, according to a new corrective report by Climate Central.
As a result of heat-trapping pollution from human activities, rising sea levels could within three decades will push chronic floods higher than land currently home
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Canada: B.C. to Align Laws with UNDRIP |
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By :Stephanie Wood, National Observer |
| 24 October 2019 |
B.C. tables United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples bill today
British Columbia is the first province to begin legislating the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a landmark international document on Indigenous rights.
The province is introducing a bill today that will ensure all provincial laws
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USA: Island Returned to Indigenous Owners |
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By :Julia Wick, Essential California, Los Angeles Times |
| 22 October 2019 |
Eureka returns an island to a tribe nearly 160 years after a massacre
California is in a moment of long overdue reckoning with the state’s original sin: the blood-soaked treatment of the people who inhabited this land long before any white settlers ever dreamed of Manifest Destiny. In recent
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20 Firms Emit a Third of All Carbon |
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By :Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts, The Guardian |
| 09 October 2019 |
New data show how fossil fuel companies have driven climate crisis despite industry knowing dangers
The Guardian today reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern
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Canada: Alberta’s Oil, Gas and Coal Scandal |
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By :Andrew Nikiforuk. TheTyee.ca |
| 08 October 2019 |
Alberta’s energy regulator blasted for conflicts, mismanagement and misusing millions. It’s no surprise, say critics of agency responsible for regulating oil, gas and coal production.
Critics of the energy regulator’s performance on issues like cleanup of abandoned well say that reports the agency was mismanaged are no surprise.
Three separate Alberta government
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Adani Coal Takes Native Land as Oz Burns |
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By :Ben Doherty, The Guardian |
| 31 August 2019 |
While Queensland extinguishes native title over Indigenous land to make way for Adani coalmine
Palaszczuk government did not announce decision Wangan and Jagalingou people say makes them trespassers on their own land
The Queensland government has extinguished native title over 1,385 hectares of Wangan and Jagalingou country for the proposed Adani coalmine in
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What`s Destroying the Amazon? |
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By :Rhett A. Butler, Mongabay News |
| 23 August 2019 |
Since 1978 over 750,000 square kilometers (289,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana. Why is Earth`s largest rainforest being destroyed?
For most of human history, deforestation in the Amazon was primarily the product of subsistence farmers who cut down trees to produce
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Brazil: Amazon on Fire |
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By :CBS News |
| 21 August 2019 |
On Monday afternoon, the City of São Paulo, Brazil, went dark — but it wasn`t some strange cosmic event. Powerful winds carried the smoke from forest fires burning nearly 1,700 miles away, reported the BBC. Almost 73,000 fires have been detected by Brazil`s space research center INPE, according to Reuters. It`s a
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IPCC Agrees with Indigenous Peoples |
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By :Indigenous peoples |
| 12 August 2019 |
A statement on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land from Indigenous Peoples and local communities* from 42 countries spanning 76% of the world’s tropical forests
Finally, the world’s top scientists recognize what we have always known.
We—Indigenous Peoples and local communities—play a critical role
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#StandTogetherNow |
| 12 August 2019 |
In 2015 world leaders signed historic agreements – the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and the broader 2030 Agenda to push for a more just and sustainable world by 2030. These inter-linked agendas promised to transform the world, to end poverty, to reduce inequality, ensure peace and combat climate
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IPCC Report on Land Use: Seven Things to Know |
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By :Frances Seymour, World Resources Institute |
| 08 August 2019 |
Frances Seymour of World Resources Institute explains how the UN report confirms the importance of protecting forests in global strategies to fight climate change
The IPCC’s Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems has just been released. One thing you
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PHROC Rebukes Donor States over UNRWA Cuts |
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By :Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) |
| 04 August 2019 |
Palestinian Refugees must not suffer the consequences of alleged misconduct. Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) criticizes funding cuts to UNRWA over ethics evaluation.
PHROC: Support UNRWA and Ensure Refugee Rights under International Law
A ten-page report was issued by the ethics office of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
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EU Now Funds Israel’s Destruction of Palestine |
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By :David Cronin, Rights and Accountability |
| 02 August 2019 |
The European Union is financing Israeli bodies that oversee home demolitions and other crimes against the Palestinian people.
Two years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu was heard complaining that the European Union was “crazy” for attaching “political conditions” to its relations with Israel. By the prime minister’s yardstick, matters have become less “crazy” since then:
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Women Speak out on Land Rights |
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By :ESCR-Net |
| 02 August 2019 |
Women articulating shared positions and advancing collective action on land and natural resources
In recent years, coordinated by the Working Group on Women and ESCR, grassroots women leaders have been articulating shared positions and advancing collective action on land and natural resources; most recently, via a second exchange and a series
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German Firm’s Crimes against Palestinians |
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By :Adri Nieuwhof Rights and Accountability |
| 10 June 2019 |
German firm escalates its war crimes against Palestinians
German construction giant HeidelbergCement is expanding its plunder of Palestinian resources, a war crime punishable under German and international law.
HeidelbergCement operates a stone quarry in the occupied West Bank without permission of the Palestinians.
After exhausting the Nahal Raba quarry, the Israeli army has
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More US Jews Support Quitting WB Colonies |
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By :Judy Maltz, Haaretz |
| 02 June 2019 |
Growing Number of U.S. Jews Support Evacuation of All West Bank Settlements, Survey Finds. AJC poll exposes deepening divide between American and Israeli Jews on issues like Trump`s policies and the importance of “caring about Israel.”
Fewer American Jews consider “caring about Israel” an important part of being Jewish, a
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World Bank’s Attack on Small Farmers |
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By :AfricaFocus Bulletin |
| 27 May 2019 |
Editor`s Note:
“Enabling the Business of Agriculture,” promoted by the World Bank, and now enhanced with a new sub-indicator on land policy, is presented as a way to advance agricultural development, particularly in Africa. In reality, notes a new report from the Oakland Institute, it gives an additional push to a
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EU Partners with Israeli War-crime Financier |
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By :Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada |
| 21 May 2019 |
The European Union is expanding its partnership with Bank Leumi, a major financier of Israeli settler colonies on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
The EU claims to oppose Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied territories, a war crime.
However, on Monday, Emanuele Giaufret, the EU ambassador in Tel Aviv,
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Ecuador: Waorani Block Big Oil Destruction |
| 16 May 2019 |
Amazon tribe wins lawsuit against big oil, saving millions of acres of rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest is well known across the world for being the largest and most dense area of woodland in the world. Spanning across nine countries, the Amazon is home to millions of different animal and plant species,
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USA: Inviting More Oil-spill Disaster |
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By :Associated Press |
| 03 May 2019 |
Trump easing offshore drilling safety rules imposed after Deepwater Horizon explosion
The new safety changes were sought by the industry but fiercely challenged by environmentalists.
PORT FOURCHON LA—The Trump administration moved Thursday to give oil and gas companies more flexibility in meeting safety requirements imposed after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon explosion,
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Al-Haq International Law Summer School 2019! |
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By :Al-Haq |
| 30 April 2019 |
24 June–8 July 2019
Al-Haq Center for Applied International Law is pleased to announce its Fifth International Law Summer School for post-graduate law students, legal researchers and professionals in the fields of international law and human rights. The training will take place over two weeks in Ramallah, occupied Palestinian territory
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Tibet: China Imprisons Local Land Defenders |
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By :Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) |
| 28 April 2019 |
Nine Tibetans sentenced up to 7 years in prison under China’s “organised crime” crackdown
A notice issued in February 2018 by the Tibet Autonomous Region Public Security Department had criminalised various human rights activities such as local activists espousing causes like economic freedom, right to livelihood, environmental protection, cultural freedom (Article
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DRC: Failed Agro-Industrial Park Model |
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By :Oakland Institute and HLRN |
| 25 April 2019 |
The Bukanga Lonzo Debacle: The Failure of Agro-Industrial Parks in DRC is a new report of the Oakland Institute that exposes the numerous land rights violations and human rights abuses, pollution and health hazards, misspent funds, charges of embezzlement and corruption, and legal action since the establishment and collapse of
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Global Risks of Oil and Gas Overinvestment |
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By :Global Witness |
| 24 April 2019 |
Overinvestment in oil and gas creates risks for investors, regardless of whether the world is effective in tackling climate change. Either investors face assets being stranded as demand for fossil fuels falls in a transition to a low carbon economy, or the overinvestment contributes to excess emissions from fossil fuels,
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Women’s Land and Home--Uganda |
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By :HIC-HLRN and SSA:UHSNET |
| 15 April 2019 |
How—and how much—housing and land rights violations affect women
Dispossession, forced eviction and other land and housing rights violations can have a more-significant and differentiated impact on women, given that women are often more social and economically vulnerable than men. This is particularly true, as women often start out from a
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Waorani People Sue for Survival against Big Oil |
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By :Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute |
| 11 April 2019 |
Indigenous peoples go to court to save the Amazon from oil company greed
On 27 February, hundreds of Indigenous Waorani elders, youth and leaders arrived in the city of Puyo, Ecuador. They left their homes deep in the Amazon rainforest to march peacefully through the streets, hold banners, sing songs and,
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India’s Unrelenting Forced-eviction Crisis |
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By :HLRN-India |
| 09 April 2019 |
New report highlights the unrelenting crisis of forced evictions, finds over 200,000 persons evicted in India in 2018. Over 114 houses demolished every day, 23 people evicted every hour.
