The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) formally agreed June 22 to hear a complaint filed by 64 indigenous communities in Bolivia’s eastern rainforest, accusing the Bolivian state of violating their territorial rights under the administration of ousted president Evo Morales…. Read moreBolivia: IACHR to hear TIPNIS case
Amnesty International called for those responsible for a US strike on an Iranian school to be held accountable. The Feb. 28 strike on the girls' school in Minab, in southern Iran, killed over 100 children. Amnesty's Evidence Lab conducted an investigation into the strike, analyzing over 30 satellite images and reviewing official statements, media reports, and witnesses accounts. The group found that the school was hit by precision-guided munitions, and additionally uncovered that the US may have relied on outdated intelligence to conduct the strike. This would constitute a violation of international law—specifically the duty to verify that an intended target is a military objective. While the school was located adjacent to a military compound of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, satellite images show that the building had been physically separated from the compound by construction of perimeter walls at least since from 2016. (Photo: Mehr via Wikimedia Commons)
After three years of investigation, Bolivia's Public Ministry reached a decision not to bring criminal charges against Adolfo Chávez, former leader of the Confederation of the Indigenous Peoples of the Bolivian Oriente (CIDOB), and 21 others linked to a corruption scandal in a case many saw as politically motivated. Chávez and the others were accused of illegally misappropriating monies made available through the government's Development Fund for Indigenous Peoples. But he claimed he was targeted for his opposition to the government's development plans for the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS), in the eastern rainforest. In October, Chávez testified before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission that coca-growers in the TIPNIS loyal to the ruling Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) were attacking the reserve's indigenous inhabitants. (Photo: ANF)
Over the objections of members of his own cabinet, President Evo Morales now says he will revive an Amazon highway project that was suspended after a wave of angry protests.
A group of Bolivian activists disrupted the official proceedings for International Human Rights Day in La Paz, accusing the government of repression against indigenous struggles.
Three indigenous leaders are holding out in a Bolivian rainforest reserve after arrest orders were issued against them, concerning a conflict over a planned road through their lands.
Bolivia’s Aymara indigenous alliance CONAMAQ is charging that the ruling Movement to Socialism is seeking to divide their organization, warning of a potential for violence.
Total area planted with coca in Bolivia dropped by up to 13% last year, as both eradication efforts and the areas where coca can be legally cultivated were expanded.
Rafael Quispe of the Bolivian Aymara organization CONAMAQ denounced President Evo Morales before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for violating indigenous autonomy.
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales sparked controvery by exlcuding the word mestizo, or mixed-race, as a choice for ethnic identification in the national census now underway.
Gualberto Cusi, a magistrate on Bolivia’s Constitutional Tribunal, has been asked to resign after accusing the executive of pressuring the court to approve a rainforest road project.
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