On the eve of India’s General Elections, Housing and Land Rights Network India (HLRN) held a press conference in New Delhi today
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USA: Court Blocks More Wyoming Drills |
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By :Associated Press |
| 21 March 2019 |
BILLINGS, MT—A judge blocked oil and gas drilling across almost 500 square miles in Wyoming and said the U.S. government must consider climate change impacts more broadly as it leases huge swaths of public land for energy exploration.
The order marks the latest in a string of court rulings over the
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Mozambique & Zimbabwe: Idai "Massive disaster" |
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By :BBC News |
| 20 March 2019 |
Cyclone Idai has triggered a "massive disaster" in southern Africa affecting hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, the UN has said.
The region has been hit by widespread flooding and devastation affecting Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Mozambique`s President Filipe Nyusi called it "a humanitarian disaster of great proportion."
He said more
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Australia: Ngaliwurru & Nungali Native Title Ruling |
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By :RT |
| 15 March 2019 |
Australian Aboriginals to get billions in compensation for land & spiritual loss in landmark case
Aboriginals in Australia have won a ground-breaking case that paves the way for billions of dollars in compensation claims for colonial land loss, as well as loss of spiritual connection.
The High Court of Australia ruled
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United Nations` Land and Conflict Guidance |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 15 March 2019 |
Competition and control over land are among the common root causes and subjects of conflict, as well as the underlying factors hindering recovery and durable peace. Meanwhile, land has not been adequately treated in conflict management and resolution. At the same, the land and conflict nexus is only becoming more
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Sahel: Displacement Crisis |
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By :UN News |
| 05 March 2019 |
Drastic deterioration in security across Burkina Faso as 70,000 flee their homes in past two months, UN warns
The landlocked West African country of Burkina Faso is facing “unprecedented” displacement, triggered by armed groups and intercommunal clashes, and exacerbated by long-term food insecurity, UN aid officials said on Tuesday.
According to the
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ICJ Chagos Island Opinion: from Brexit to Chexit? |
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By :Marko Milanovic, European Journal of International Law blog |
| 28 February 2019 |
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivers its Chagos Islands Advisory Opinion, and UK loses badly
The ICJ has ruled that Britain acted illegally when it imposed territorial controls on the Chagos Islands without the consent of Mauritius. The ruling may hinder US operations in Diego Garcia, where it holds an
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USA: Court Rules IFC Not Immune |
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By :Diane Desierto, European Journal of International Law blog |
| 28 February 2019 |
SCOTUS decision in Jam et al v. International Finance Corporation (IFC) denies absolute immunity to IFC…with caveats
When it rains, it somehow pours.
February 2019 ended up being such a landmark month for international law adjudication. A day after the International Court of Justice released its landmark Chagos Advisory Opinion (finely discussed by
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Vanishing Biodiversity Threatens Our Food |
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By :FAO |
| 23 February 2019 |
The biodiversity that is crucial for our food and agriculture is disappearing by the day
FAO launches the first-ever global report on the state of biodiversity that underpins our food systems
ROME—The first-ever report of its kind presents mounting and worrying evidence that the biodiversity that underpins our food systems is disappearing
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Indian Court Orders Eviction of 1 Million Tribals |
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By :Rahul Bedi, The Telegraph |
| 22 February 2019 |
Indian Supreme Court orders eviction of 1 million tribal forest dwellers
NEW DELHI—India’s Supreme Court has ordered the eviction of over 1.1 million tribal and other traditional forest dwellers, after it recently rejected their ancient ownership claims on jungle land.
Experts estimate that the 20 February legal fiat could result in
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Mining Grabs Up Land in Central America |
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By :Edgardo Ayala, Inter press Service |
| 19 February 2019 |
SAN SALVADOR, Feb 19 2019 (IPS) - Like an octopus, metals mining has been spreading its tentacles throughout Central America and dealing a blow to the region’s agriculture and natural ecosystems, according to affected villagers, activists and a new report on the problem.
“Where the mining company is operating was land
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Fighting Displaces 100K in Burkina Faso |
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By :Reuters |
| 19 February 2019 |
UN: Fighting, Instability Have Displaced 100,000 in Burkina Faso
GENEVA—More than 100,000 people have been displaced by factional fighting and lawlessness in Burkina Faso, most within the past two months, according to a U.N. report published Tuesday.
"Burkina Faso is, for the first time in its history, facing massive internal displacement,"
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Post-capitalism: Life within Environmental Limits |
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By :Dr Samuel Alexander and Professor Brendan Gleeson, University of Melbourne |
| 19 February 2019 |
Capitalism’s limitless growth on a finite planet means the economic system we take for granted could end soon. If so, transformative and sustainable change must come from grassroots action
It may seem as though capitalism has always been a part of the Western world, but that’s not true. Although the
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Ireland: Gas Terminal Project Goes to EU Court |
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By :Ann O`Loughlin, Irish Examiner |
| 15 February 2019 |
Shannon Estuary gas terminal project referred to European Court of Justice by the Irish High Court as it triggers the EU Habitats Directive.
The High Court has referred to Europe a number of questions relating to a five-year extension of planning permission for a liquid gas terminal on the Shannon Estuary.
Mr
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Palestine/Israel: Fake Justices |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 13 February 2019 |
In early September 2018, after years of legal proceedings, the justices of Israel’s High Court determined there was no legal obstacle to demolishing the structures in the community of al-Khan al-Ahmar, located about two kilometers south of the Jerusalem-choking Kfar Adumim settler colony. The Court delivered that conclusion as the
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Zim: CSOs Pose Resolving Govt Displacements |
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By :Tatenda Chitagu, newsday |
| 13 February 2019 |
The Zimbabwe People’s Land Rights Movement (ZPLRM), a member of the Habitat International Coalition (HIC), has slammed government over planned displacements of thousands of villagers across the country and urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to walk his talk over the irreversibility of the land reform programme.
HIC is an independent international coalition
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EU-Morocco Fishery Accord Violates Law—Again |
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By :The Greens-European Free Alliance |
| 12 February 2019 |
EU-Morocco fisheries agreement violates international humanitarian law and denies self-determination of Western Sahara people.
Today, Members of the European Parliament voted in favour of the planned fisheries agreement between the European Union and Morocco. The vast majority of the catches under this agreement are however to take place to the waters
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AU Summit on Displacement Crisis |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 09 February 2019 |
Already 55 years ago, the Organization of African States was born with the purpose of peace and unity in what is now the African Union (AU), the largest regional organization on earth. This year, the 32nd regular annual AU summit at Addis Ababa (10–11 February 2019) focuses on another distinguishing
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Israel/Palestine: Tourism Accommodates War Crime |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 31 January 2019 |
The Israeli colonies in occupied Palestine constitute a war crime and crime against humanity. They form elements of the serious crime of population transfer, as codified in the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court, and which previously was prosecuted at the International Military Tribunals at Nuremburg and Tokyo. The
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Eating within Planetary Proportions |
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By :HLRN |
| 30 January 2019 |
The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health has convened 37 of the worlds’ leading scientists to reach a scientific consensus that defines a healthy and sustainable diet within the limits of our global ecosystem. Their conclusions contribute to the specificity needed to align human behavior with the goal of sustaining the human
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Brazil: Another Mining Dam Disaster |
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By :Associated Press |
| 28 January 2019 |
Search for Brazil dam survivors renews as death toll hits 58
BRUMADINHO, Brazil—Brazilian rescue crews returned to mud-covered flats Sunday to resume the search for hundreds of people missing in the wake of a dam collapse after the operation was suspended for several hours over fears that a second dam was
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World Bank Schemes to Privatize the Commons |
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By :Oakland Institute |
| 24 January 2019 |
The Highest Bidder Takes It All: The World Bank’s Scheme to Privatize the Commons details how the Bank’s prescribes reforms, via a new land indicator in the Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) project, promotes large-scale land acquisitions and the expansion of agribusinesses in the developing world. This new indicator is
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Vietnam: Church & Gov`t. Clash over Demolitions |
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By :Rina Chandran, TiVi Tuần-san |
| 17 January 2019 |
Land conflicts have risen in Vietnam since the Communist Party launched economic reforms in the 1980s
BANGKOK—The demolition of about 100 homes near Ho Chi Minh City, including one owned by the Catholic Church, has pitted the church against authorities in the latest such dispute over land in the Communist Party-ruled
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Israel Court OKs Evicting 700 Jlem Palestinians |
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By :Middle East Monitor |
| 22 November 2018 |
The Israeli Supreme Court yesterday rejected a petition submitted by 104 Palestinians against claims by a right-wing Israeli organisation paving the way for 700 Palestinians to be forced from their homes, Haaretz reported.
The 700 Palestinians, who make up 70 families, have been going through a legal battle to protect their
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UN Peasants’ Rights Declaration Adopted in GA |
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By :HLRN |
| 20 November 2018 |
NEW YORK—The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) passed a draft that would have the Assembly adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. This vote assures that the Declaration will enter the next edition of Human Rights:
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CAR: 10K Displaced in Batangafo |
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By :Medecins sans frontier |
| 02 November 2018 |
NEW YORK—Following clashes on Wednesday between armed groups in Central African Republic (CAR), more than 10,000 people fled their homes and are seeking refuge in the compound of a hospital in Batangafo supported by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Violent clashes between armed groups in
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USA: 14-Year-long Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Continues |
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By :Darryl Fears, The Washington Post |
| 24 October 2018 |
A 14-Year-Long Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Verges on Becoming One of the Worst in US History
An oil spill that has been quietly leaking millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico has gone unplugged for so long that it now verges on becoming one of the worst
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Lebanon: Evicting Syrian Refugees |
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By :Nora Stel and Anke van der Meijden, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies |
| 24 October 2018 |
This article is based on a forthcoming policy paper examining the causes, characteristics, and consequences of the eviction of Syrian migrants and refugees from Riyak, Lebanon in 2017, in light of recent developments encouraging Syrian refugees to return to their home country.
Lebanon’s Eviction of Syrian Refugees and the Threat of
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Statement of the ICC on Palestine |
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By :ICC |
| 17 October 2018 |
Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, regarding the Situation in Palestine
I have been following with concern the planned eviction of the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, in the West Bank. Evacuation by force now appears imminent, and with it the prospects for further escalation and
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UNHRC Adopts Peasant Rights Declaration |
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By :La Via Campesina |
| 30 September 2018 |
UN Human Rights Council passes a resolution adopting the peasant rights declaration in Geneva
GENEVA—Seventeen years of long and arduous negotiations later, peasants and other people working in rural areas are only a step away from having a UN Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, local
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Ecuador: Chevron to Pay for Environmental Damage |
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By :Mongabay |
| 14 August 2018 |
Chevron must pay for environmental damage in Ecuador, Constitution Court rules
The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has issued a long-awaited ruling in favor of those affected by the transnational oil company Chevron, which operated through its subsidiary Texaco in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990. The court rejected the protection action that
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Tanzania: Losing the Serengeti |
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By :The Oakland Institute |
| 02 August 2018 |
OAKLAND CA—Today, the Oakland Institute releases Kuipoteza Serengeti, Ardhi Ya Wamasai Iliyopaswa Kudumu Milele, a Kiswahili translation of the report Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever.
Based on field research, never publicly-seen-before documents, and an in-depth investigation into Tanzania’s land laws, the report reveals how Tanzania’s
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Kenya: Inhabitants Seek Protection from Evictions |
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By :Jillo Kadida, The Star |
| 01 August 2018 |
Residents of more than six Nairobi estates yesterday sought to stop their eviction by the government.
Houses are to be demolished today in Kaloleni, Makongeni, Mbotela, Mutindwa, Dandora and Kenyatta University villages, Lang’ata and Wilson-South C link road reserve.
Moses Nyakiongora served residents with the notice on July 19. He is the
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Laos: “Substandard construction” Causes Dam Collapse |
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By :Kocha Olarn, Sandi Sidhu and Ben Westcott, CNN |
| 27 July 2018 |
Minister says “substandard construction” caused Laos dam to collapse. 25,000 people evacuated.
The collapse of Laos dam that triggered massive flooding and devastation was due to "substandard construction," the country`s Minister of Energy and Mines said Thursday.
According to the state-run Laos News Agency, Minister Khammany Inthirath told reporters at a news
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Kenya: Kibera Demolitions Begin |
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By :Julius Otieno, Star; Josphat Thiong`o, Standard Digital |
| 24 July 2018 |
Anguish as houses demolished to pave way for Kibera link road
23 July 2018
Julius Otieno, Star
Human rights activists have accused Kenya Urban Roads Authority of violating the agreement that would have seen victim of Kibera evicted in a humane way.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has in this regard called
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Palestine: Israel’s Demolishing Khan al-Ahmar |
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By :Akram Al-Wa`ra, Mondoweiss |
| 05 July 2018 |
Despite international condemnations, Israel prepares to demolish Khan al-Ahmar
KHAN AL-AHMAR, occupied West Bank, Palestine—Scenes of destruction and despair spread over the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar on Wednesday, as armed Israeli forces arrived at the village’s entrance with bulldozers.
The nightmare that the village’s 200 residents had feared for over
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Puerto Rico: Parasites in Paradise |
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By :Democracy Now |
| 06 June 2018 |
Puerto Rico continues to recover from Hurricane Maria as it commemorates 120 years of US occupation (since 1898). In the ongoing post-disaster phase, the island Is becoming a “playground for the privileged,” where disaster-capitalist investors move in as homes foreclose and schools close.
While healthcare, the public school system and infrastructure
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Tanzania: Maasai Losing Lands to Tourism |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 25 May 2018 |
The indigenous Maasai people of Tanzania face appalling levels of human rights abuses, including intimidation, violent evictions, arrests, beatings, and starvation, by the Tanzanian government and some of the safari businesses that operate in the country, the Oakland Institute said today in a new report.
· In the past year, tens
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Another Mozambique Land Grab |
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By :Timothy A. Wise, Tufts University, Global Development and Environment Institute |
| 23 May 2018 |
Growing Resistance: The Rise and Fall of Another Mozambique Land Grab
The rice fields of Xai-Xai, three hours up the coast from Maputo, are vast, coming into view as we descended onto the alluvial plain from the villages that dot the hills above. They stretch across the plains toward the Indian Ocean
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Unearthing Truths: Israel, Nakba and JNF |
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By :The Editors of Moving Forward |
| 01 May 2018 |
The monthly Moving Forward is published with support from Jews Say No! That organization engages in community education, street theatre, and organizing to make their members’ voices heard in Jewish communities and as partners in the broader movement for justice in Palestine/Israel. The following article is the editorial to Moving
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30 Cities Join Global Sur and Hasankeyf Action Day |
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By :Platform No to the Destruction of Sur, Istanbul Sur Solidarity, Mesopotamia Ecology Movement, and Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive |
| 30 April 2018 |
DIYARBAKIR / AMED—As part of the Global Sur and Hasankeyf Action Day in almost 30 cities, actions have been organized on 28 April 2018. Activists and civil organization raised awareness on the ongoing destruction of the two antique cities Sur and Hasankeyf at the Tigris River in North (Turkish) Kurdistan.
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USA: Forgotten Hurricane Harvey Devastation |
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By :Daniel J. McGraw, Next City |
| 30 April 2018 |
Houston got the press (and most of the funds), but the Category 4 storm made first, devastating landfall in coastal Port Aransas and Rockport. How rebuilding has forced these beach towns to confront a housing crisis.
The smallish, three-bedroom, blue-green house in the middle of Port Aransas is rather ordinary. Built
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USA: Trump Orders Air-quality Rules Degraded |
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By :Ledyard King, USA TODAY |
| 20 April 2018 |
President Trump directs EPA to ease air quality rules he says suffocates industry. EPA director Scott Pruitt confirmed that President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to roll back Obama-era power-plant environmental-protection regulations.
WASHINGTON—President Trump`s latest effort to boost the nation`s manufacturing sector is an industry-friendly rewrite of air quality
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Right to the City in Greater Beirut |
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By :HIC-HLRN and Amel Association |
| 14 April 2018 |
HLRN has just released its new publication Right to the City in Greater Beirut: Context Assessment in Light of the Refugee and Displacement Crisis. This assessment offers critical insight into municipal governance in Greater Beirut, a city largely formed and characterized by human migration through its history, while more recently
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Myanmar: Rohingyas’ 13 Demands for Return |
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By :The Star (Petaling Jaya)/AP |
| 13 April 2018 |
Rohingya give Myanmar official list of demands for repatriation
DHAKA—A Myanmar Cabinet minister visited a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims, who described the violence that forced them to flee Myanmar and presented a list of demands for their repatriation.
Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye on Wednesday met
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China Mining Co. Destroys Mozambique Village |
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By :Ghana News |
| 01 April 2018 |
Mozambique’s coastal village on the brink of extinction from irresponsible Chinese mining company. Mining giant Haiyu denies responsibility for flood that left 290 people homeless, while Mozambican authorities fail to regulate mining industry to ensure people’s safety, denying village residents reparation for their losses.
An irresponsible Chinese mining operation in Mozambique
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Land Day: 17 Fallen in 2018, as the 6 in 1976 |
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By :Al-Arabiya net |
| 30 March 2018 |
In Palestine, "the Return March" is emerging, and Israel is killing the demonstrators. Three thousand occupation soldiers deployed in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip with orders to fire live bullets. Thousands of Palestinians marched Friday near the border between Gaza and Israel in a protest march called
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Land Haunts Germany`s Namibia Genocides |
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By :Joe Brock, Reuters |
| 07 March 2018 |
Land haunts Germany`s effort to atone for Africa genocide
OKAHANDJA, Namibia—Namibia’s Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something Berlin says it is not in a position to give.
“What we want is our land,” said 74-year-old Alex Kaubtauuapela, whose
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DR Congo: Terror in Ituri |
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By :Thijs Van Laer, Congo Research Group |
| 05 March 2018 |
Over sixty people killed, thousands of houses burned down and more than 100,000 displaced people, including 42,000 refugees in neighbouring Uganda. Those are the consequences so far of the violence in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since December 2017.
The violence marks a counterpoint to
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1st Arab Conference on Land Governance |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 28 February 2018 |
Dubai Land Department announces the conclusion of the first Arab land governance conference
The conference, organized in partnership with the World Bank, the Global Land Tool Network, UN-HABITAT, the League of Arab States and the Arab Surveying Association, was attended by more than 300 participants, representing several regional and international bodies.
Dubai
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DRC Violence Displaces Thousands of Children |
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By :VoA |
| 24 February 2018 |
Thousands of Children Displaced by Ethnic Violence in DRC’s Ituri Province. GENEVA—The U.N. children’s fund reports at least 90,000 children have been forced to flee their homes in the face of escalating inter-communal violence in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri Province. Ituri’s Djugu territory in northeastern D.R.C. has been the
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Peru: Shipibo-Konibo Forced from Forest to Slum |
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By :Jack Guy, Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ellen Wulfhorst, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 20 February 2018 |
Forced from rainforest, Peruvian tribe faces new woes in Lima slum
LIMA—Wedged between the rubbish-choked Rimac River and lanes of traffic belching fumes, the Cantagallo slum in downtown Lima is a far cry from the Amazon rainforest land that the Shipibo-Konibo people were forced to flee two decades ago.
Hundreds of
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Peru: Chaparrí Land Defender Tortured, Killed |
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By :Dan Collyns, The Guardian |
| 14 February 2018 |
José Napoleón Tarrillo Astonitas murdered for opposing land traffickers seeking to clear land in the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve, say local witnesses
A criminal gang involved in land trafficking has tortured and murdered a community leader in northern Peru, according to his wife and local villagers who witnessed the killing.
José Napoleón Tarrillo
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Pakistan: Lahore City Evicts Slum Dwellers |
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By :Zeena T. Hashmi, The Nation (Karachi) |
| 07 February 2018 |
LDA’s forced eviction of Model Town slum dwellers is shocking, but not surprising. No one with a shred of shame can imagine such a thing happening in any democracy; but this is how the Lahore Development Authority works.
For the dwellers at Sector M, Model Town Extension, there have been many
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USA: Trump`s Utah Land Grab Begins |
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By :Fred Hamble, act.tv |
| 02 February 2018 |
Trump`s ”Gold Rush” style land grab in Utah begins today
The Trump regime`s decision to withdraw federal protections from millions of acres of public land in Utah last year will kick off a Wild West-era land claim process starting on Friday.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, on Friday
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China’s OBOR Project Dispossesses, Displaces Tibetans |
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By :David Brewster, Inside Policy |
| 24 January 2018 |
China’s Belt and Road Initiative will result in important strategic consequence for the countries of South Asia, writes David Brewster. But its impact on China itself should not be ignored.
In geopolitical terms, South Asia has long functioned like an island, nominally attached to Eurasia but not really part of it.
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Canada to Monitor Its TNC Conduct Abroad |
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By :Nicole Mordant, Reuters |
| 18 January 2018 |
Canada said on Wednesday it is creating an independent watchdog to monitor and investigate claims of human rights abuses by its companies operating abroad, describing it as the first initiative of its kind in the world.
The body, which will initially target the mining, oil and gas, and garment sectors, will
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Belgium Supports UNRWA as USA Defunds |
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By :Haaretz |
| 17 January 2018 |
Belgium has stepped in to help out the UN Agency assisting Palestinian refugees with an immediate disbursement of $23 million Wednesday a day after the Trump administration suspended $65 million in aid for the international organization.
Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Wednesday that "for a lot of
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Somalia: > 5K IDP Homes Evicted, Destroyed |
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By :Xinhua and Somalia NGO Consortium |
| 11 January 2018 |
3,000 School Children Affected by Forced Evictions in Mogadishu
Somalia NGO Consortium Statement below
MOGADISHU—The UN Children`s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children said on Thursday that recent unannounced forced evictions of families and destruction of several informal settlements on the outskirts of Somali capital Mogadishu have impacted over 3,000 school
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USA: Water Security v. Energy Independence |
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By :Jennifer Veilleux, Center for Humans and Nature |
| 04 January 2018 |
In late 2016, I attended government-to-government meetings in Rapid City, South Dakota, between several Plains Tribal Government representatives and US Federal Government officials. I listened to a tribal elder testify that her young grandson was hospitalized with an E. coli infection caused by hydraulic fracturing water contamination in her community
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New UN Declaration on Peasant Rights |
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By :Shivani Chaudhry, HLRN India/Open Global Rights |
| 04 January 2018 |
A new UN declaration could finally protect rural and landless peoples. The UN has drafted a groundbreaking declaration that has the potential to protect the human rights of peasants, rural workers and landless people. There is room, however, to strengthen its provisions.
Despite their significant contributions to food security, sustainable development,
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China: Beijing House Demolitions Spark Rare Street Protests |
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By :Emily Feng and Charles Clover, Financial Times |
| 12 December 2017 |
Aggressive Chinese eviction methods fuel anger among residents forced from rented homes
Fear and cold stalk the streets of Feijia, a north-eastern suburb of Beijing that is to be largely demolished on Friday, leaving hundreds of migrant families potentially homeless in winter.
Leaflets scattered across Feijia’s main street depict photos of masked
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South Africa: Three Murders in Sisonke Village |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA |
| 21 November 2017 |
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Three people were murdered in Sisonke Village, in Lamontville, on Sunday, including our chairperson in the area Sibonela Mpeku.
Our members gave Sisonke Village its new name on 13 July 2014 and our branch was launched there on 9 November 2014. During that year we issued statements noting
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Myanmar: At Least 800K Rohingya Flee |
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By :Reuters |
| 17 November 2017 |
The following article series follows the Rohingya flight as it has grown since August 2017. According to UN OCHA, As of 4 October 2017, Bangladesh hosts more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees, and this number continues to increase daily. Before this crisis began, the country was already hosting a verified population
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Out of Africa: Human Rights Habitat Struggles |
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By :Marie Huchzermeyer, CUBES/Wits Univ. and Joseph Schechla, HLRN |
| 07 November 2017 |
From Africa to the World: Struggling for Human Rights to Housing, Land and the City
Mid-October 2017, Nairobi was host to an intense engagement on housing rights, social justice and the right to the city. This was amid political turmoil in Kenyan towns and cities, and unrelated to this but largely
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Kenya: AG Enjoined in Samburu Eviction Case |
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By :Joseph Wangui, The Nation |
| 01 November 2017 |
Githu Muigai enjoined in Samburu eviction case
Attorney-General Githu Muigai has been enjoined in a case in which retired President Daniel Moi was sued by the Samburu community for transferring 17,105 acres (69,217,493.44 square meters) of their land in Laikipia North to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
The Environment and Land Court
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USA: GOP Enables Arctic Drilling |
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By :Alex Seitz-Wald, NBC News |
| 18 October 2017 |
GOP lawmakers open door to arctic drilling
WASHINGTON—Tucked into the budget bill the Senate is likely to pass this week is a provision that could quietly open the door to drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — a controversial issue that has been the subject of fierce debate in
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Turkey: Environmentalists Murdered |
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By :Jonathan Watts. The Guardian |
| 18 October 2017 |
`The threats continue’: murder of retired couple chills fellow activists in Turkey. The killing of two activists who successfully campaigned to shut down a mine has shocked environmentalists in Turkey who fear their deaths will embolden others to kill to protect their profits.
Cedar branches whisper in the Anatolian breeze. Twigs
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EPA: Puerto Ricans Resorts to Toxic Water |
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By :MSN News |
| 15 October 2017 |
EPA says Puerto Rico residents resorted to contaminated water at Dorado Superfund site
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South Africa: Residents Challenge Eviction |
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By :Mohammed Jameel Abdulla, The Daily Vox |
| 14 October 2017 |
Residents of Fattis Mansions on the corner of Jeppe and Harrison Street in the Johannesburg CBD were forcefully evicted by close to 200 Red Ants on Wednesday. The eviction, which affected dozens of people, started at 7am and proceeded well into the afternoon. Residents’ belongings were pulled from the building
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South Africa: Repression in Durban |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA |
| 04 October 2017 |
Cato Manor residents say eThekwini Municipality carried out brutal and illegal evictions
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA. Press Statement
The Movement of Abahlali baseMjondolo continues to face serious and unlawful repression by the ANC led municipality in Durban. Right now, the community in Cato Manor right now are trying to collect all the
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Peru: Six Land Defenders Shot Dead |
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By :Dan Collyns, The Guardian |
| 07 September 2017 |
The victims were targeted by a criminal gang who wanted to use their lands to grow lucrative palm oil, according to local indigenous leaders
Six farmers have been shot dead by a criminal gang who wanted to seize their farms to muscle in on the lucrative palm oil trade, according
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The Cost of Land Grabbing in Mozambique |
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By :Burag Gurden, Pambazuka News |
| 31 August 2017 |
The cost of land grabbing in Mozambique`s Tete Province
Tete Province is very rich in coal. An estimated 23 billion tons of mostly untapped coal lies beneath Tete. It is expected to become the region’s energy powerhouse built on coal and hydroelectricity. However, local farmer communities have been on the losing
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Tanzania: Forced Evictions of Loliondo Maasai |
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By :Chris Lang, Conservation Watch |
| 30 August 2017 |
“Forced evictions of Maasai people in Loliondo, Tanzania”: Urgent Alert from the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
The International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) last week put out a short report about the violent evictions of Maasai pastoralists in Loliondo, Tanzania.
According to reliable information received by IWGIA, forced and
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Houston Drowning—in Its Freedom from Regulations |
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By :Steve Russell, Newsweek |
| 28 August 2017 |
We do value our freedom here in Texas. As I write from soggy Central Texas, the cable news is showing people floating down Buffalo Bayou on their principles, proud residents of the largest city in these United States that did not grow in accordance with zoning ordinances.
The feeling there was
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UN Reports on Rakhine Living Conditions |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 23 August 2017 |
After one year of consultations held across Rakhine State (Myanmar) and in other parts of the country and the region, the UN’s Advisory Commission on Rakhine State submitted its final report to national authorities on 23 August.
The Commission, chaired by Kofi Annan, has put forward recommendations to surmount the
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Trump War to Extract Afghanistan Minerals |
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By :Michael Hughes, The Global Post |
| 09 August 2017 |
Trump Strategy to Exploit Afghan Deposits Rests on Faulty Foundation
President Donald J. Trump has reportedly been at odds with his military chiefs over the way forward in Afghanistan because he is reluctant to waste more money on a war that the United States risks “not winning.”
Mr. Trump has, in fact,
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Nicaragua: Future Canal Threatens Mass Eviction |
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By :Amnesty International |
| 03 August 2017 |
Nicaragua: Country’s future for sale as canal threatens thousands with forced eviction
The Nicaraguan government must stop placing business before the future of the country and its people, Amnesty International said in a new report today looking at a secretive deal that will lead to the construction of a canal
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Global Peasant Movement Convene at Bilbao |
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By :Huffington Post |
| 28 July 2017 |
Global Peasant Movement Assesses and Responds to a Heated Political Moment
Four years ago, La Vía Campesina brought its peasant activists from around the world to Jakarta for its VI International Conference. The gathering was held in a padepokan, a Javanese center reserved for the teaching and exchanging of knowledge and
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USA: EPA Dumps, Drops Duties |
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By :The Indigenous Americans |
| 15 July 2017 |
EPA Refuses to pay claims after mine spill dumps 3,000,000 gallons of toxic waste into water on Native American land
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has refused to pay more than $1.2 billion in claims filed against it in response to the Gold King Mine spill, reported the Farmington Daily Times.
The EPA says the
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Myanmar’ Karen Protest Harmful Thai Coal Mine |
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By :Inclusive Development |
| 19 June 2017 |
Karen communities in Myanmar to Thai Rights Commission: Stop harmful coal mine
Representatives of indigenous Karen communities in Myanmar this week filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand alleging human rights violations resulting from the activities of Thai companies operating an open-pit coal mine. The Ban
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Nigeria: Forced Evictions in Badia-East (Lagos) |
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By :Spaces for Youth Development and Social Change |
| 15 June 2017 |
Spaces for Change NGO Staff Arrested, Released
LAGOS—A Task Force squad comprising demolition agents of the Lagos State Government and scores of heavily-armed security operatives invaded Badia-East this morning, Thursday, June 15, 2017. With the aid of bulldozers, sledge hammers, iron bars, and earth-moving equipment, they levelled all the structures in
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England: Race, Class and Grenfell Tower Fire |
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By :Skylar Baker-Jordan, HuffPost |
| 15 June 2017 |
The flames hadn’t even been extinguished from Grenfell Tower before people started screaming that no one should “politicise” this tragedy. As I type this, though, at least 12 people are dead, and authorities expect that number to drastically climb. Most of those who perished, or who lost everything in the
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China Evicts More Tibetan Nomads for “Development” |
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By :RFA |
| 15 June 2017 |
Tibetan nomads forced from resettlement towns to make way for development
Tibetan nomads previously forced from traditional grazing lands in a state-directed resettlement scheme in Qinghai are now being told to go back, as authorities begin to target their current homes for development as tourist centers and housing for government employees,
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Breaking Bad: Saskatchewan’s Prairie Loss |
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By :Trevor Herriott |
| 14 June 2017 |
“Grassland being broken in substantial acreages is just not an issue.”
—Hon. Lyle Stewart, Minister of Saskatchewan Agriculture, Western Producer, 26 September 2013
According to Stats Canada (Table 004-0203 - Census of Agriculture, land use, every 5 years), Saskatchewan lost 2,068,246 acres of “natural land for pasture” in the
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India: Landless Women Attacked in Odisha |
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By :Ranjana Padhi, The Wire |
| 02 May 2017 |
The powers that be in Sipasarubali, Odisha work to take over forest land to build a beach resort, villagers who are trying to fight them are under attack.
Puri, Odisha: On April 28, a friend and I went to Gola and Gopinathpur villages in Odisha to meet activists who, in the early 1990s, had
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Land Haunts Germany`s Namibia Genocides |
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By :Joe Brock, Reuters |
| 02 March 2017 |
Land haunts Germany`s effort to atone for Africa genocide
OKAHANDJA, Namibia—Namibia’s Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something Berlin says it is not in a position to give.
“What we want is our land,” said 74-year-old Alex Kaubtauuapela, whose
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Bali Meeting Tackles Oceans’ Plastic Pollution |
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By :Al Jazeera |
| 26 February 2017 |
UNEP and Indonesia launch campaign to solve global issue of massive amounts of plastic ending up in oceans.
NUSA DUA, Bali, Indonesia—The sun is peeking from over the horizon, greeting early morning beach-dwellers to the sounds of crashing waves, the feel of tropical humidity and the sight of an entire beach
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Cambodia: Land Grabs, Defender Jailed |
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By :Prak Chan Thul and Alisa Tang, The Japan Times |
| 25 February 2017 |
Amid land grabs and evictions, Cambodia jails leading activist
PHNOM PENH—Even before a Cambodian judge sentenced land rights activist Tep Vanny to prison, her fellow campaigners said her fate had already been sealed.
Vanny, who fought the evictions of thousands of residents from lakeside land in Phnom Penh to make way for
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South Africa: Vengeful Burning of Migrant Homes |
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By :Lynsey Chutel, QZ.com |
| 21 February 2017 |
African migrants in South Africa are in fear for their lives—again
Once again, there are signs of growing xenophobia in South Africa. Despite the lives lost in previous waves of violence, the country has still not learned this painful lesson.
It’s a familiar escalating narrative: vigilante groups accuse foreign migrants of local
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Pennsylvania: 1st Fracking-related Earthquakes |
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By :Reid Frazier, The Allegheny Front |
| 18 February 2017 |
Pennsylvania officials say they’ve confirmed the state’s first fracking-related earthquakes took place last year in Lawrence County, northwest of Pittsburgh. As a result, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is stepping up its requirements for drilling in that part of the state, which is known for seismic activity.
In April 2016,
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Palestine UNSR Urges SC to End Colonies |
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By :OHCHR |
| 03 February 2017 |
West Bank: United Nations Special Rapporteur urges the security council to stop illegal settlements
GENEVA—United Nations Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk has called on the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly to explore effective diplomatic and political measures to ensure Israeli compliance with Security Council resolution 2334, which
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EU’s Biggest Pension Funds Invest Big in Colonies |
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By :Mikkel Bahl, Hanan Chemlali & Kristoffer Marslev, Danwatch |
| 31 January 2017 |
Europe’s largest pension funds heavily invested in illegal Israeli settler colonies.
Europe’s five largest pension funds have €7.5 billion invested in companies with business activities in and around illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. This is at odds with United Nations guidelines, clear warnings from 18 European countries, and undermines
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Colombia: Seeking Justice from Chiquita Banana Wars |
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By :Matt Kennard and Nick MacWilliam, In These Times |
| 27 January 2017 |
Chiquita made a killing from Colombia’s civil war. Will their victims finally see justice? A long-running case against the banana giant is moving forward in U.S. court.
Getting an interview with Anabel (not her real name) is not easy. In Colombia, witnessing paramilitary violence against your family generally means you keep
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World Bank’s Agriculture Initiative Criticized |
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By :Brettonwoods Project |
| 18 January 2017 |
Civil society has called on the World Bank to terminate its Enabling the Business of Agriculture initiative.
In mid-January, 157 organisations and individuals sent a letter to World Bank president Jim Yong Kim calling for the termination of the Bank’s Enabling the Business of Agriculture initiative (EBA, see Bulletin May 2014,
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USA: Trump Calls for More Drilling, Taps Protest |
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By :Annie Knox and Kim Palmer, Reuters |
| 15 January 2017 |
US President-elect Donald Trump taps a well of protest with his calls for more oil and gas drilling in the country`s national parks
President-elect Donald Trump aims to open up federal lands to more energy development, tapping into a long-running and contentious debate over how best to manage America’s remaining wilderness.
The
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Sri Lanka: Clashes over Land in China Port Deal |
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By :abc.net.au |
| 07 January 2017 |
Sri Lankan police used water cannons to try to break up violent clashes between government supporters and villagers marching against what they say is a plan to take over private land for an industrial zone in which China will have a major stake.
Key points:
Clash takes place as Prime Minister attends
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Namibians Sue Germany for Land Grab, Genocide |
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By :Al Jazeera |
| 06 January 2017 |
The Ovaherero and Nama people of Namibia launch lawsuit against Germany for alleged land theft and killing of 100,000 people more than 100 years ago.
Two indigenous groups in Namibia have filed a lawsuit against Germany, accusing it of genocide committed by colonial rulers more than a century ago.
The suit was filed
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Brazil: Eucalyptus War on Quilombo Lands |
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By :Luisa Torre and Patrik Camporez Macao, Al Jazeera |
| 05 January 2017 |
Brazil`s quilombos face eucalyptus giant in land war. "They stole our forests and our water. We took our medicine from the forest. Now, they put police and dogs at our door."
ESPIRITO SANTO, Brazil—In Sape do Norte, in the far north of Espirito Santo, Brazil, 32 communities refer to the 111,000 hectares
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UNSC Votes to End Israeli Settler Colonies |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 24 December 2016 |
It was the first time in eight years that the UN Security Council had passed a resolution condemning Israel’s illegal construction of settler colonies in occupied Palestine. The vote came on Friday, following an unprecedented intervention of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that had U.S. President-elect Donald Trump "advising" Egyptian
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India: Over 33K Homes Demolished in 2015–16 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 22 December 2016 |
Over 33,000 homes demolished in urban India between 2015 and 2016
New Delhi—Data collected by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) reveals that public authorities in India, in both the central and state spheres of government, forcibly have evicted at least 33,257 families across urban centers between January 2015 and December
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Canada, U.S. Ban Arctic Drilling, Bind Trump |
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By :Andrew Beatty, AFP |
| 21 December 2016 |
President Obama announced on Tuesday what he called a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along wide areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic Seaboard as he tried to nail down an environmental legacy that cannot quickly be reversed by Donald J. Trump.
The Obama Administration had given conditional
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ECJ Rejects Morocco`s Western Sahara Claim |
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By :Dominic Dudley, Forbes |
| 21 December 2016 |
European Court of Justice dismisses Morocco`s claim to Western Sahara, throwing EU trade deal into doubt. The ruling on the bloc`s trade deals with Morocco means they do not apply to Western Sahara, which occupied territory is notable for its fish stocks, mineral extraction, agricultural exports and potential oil reserves.
Morocco’s
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Myanmar: AI Reports “crimes against humanity” |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 19 December 2016 |
A new report by Amnesty International (AI) documents a campaign of violence by the Myanmar security forces against Rohingya since 9 October 2016. Soldiers and police have randomly fired on and killed civilians, raped women and girls, torched whole villages and arbitrarily arrested Rohingya men without any information about their
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Mexico: Ranchers, Indigenous Contest Land |
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By :Tracy Barnett, Thomas Reuters Foundation |
| 19 December 2016 |
Both sides say the government is responsible for the dispute in Mexico`s Sierra Madre mountain range - but the government won`t get involved
LA YESCA, Mexico—Audelina Villagrana has run her ranch in Mexico`s Western Sierra Madre Mountains on her own since the death of her husband 23 years ago, herding livestock,
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World Bank: Gaza Water Crisis, Irreversible Damage |
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By :Amira Haas, Haaretz |
| 18 December 2016 |
The World Bank acknowledges there is a water crisis in the Gaza Strip, but it blames overpumping—not the Israeli occupation. For information of Israel’s preemptive pumping of Gaza’s aquifer, see Sustainable Management of the West Bank and Gaza Strip Aquifers (SUSMAQ) report المياه العابرة للحدود (2004) and map Land Times/أحوال
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Following the Money: Justice for Land Grabs |
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By :Natalie Bugalski and David Pred, Inclusive Development |
| 16 December 2016 |
Following the Money: Illuminating the path to justice for global land grabs
This year, our organization, Inclusive Development International, launched the Follow the Money initiative – a new tool to fight land grabs and other corporate abuses. It’s a simple idea, but we believe it has the potential to be
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Land Rights Defender Killings Tripled in 2016 |
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By :PANAP |
| 10 December 2016 |
2015 had been the worst year on record for killings of land and environmental defenders who are struggling to protect land, forests and rivers from privately interested takers. But, in 2016, roughly 16 land rights advocates have been killed each month from January through November.
PENANG, Malaysia—Advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific
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USA: Gullah Geechee Still Fighting for Their Land |
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By :Brian Wheeler, BBC News |
| 05 December 2016 |
The Gullah Geechee community, descendants of West African slaves in South Carolina are fighting to prevent their land from being confiscated and auctioned. Can they save a traditional way of life that has survived for the one and half centuries since emancipation?
The first Lillian Milton knew about it was when
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EU Aid Rewards Western Sahara Occupation |
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By :WSRW |
| 24 November 2016 |
For the second year in a row, the Moroccan government has spent most of the EU`s fish sector support on the development of the fishing industry in occupied Western Sahara. And the EU was fully aware of it.
Under the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement, entered into force in July 2014, Morocco
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Resisting Reed: Atlanta’s Peoplestown v. Mayor |
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By :Atlanta Progressive News |
| 24 November 2016 |
This Thanksgiving Day, Mayor Kasim Reed is thankful for eminent domain. Meanwhile, Peoplestown residents fight back.
ATLANTA—On Monday, November 21, 2016, the Housing Justice League, along with twenty residents from Atlanta’s Peoplestown community, tried to hand deliver a petition with over 6,000 signatures to Mayor Kasim Reed, asking him to stop
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Nigerian King Sues Shell in London |
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By :Alice Ritchie, Phys.org |
| 22 November 2016 |
Nigerian tribal king Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi has flown to London for a High Court hearing in which lawyers for more than 40,000 Nigerians are demanding action from Shell to clean up oil spills
King Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi holds up a plastic bottle containing contaminated water from his community
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Nigeria: UNSR Addresses “Brutal” Eviction of 30K |
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By :OHCHR |
| 17 November 2016 |
GENEVA—A United Nations human rights expert has asked the Government of Nigeria for an urgent explanation of the forced eviction of 30,000 people in Lagos State in the last week. Four people are reported to have died in the latest operation to clear irregular developments along the State’s
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Indigenous Rights Key to Saving Forests |
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By :Jonathan Watts, The Guardian |
| 02 November 2016 |
Indigenous rights are key to preserving forests, climate change study finds. Leaving forests in communal hands cuts carbon emissions from deforestation, helps communities and offers long-term economic benefits: “Everyone wins.”
RIO DE JANEIRO—The world’s indigenous communities need to be given a bigger role in climate stabilisation, according to a new study
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Our Precious Urban Lives |
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By :Lisa Pryor, The New York Times |
| 29 October 2016 |
SYDNEY, Australia—Down the hill from my house, there is an old building with a saw-toothed roof that once warehoused trams, back when the bay was heavy with industrial waste and working-class people could afford to buy a home this close to the city and harbor of Sydney.
Now that building has
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Alternative Forums outside of Habitat III |
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By :Gregory Scruggs, Citiscope |
| 14 October 2016 |
Even as governments adopt the New Urban Agenda next week, multiple groups plan protests and contrary discussions.
A large crowd gathers at the Urban Social Forum in Rio de Janeiro, which took place as an alternative to the World Urban Forum in March 2010. More such events are expected at next
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UN: E. Aleppo `Totally Destroyed` by 2017 |
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By :Julia Zorthian, Time |
| 06 October 2016 |
Staffan de Mistura said Thursday that the thousands of civilians trapped could die
The United Nations envoy to Syria warned Thursday that rebel-held eastern Aleppo could undergo “total” destruction by the end of the year.
Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, told reporters that thousands of lives could be lost,
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Nigeria: When They Bulldozed, She Fought Back |
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By :Betty Abah and Elaine Zuckerman, Ms. magazine |
| 03 October 2016 |
Bimbo, 57 and a mother of four, grew up in Makoko, Lagos Nigeria’s largest slum, married, and established a thriving soft drink business in boisterous Badia East, another Lagos slum. Her life was upturned when the World Bank-financed Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project bulldozed Badia East in 2013 without notice.
The “urban
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Colombia: Land Conflict to Civil War to Peace? |
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By :VoA and others |
| 24 September 2016 |
Land conflicts feared in wake of Colombia peace accord
BOGOTÁ—Conflicts over land in Colombia are likely to increase following a peace deal to end half a century of war as once no-go areas in the Andean country open up for business and development projects, land rights experts said.
The government and rebel
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ICC to Pursue Land Grabs as Series Crimes |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 15 September 2016 |
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has declared that it would start treating cases involving the illegal exploitation of natural resources, misuse and illegal dispossession of lands and environmental destruction as serious crimes.
The Hague-based Court made the announcement in a policy document released today by the ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
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Kenya: Courts Stops Kibera Nubian Eviction |
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By :KBC Reporters |
| 31 August 2016 |
The High Court has temporarily barred Kenya Urban Roads Authority from evicting members of the Nubian community from their homes in Kibra constituency in Nairobi in order to pave way for construction of the Southern Bypass.
The community who are complainants in the case say the respondents did not follow
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Boston USA: Campaigning to Save Public Housing |
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By :NAHT |
| 22 August 2016 |
Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants (MAHT) spearheads campaign for City Vouchers to save our homes!
In response to Boston’s growing housing and homelessness crisis, MAHT is spearheading a broad coalition of housing and community groups to propose a city-funded voucher program. The program would provide “Housing First” for people experiencing homelessness in
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World Bank Policies Imperil Land Defenders |
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By :Cyril Mychalejko, teleSUR |
| 04 August 2016 |
Just 5 months since the murder of Honduran environmental defender Berta Caceres, the Bank is passing new safeguards that do more harm than good.
The World Bank is expected to approve Thursday its new “Environmental and Social Framework” which civil society groups say weakens human rights protections and will likely endanger the very communities the safeguards are intended to protect.
At issue
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HIC Addresses Habitat III PrepCom3 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 27 July 2016 |
The “New Urban Agenda,” from its inception, is inconsistent with historic agreements, today’s global priorities and the “world we need.” Particular interests have narrowed the Habitat Agenda to urban priorities, subordinated rural areas and ignored issues of forced migration, presuming that urbanization is “inevitable” and beyond human will or policy
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China: Profiting from Confiscated Tibetan Lands |
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By :Radio Free Asia |
| 11 July 2016 |
In the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China is confiscating lands at a low price and then reselling at a profit to Chinese developers. Newly built apartments in these lands are then sold back at high prices to the Tibetans from whom the land was first taken. The
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India Mine Displaced 400 Adivasi Families |
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By :Elizabeth Puranam, Al Jazeera |
| 07 July 2016 |
The mine that displaced India`s indigenous people. About 400 Adivasi families once lived near the Chaal coal mine, but blasting and water contamination forced them to leave
The earth-shattering sound of dynamite welcomed us to the small village of Lath, which sits on the edge of an open-cast coal mine.
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MEQ Issues New Report, Maintains Old Inertia |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 01 July 2016 |
In line with their decision announced in Munich on 12 February 2016 and underlining their commitment to support a comprehensive, just, and lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the representatives of the Middle East Quartet (MEQ) has issued its 2016 report today. The report issued by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
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HIC Responds to Habitat III’s Revised Zero Draft |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 28 June 2016 |
The following are Habitat International Coalition`s comments on the revised zero draft of the Habitat III outcome documents, submitted to the Habitat III Secretariat on 28 June 2016:
Habitat International Coalition was born out of, and—for two generations now—has faithfully upheld the Habitat Agenda as a cornerstone of its global platform.
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USA: Fed Killed 3.2 mil Animals in 2015 |
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By :Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity |
| 24 June 2016 |
Ignoring calls for reform, Wildlife Services kills half-million more coyotes, bears, wolves, foxes, other animals than previous year
The highly secretive arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture known as Wildlife Services killed more than 3.2 million animals during fiscal year 2015, according to new data released by the agency. The
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Israel: Water as a Tool to Dominate Palestinians |
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By :Camilla Corradin, Al Jazeera |
| 20 June 2016 |
Israel deliberately denies Palestinians control over their water sources and sets the ground for water domination.
Occupied West Bank—As temperatures rise and summer months approach, yet again this year, thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are being deprived of their most basic need - access to water - as
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Brazil: Fundão Dam Devastation |
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By :Ingrid Fadnes, Al Jazeera |
| 14 June 2016 |
MARIANA, Brazil—On November 5, 2015, the Fundao dam burst in the inland municipality of Mariana in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The Brazilian mining company Samarco, owned by two of the world`s biggest mining corporations, Vale SA and BHP Billiton, operated the dam.
Tcharly do Barmo Batista, a 23-year-old father,
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Zimbabwe Diamond-displaced Villagers Seek Help |
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By :Reuters |
| 13 June 2016 |
Zimbabwe Villagers Displaced by Diamond Mining Seek Government Help. More than 1,000 families were moved from their village in 2009.
MUTARE, Zimbabwe—Villagers relocated to a sprawling government-owned farm complex in eastern Zimbabwe to make way for the nation’s biggest diamond field are hoping that President Robert Mugabe’s move to take control
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Brazil: Guarani & Kaiowá Face Forced Eviction |
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By :FIAN International |
| 12 June 2016 |
With no access to their legitimate territory, the members of the Guarani and Kaiowá Apyka`i community will be prevented from exercising their fundamental rights as indigenous peoples, including feeding themselves adequately.
Despite intensive and coordinated international action, the sentence by the 1st Federal Court of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul has followed
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“Luminous Fog” Makes Milky Way Disappear |
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By :Nicola Davis, The Guardian |
| 11 June 2016 |
It has inspired astronomers, artists, musicians and poets but the Milky Way could become a distant memory for much of humanity, according to a new global atlas of light pollution.
The study found 60% of those living in the EU and almost 80% of North Americans cannot see the glow of
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Food Experts: “Adopt Agroecology, or Fail” |
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By :IPES-Food |
| 02 June 2016 |
BRUSSLES/TRONDHEIM—Input-intensive crop monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots must be consigned to the past in order to put global food systems onto sustainable footing, according to the world’s foremost experts on food security, agro-ecosystems and nutrition.
The solution is to diversify agriculture and reorient it around ecological practices, whether the starting point is
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Kenya: Bldgs. Demolished, 100s Homeless |
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By :AP |
| 06 May 2016 |
Nairobi—As emergency workers retrieved four bodies from a building that collapsed a week ago, bringing the death toll to 41, hundreds of Nairobi residents were evicted on Friday from nearby buildings that are being torn down to prevent other deadly disasters.
The demolitions began even as the rescuers continued digging the
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Counting Costs in Congo |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 01 May 2016 |
This week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), thirty community leaders and field researchers from the villages of the Inga Valley met to consider their fate in view of the planned Inga3 project that proposes to inundate their communities. Organized locally by Association Droit et Developpement (ADEV) the communities’
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"Right to the City" Movement Goes Global |
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By :Francesca Perry, The Guardian |
| 19 April 2016 |
Right to the city: can this growing social movement win over city officials?
From the Taksim Square and Nuit Debout protests to bank takeovers in Barcelona and women’s workshops in Delhi, the pressure for more inclusive cities is mounting. As the UN gears up for Habitat III, will governments listen?
On
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4 Tibetan Land Defenders Get Suspended Sentence |
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By :Tibetan Center for Rights and Democracy |
| 14 April 2016 |
Four Tibetan men have been given suspended jail sentences for petitioning against government confiscation of their land in Ka Bharma nomadic camp in Thangkor (Ch: Tangke) Township in Dzoege (Ch: Ruoergai) County, Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The four Tibetans are identified as Phurkho, Rinchen
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World Bank Accountability @ Spring Meetings |
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By :Oakland Institute |
| 12 April 2016 |
World Bank Accountability on Forced Resettlements Must be a Priority at Its Spring Meetings
Oakland, CA—World Bank accountability on forced resettlements resulting from its programs must be front and center at its spring meetings, taking place this week in Washington DC.
Between 2004 and 2013, nearly 3.4 million people were physically or economically
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Israeli Plunder of Palestinian Homes “Concerns” U.S. |
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By :David Alexander, Reuters |
| 02 April 2016 |
Crackdown on what Israel claims is illegal construction has already pitied Jerusalem against the EU, who funds some of the structures.
JERUSALEM—The United States is "concerned" about Israel`s demolition of Arab buildings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a State Department spokeswoman said on Friday, adding that it raised questions
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Struggle in the City for Tibetan Nomads |
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By :Benjamin Haas, AFP |
| 23 March 2016 |
ABA (OCCUPIED TIBET)—By mid-morning, Lobsang’s leather cowboy hat is askew, his black robes dishevelled, and his breath stinks of booze. Once a nomad herder roaming the high Tibetan plateau, instead he stumbles around his sparse new concrete house.
For decades he and his wife grazed yaks and sheep, living a life
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Post-trauma: From Syria to Nepal |
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By :Kai Weise, The Himalayan Times |
| 12 March 2016 |
Rehabilitation after a natural disaster consists of motivating the community to overcome destruction and reestablish their cultural environment and activities.
A colloquium was recently held at the ICOMOS Secretariat in Paris on post trauma reconstruction. The focus was on dealing with the heritage that is being destroyed due to armed conflicts
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HLRN-India Launches Habitat III Status Report |
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By :HLRN-India |
| 05 February 2016 |
New Delhi—On Friday, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) launched its first Habitat III country report titled, Housing and Land Rights in India: Status Report for Habitat III. The United Nations (UN) Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III)—the third bidecennial international conference on habitat issues—will be held
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USA: Ten Facts about Flint |
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By :Michael Moore, MichaelMoore |
| 30 January 2016 |
On his site, U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore writes a public letter "10 Things They Won’t Tell You About the Flint Water Tragedy. But I Will." Read his letter below and follow the link to sign and share the accompanying petition.
FLINT MI—News of the poisoned water crisis in Flint has reached
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USA: Obama OKs Atlantic & Arctic Drilling |
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By :Oceana |
| 27 January 2016 |
The Obama Administration Announces Plans to Open Atlantic & Arctic to Offshore Drilling
Washington DC—Today, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released its draft five-year program for oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf. The plan, which covers all potential leasing from 2017 to 2022, includes parts of the
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DRC: Why Rush Inga3 Dam? |
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By :Ange Asanzi, International Rivers |
| 26 January 2016 |
The proposed Inga 3 Dam project has been at the epicenter of all energy discussions pertaining to Africa in the past three years. Speculation and rumors abound, and secrecy has surrounded the project’s status. Then, late last year, the government of the DRC announced that the Inga 3 project is
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OXFAM to Davos Millionaires: “Even it up” |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 21 January 2016 |
In a world where the richest 62 people are as wealthy as half of world`s population, Oxfam tells global economy leaders at the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, Switzerland to correct their greedy behavior.
Oxfam’s new report, “Even It up: Time to End Extreme Inequality,” advises that only higher wages,
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UNCERD: Holy See Liable to Indigenous Peoples |
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By :Apache-Nde-Nnee Working Group |
| 15 January 2016 |
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has declared the Holy See legally responsible and accountable to Indigenous Peoples for effects and the legacy of racist, colonial Papal Bulls and Doctrines.
Geneva—As the result of a comprehensive parallel report and presentations by members of the Apache-Nde-Nnee Working
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UN Chief: “Syria Starvation=War Crime” |
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By :Somini Sengupta and Nick Cumming-Brucej, The New York Times |
| 14 January 2016 |
UNITED NATIONS—The head of the United Nations said on Thursday that the warring parties in Syria were committing war crimes by withholding food from civilians. He called for all sides to lift their sieges immediately and unconditionally “as a confidence-building gesture” ahead of peace talks scheduled for Jan. 25.
Meanwhile, aid
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Ethiopia`s Development Crackdown on Dissent |
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By :Charles Stratford, Al Jazeera |
| 10 January 2016 |
Rights groups say 140 people killed in recent weeks as government moves forward with controversial development plans.
Wolonkomi, Ethiopia—Security forces have killed at least 140 people during a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Ethiopia in recent weeks, activists and rights groups say.
The protests by members of the country`s largest ethnic group,
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Tibet: Climate Change Challenges China Policies |
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By :ICT |
| 10 December 2015 |
As the world’s leaders meet in Paris this week for critical climate change talks, new findings by the International Campaign for Tibet reveal that Tibet’s fragile environment, which is warming faster than anywhere else, is of critical global importance. But almost unnoticed by the rest of the world, China’s policies
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COP21: Land & Water Convergence Speaks |
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By :Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles |
| 08 December 2015 |
Parallel to the climate conference in Paris, social movements and allies within the “Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles” stand up for climate justice and real solutions to the climate crisis. This alliance of struggles has delivered its message to the COP21 currently meeting at Paris. Their statement follows.
The
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HIC Takes on COP21 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 05 December 2015 |
HIC is participating in the current Conference of Parties, also known as COP21, which is gathering the 195 countries that have joined and ratified the UN Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) following the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. In an effort address climate change, the states and organizations convened are
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Nigeria: UNSR Urges Halt to Eviction Trend |
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By :OHCHR |
| 23 November 2015 |
GENEVA—The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, today urged the Nigerian Government to put an immediate end to the ongoing trend of evictions in the country. The human rights expert raised concerns with the government about the large-scale demolitions and evictions carried out
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Philippines: 2 Yrs. after Haiyan, Still Waiting |
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By :Astrid Zweynert, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 08 November 2015 |
Nearly 2 Years After Typhoon Haiyan, Many Still Waiting for Rehousing in Safer Areas. Experts are calling for a closer monitoring system of how aid funds are being spent.
TACLOBAN, Philippines—Arsenjo Francisco has lived near the sea all his life, but the retired Filipino fisherman lost his love of the ocean
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Pope Francis: “Rights to housing, land and city” |
| 25 September 2015 |
In his public appearance in New York City this week, Pope Francis delivered a spiritual message, but also addressed a bundle of corresponding human rights. Not least of these were the “three Ls”: lodging, land and labor. He also contextualized these essential elements of human dignity and human rights with
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Right to the City and Yerevan’s Construction “Doom” |
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By :Garin Boghossian, Armenia Weekly |
| 16 September 2015 |
The growth path of urbanization under capitalism is devouring the city of Yerevan. Luxurious high-rise hotels and residential towers, serving tourists and seasonal dwellers, are replacing Soviet social housing blocks that once lodged the ordinary Yerevantsis. The house where the president of the First Republic, Aram Manougian, lived and died—now
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Developing Nations Outdo Big Powers in Climate Pledges |
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By :Renee Lewis, Al Jazeera |
| 10 September 2015 |
Scientists find poorer nations more ambitious in plans to reduce global warming emissions ahead of UN summit
Developed countries “ought to be embarrassed” by less-wealthy nations’ pledges to fight global warming by changing agriculture, forestry and other land use practices, as the developing countries’ promises go much further and are more
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Sami People’s Land Rights at Stake |
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By :OHCHR |
| 28 August 2015 |
Land and resource rights are key to Sami people’s self-determination, United Nations rights expert says HEMAVAN / GENEVA—The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, today expressed concern at the land rights situation of the Sami people in Finland, Norway and Sweden, given the increased drive
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Veolia Jumps Jerusalem Rail |
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By :Who Profits |
| 27 August 2015 |
Veolia sells its shares in the Jerusalem light rail and completes withdrawal from the Israeli market.
More than a decade after winning the tender for the construction and operation of the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR), Veolia Environnement’s subsidiary, Transdev, has sold all of its holdings in the JLR to a group
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HIC Reviews Habitat III Issue Papers |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 31 July 2015 |
Habitat International Coalition has just issued its compilation of inputs from Members and officers following their review of the Habitat III Issue Papers. The 22 thematic contributions from technical experts selected by the UN-Habitat/Habitat III Secretariat have been drafted as a framework for the debate leading up to the Third
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World Bank Group’s Compliance & Land |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 30 June 2015 |
Private sector investment affecting land in developing countries often leads to disputes between companies and local communities over land rights and land use. Since 1999, the private-sector arms of the World Bank Group (WBG)—the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)—have had an accountability mechanism to
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Cambodia: CSOs Charge Boeung Kak Abuses |
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By :ESCR-Net |
| 01 June 2015 |
New York—The International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) sent a letter to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia to express serious concern over the conditions faced by thousands of families who live, or lived prior to their eviction, near Boeung Kak Lake.
“The forcible evictions that
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Libya: NATO Targeted Water Infrastructure |
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By :Nafeez Ahmed, Ecologist |
| 14 May 2015 |
The military targeting of civilian infrastructure, especially of water supplies, is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, writes Nafeez Ahmed. Yet this is precisely what NATO did in Libya, while blaming the damage on Gaddafi himself. Since then, the country`s water infrastructure - and the suffering of its people
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Do RAI Principles Meet the Task? |
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By :Sylvia Kay, rightingfinance |
| 06 May 2015 |
On 15 October 2014, the Member States of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), hosted at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, approved the “Principles on Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems.” (“RAI” or “RAI Principles”)
In a recent assessment of the principles, the Transnational Institute (TNI) exposes
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Saudi Arabia Bulldozes Its Heritage |
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By :Carla Power, Time |
| 14 November 2014 |
For centuries, the Kaaba, the black cube in the center of Mecca, Saudi Arabia that is Islam`s holiest point, has been encircled by arched porticos erected some three centuries ago by the Ottomans, above dozens of carved marble columns dating back to the 8th Century. But earlier this month, any
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The Right to the City: Jerusalem |
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By :Joseph Schechla |
| 26 October 2014 |
HIC-HLRN has produced a new report from an ongoing study on the prospects of realizing the principles of the “right to the city” for specific cities in several regions.
This report finds that applying the "right to the city" in Jerusalem challenges the current governance grounded in discrimination against, and dispossession of
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Twiga Farm: Story of a Kenyan Land Grab |
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By :Leila van Rinsum, Pambazuka News |
| 08 October 2014 |
Landless citizens of a location just outside Nairobi have been fighting for their rights to land since Kenya’s independence 50 years ago. Successive governments – including those of two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and his son Uhuru, who come from the area – have failed to give these people justice.
On Tuesday,
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Palestine, Tibet Reps Draft Peace Charter |
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By :Tibet Office (Paris) |
| 19 August 2005 |
Paris—Lourdes, one of the world’s most prominent Christian pilgrimage sites, hosted the Peace Day on 14 August. In tow with UNESCO`s initiative of Peace Manifesto and the opening of the Culture of Peace Decade, the city has been organising events aimed at promoting peace among the nations and peoples since
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Land. That’s What Habitat Was About |
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By :Moira Farrow, The Vancouver Sun |
| 23 June 1976 |
In spite of the war of words between Israel and the Arabs, in spite of the militancy and marching over nuclear energy, the key word at Habitat was land.
Like a rock thrown into a pond, the land debate is going to ripple around the world for many years, because it’s as
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